Sick hen with foamy yellow poop. Help! Update: Diagnosed with egg yolk peritonitis

[Hanna8]

No it isn't.

I hadn't thought about doing that. We've tried to force feed her some mashed up watery egg with a syringe, and it went pretty terribly. She didn't like it, we were worried about choking her, and more of it ended up on us than inside her! That would work much better. I just need to get the nerve to do it... Yikes! How you hold them when you do that? I imagine it is best to keep them from bending their necks around too much during the process, too. Any more tips?

I do have photos.
This is her on the left, hanging out with two of her buddies on the porch early in her sickness:


And here she is today:

She's gotten paler, and her comb is flopping over now.

 

[gander007]

Oh you said it that is why I went to the medical supply store
to get this set up as we had the same problem doing the
same exact thing you described .....

make sure you use some tape on all fittings to stop leakage
that was not in the photos but I took the photo so everyone
could see the set up ....

I normally wrap the chicken in a towel this is to hold her
easer so nobody get's hurt and the person helping you
holds the head also as well as the chickens body the open
the beak and insert the tube down and into the crop so
measure first so as not to hurt the crop by inserting to much
hose so mark with a marker approx. length then fill up the
tube to the end before inserting and each little mark is 5
seconds and I try not to have the hose down the neck
longer then a minute ....

Might not sound like much but remember it is a lot to
their size and do this every couple of hours .....

 

[Eggcessive]

If I could get Baytril, I would probably switch to that. Most vets won't prescribe it for chickens since it is against the law because of causing antibiotic resistance. If she has EYP I probably wouldn't prolong things by tube feeding, but that is up to you. A vet would be a good idea.

 

[Hanna8]

This morning she was about the same as yesterday. I was able to get her in to see our vet in the afternoon. She had a high fever and her abdomen was swollen. He confirmed that it is EYP and gave her a steroid shot and Baytril. He was also awed by the fact that she's been laying shell-less for a little over two year now, and that this hasn't become a problem until now. He decided against draining anything from her abdomen because there wasn't enough to cause her to have any trouble breathing. We discussed when we should call it off, and he said that if she doesn't show improvement in the next 24-36 hours, it would be kindest to bring her back in.

Since we got home, she began showing an interest in food again (likely because of the steroids) and has had more energy as well. We are very hopeful that she'll pull through. She's a tough girl and loves her life. Over the past few days, every time we've thought she was finally done, she would start eating and drinking again. As of now, she wants to keep fighting it.

If she does improve, we will do more research to decide on the next course of action. I have read that there are injections we can get to stop her from ovulating, which would be good. I have also seen that spaying is an option. If the infection has caused any of the egg to solidify into masses, I think we might go with that, since she would need to get that removed anyway and we might as well kill two birds with one stone (I sure did a good job of finding perhaps the worst phrase to use for this situation without even noticing at first... Whoops!). Before deciding anything though, I'm going to look into relative costs, risk/difficulty, and so on. And see if she does actually improve, of course.

She was a hit at the vet's office. They rarely ever get chickens in, and if they do they certainly aren't naked necks! We also had a good laugh about how far we've come since we brought her in for the first time. We were very new to chickens and brought her in when she was less than two weeks old, terrified that she had a tumor. It was her crop. We couldn't see it on the other birds and put the pieces together, since they all had feathers on their necks.

 

[gander007]

This morning she was about the same as yesterday. I was able to get her in to see our vet in the afternoon. She had a high fever and her abdomen was swollen. He confirmed that it is EYP and gave her a steroid shot and Baytril. He was also awed by the fact that she's been laying shell-less for a little over two year now, and that this hasn't become a problem until now. He decided against draining anything from her abdomen because there wasn't enough to cause her to have any trouble breathing. We discussed when we should call it off, and he said that if she doesn't show improvement in the next 24-36 hours, it would be kindest to bring her back in.

Since we got home, she began showing an interest in food again (likely because of the steroids) and has had more energy as well. We are very hopeful that she'll pull through. She's a tough girl and loves her life. Over the past few days, every time we've thought she was finally done, she would start eating and drinking again. As of now, she wants to keep fighting it.

If she does improve, we will do more research to decide on the next course of action. I have read that there are injections we can get to stop her from ovulating, which would be good. I have also seen that spaying is an option. If the infection has caused any of the egg to solidify into masses, I think we might go with that, since she would need to get that removed anyway and we might as well kill two birds with one stone (I sure did a good job of finding perhaps the worst phrase to use for this situation without even noticing at first... Whoops!). Before deciding anything though, I'm going to look into relative costs, risk/difficulty, and so on. And see if she does actually improve, of course.

She was a hit at the vet's office. They rarely ever get chickens in, and if they do they certainly aren't naked necks! We also had a good laugh about how far we've come since we brought her in for the first time. We were very new to chickens and brought her in when she was less than two weeks old, terrified that she had a tumor. It was her crop. We couldn't see it on the other birds and put the pieces together, since they all had feathers on their necks.

Thank you for keeping us updated and I hoe she get's better

 

[Hanna8]

Thanks for the support!
I am extremely happy to report that she is still doing better! She's had a more solid poop, with much less bile. She's been eating. She's been drinking. She's had more energy. Things are looking up.

When I let her out of the pen today, she walked right over to the door to do some storm watching.


After a while of that, she went back to take a nap. Then when she got up again and the storm was over, she went outside, where she's been busy walking around and eating grass and being lovingly mobbed by her flock. The lower ranking birds in particular were very glad to see her after spending so much time under the tyranny of less gracious leaders.


I haven't launched into research on what our next step should be quite yet. Any suggestions?

 

[Hanna8]

She is continuing to do better and better every day!
Yesterday morning, I found this in her pen. (I've been keeping her inside overnight so it is easier to give her her meds in the morning)


I'm very glad she got that out! We sent it in to our vet, who was very intrigued and seemed almost excited about it. He's going to send it off to a pathologist who is experienced with chickens.
Is this solidified egg from the infection? It looks kind of like some pictures I've seen of that, but not as gray or broken up. I also don't remember reading anything about hens laying/pooping/excreting those, just people surgically removing them. Can egg get back into their system after going into their abdomens? I'm sure a little bit could fairly easily, but that is pretty sizable! I don't have any other explanation though.

 

[emmaie892000]

No wonder she was sick with that all in her! Hope she continues to improve!

 

[casportpony]

What a great story and learning experience! Gotta love Baytril and steroids, lol, hope she continues to improve.

-Kathy

 

[Hanna8]

Yes, this has definitely been a huge learning experience!

Our vet called today with the pathology report. He said it was mostly proteins, consistent with those in egg yolk. They were also filled with a high concentration of bacteria, consistent throughout the mass. Pretty much what I expected to hear. He gave us ten more days of Baytril, just to make sure the infection is completely knocked out.

Over the course of a few hours this morning, she deposited three more things that look like shriveled up yolks. They're the first weird things to come out since the monstrosity a few days ago. They're sticky, but not wet. Here's a pic, for the curious:



She is continuing to do better and better every day. Her color has been improving and her comb is starting to stand up again. She has more stamina now, is starting to put on a teensy bit of weight, and insists on spending the afternoon outside, although she does still walk into the house for bedtime. She has resumed her position at the head of the flock unchallenged, which is good since I don't think she could handle a challenge very well yet. She is almost back to her old self again.

We are still uncertain about a long term solution. She is about four years old, and should be laying less and hopefully stopping soon... We've been saying that for a while though, starting two years ago when she began laying shell-less eggs all the time (Something attacked her pretty badly and she hasn't laid a normal egg since). We could wait and see if this becomes a problem again and get her more Baytril if it does. I have also read about people just keeping internal layers on a constant low dose of Baytril. We could give her a hormone implant, but those can have strange effects on hens like making them go into a heavy molt and altering their personalities. Or we could spay her, which would be a permanent solution but is a very dangerous procedure. There are lots of pros and cons and maybes for each option, it's hard to make a choice. Any thoughts are welcome!