Subcutaneous Emphysema- Pictures Added

[casportpony]

How big is it? Can you call your vet and discuss this?

 

[Thora Bird]

It isn’t huge, I can feel it when I hold her. It doesn’t seem to be getting bigger.

I spoke to the vet who told me about the air sacs but seemed convinced there must be an invisible puncture wound. I think the hen did it on the kitchen taps when escaping the fox.

I took her in yesterday, but we saw a young vet who didn’t seem to know as much about hens as the boss. I can call him on Monday for advice.

Thank you for the swift response.

 

[Aussie Shane]

Perhaps this may be what is happening. We have been seeing a large gas sac appear near the base of the neck-chest on our juvenile and adult Coturnix quail. They can go a whole week with it before invariably dying. I did a post-mortem on one and discovered the sac had decomposing feed in it and the gas was from the decomposition. Going deeper, I saw that the oesophagus above the crop had ruptured and feed had been forced out through the chest wall under the skin. I cannot find anything about this online or from my network. My guess is that an ulcerative infection in the oesophagus causes this. There is only one stand-out potential source of infection... their sand tray. Quail LOVE their sand baths and clearly ingest sand as they 'bath'. It is quickly laden with their poop... The bird could be overfeeding, backing up the crop, sand bathing allowing infected sand to sit in the lower oesophagus...

 

[Screwloosejr]

Has anyone ever dealt with this?


It fills up several times a day and makes it hard for it to walk.







The red spot is from where I poked it with a needle

It also could be kidney failure.. which sends her into heart failure . You can drain the fluid but no more than a cup. Poke her 2 inches from the vent lower right. Good luck.