My 2 year old hen Olive has been struggling with some unknown illness for the past few weeks (or maybe longer, she hasn't been laying in over a month). When I first realized she was ill she was not moving around or eating, and had labored breathing, so I brought her to the vet. They said she was congested and that her abdomen seemed swollen, but x-rays and probing found nothing wrong (not egg bound). So they gave her antibiotics (baytril) and a shot of anti-inflammatory med, and I brought her home. Within a few days of TLC she was looking a lot better and was breathing normal and had some appetite. But she hasn't gotten completely better, and she isn't improving anymore.
Her abdomen is still swollen - below where the "keel" bone ends. It isn't a hard swelling - it feels "plump". She waddles around like a duck - she doesn't stand up all the way, and she's very weak. She was pooping nicely the first few days of treatment when I was hand-feeding (with a straw) a nutritious mixture, but I stopped feeding her myself when she showed some interest in eating on her own. But now her poop is mostly all water, so I guess she's not eating enough.
All she's interested in eating is apples and a tiny amount of her layer feed if I grind it up into dust. She seems to be drinking a lot of water, but maybe it's a normal amount. She refuses my nutritious mix (yogurt, honey, oatmeal, olive oil, cooked yolk). Other people seem to have luck with the soaked bread technique so maybe I will try that tomorrow.
Anyone out there have any experience similar to this? I'm mostly concerned about the swelling.. the vet couldn't find the source of the swelling on the x-ray. I think it's getting more swollen, though I can't say for sure. The vet mentioned that it might be a tumor, but he wasn't sure. And because she really did improve quite a bit with the week's worth of TLC I gave her, I figured it must have been something else, but now I don't know.
Her abdomen is still swollen - below where the "keel" bone ends. It isn't a hard swelling - it feels "plump". She waddles around like a duck - she doesn't stand up all the way, and she's very weak. She was pooping nicely the first few days of treatment when I was hand-feeding (with a straw) a nutritious mixture, but I stopped feeding her myself when she showed some interest in eating on her own. But now her poop is mostly all water, so I guess she's not eating enough.
All she's interested in eating is apples and a tiny amount of her layer feed if I grind it up into dust. She seems to be drinking a lot of water, but maybe it's a normal amount. She refuses my nutritious mix (yogurt, honey, oatmeal, olive oil, cooked yolk). Other people seem to have luck with the soaked bread technique so maybe I will try that tomorrow.
Anyone out there have any experience similar to this? I'm mostly concerned about the swelling.. the vet couldn't find the source of the swelling on the x-ray. I think it's getting more swollen, though I can't say for sure. The vet mentioned that it might be a tumor, but he wasn't sure. And because she really did improve quite a bit with the week's worth of TLC I gave her, I figured it must have been something else, but now I don't know.
