Thank You to BYC Community for All of Your Great Information in Health Care - Saved Hen...so far

[jflanny]

I just want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who posts information on health and caretaking of our flocks. I constantly refer to this site and yesterday it was very helpful in showing me how to drain an abdomen of my hen Miss Dora. She is a beautiful, but kind of mean, Rhode Island Red. Miss Dora was given to me several years ago by an older lady who could no longer take care of her. She has always done really well and I actually like her spunky, ornery personality. Well I noticed she had a drooping tail a day or so ago and I had recently lost one of my sweet Aracaunas the same way. Sure enough, swollen, watery abdomen. I watched a video on how to safely drain her abdomen and also read every post I could find. I bought a #20 needle and removed a couple of syringes of yellowish liquid with some white in it- looked like the infection on the video. I bought some penicillin but decided to do Doxycycline oral since I was worried about injecting her in the breast.

Miss Dora's tail came up right away and she was eating grass and seemed so much better. She continued to drain overnight (I kept her in a kennel) and she looked great this morning. I put her back out with everybody and will keep an eye on her and give her antibiotics for a few days. I know this can be a long battle but at least for now, she is doing better. I just wish I had tried the draining on my Aracauna. I was scared of doing it wrong but she eventually died so I wouldn't have had anything to lose.

Thanks again BYC Community!

Here is a photo of Miss Dora with a few of her friends.