UPDATE: My Experience Fighting Egg Yolk Peritonitis

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

Beautiful for girl. I too rode a roller coaster with EYP last summer, and was lucky to have a survivor View attachment 2580256

There isn’t much you can do to help her, unfortunately. My hen’s body took an 8 month break on its own, which was much needed. What you can do, is monitor her, offer layer feed which will boost her calcium and give her energy to produce all of these eggs. I would not keep her in a dark place, as it just won’t do much good and not improve anything.

What a beauty! I'm so glad she's doing well! I adore speckled sussexes Your happy story is keeping me optimistic.

I have my Easter in the hospital pen, I was going to take her back out but she seems to be happily nesting right now (purring to herself and building a nest). She ate a little, though I'm not sure how her crop is doing. She seems to be doing okay, but the fact that she's nesting isn't great--she already laid a thin-shelled egg overnight.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

I would try a an implant. I currently have a hen on one and it has extended her life. She’s still slowing down, however. I had another hen succumb to EYP, despite intensive avian vet care and my help at hone. I currently have one laying softies off the roost. Sometimes giving her calcium supplement (calcium citrate capsule into her beak) helps. Perhaps you could try that for a few days and see if there is improvement. You might talk with the vet about that; there is some risk of organ damage with too much calcium.

Yeah I tried calcium supplementation last time she went through this and it seemed to have little to no effect at all, so I'm hesitant this time. Her problem seems to be that she lays too much too quickly without proper rest (like her egg conveyor belt goes too quickly and gets backed up). I will still ask the vet--and I am thinking about the implant if available.

What was your experience with the implant so far? How old is your hen, what was her illness, and how is her behavior since the implant? Thanks in advance for any details!

 

[micstrachan]

My hen has an unidentified laying disorder. She swells up with fluid when she’s in lay. The fluid used to be compartmentalized where the avian vet couldn’t tap it, but last time she was able to get fluid out. She said it was clear like general inflammation. Somehow the hormones keep her swelling at bay. Someday this sweet girl will probably need to be put down, but we aren’t there yet. She is an almost 4-year-old Buckeye and this started over a year ago. She never laid soft eggs, but they were getting narrow. When Ruby was younger, she was Adventure Girl... always wandering off to explore. Now she moves slowly and sometimes stays closer to the run when I leg them free range. She still eats, drinks, talks, forages, dust bathes, preens, gets up to her favorite roosting spot and bosses the Junior hens and pullets around, so I’ll keep treating her while she responds.

Edited to add: To answer your question about her behavior... while she is slower than when she was younger, she always seems to improve after an implant. I think this is maybe her 5th one.