Very sad; should I put our hen out of misery---died, graphic photos

[tpantali]

Hi. I posted on Friday regarding what seemed like a constipated hen. This is our first sick hen, I guess we have been lucky. So now I am thikning we should just kill her so she does not suffer anymore.

Friday night we attempted a number of things with some help from a very wonderful friend. We tried cleaning out her inside by putting her in a warm bath then putting a finger in her vent then pulling out what we could . We kept her warm with warm water then blowing her dry. We put her in a crate in our kitchen and gave her light to help keep her warm. Then we put a tube down her throat and feed her some cron syrup, water with yogurt.

She really perked up after that. She began eating yogurt and drinking plain water on her own. I was very excited, even though our friend warned us not to get too exctied.

She ate and drank throughout the night on her own. In the morning I filled her dishes. But she did not eat or drink further. I put in water, yogurt, seeds and her layer pellets. Later in the day we made her some oatmeal with yogurt in it and gave her ACV but she did not eat or drink further.

Last night, we noticed her crop was enlarged and when we massaged it she burped. So, our friend can over again and worked on flushing out her crop. That went amazingly well until she accidentially inhaled some of vomit. She cough some of it up and by the sounds of it, it the rest of it was at the back of her throat. She was weak so we stopped there even though she had no finished throwing up the most recent flush.

We dried her off, put her back under the lamp and propped up her head so she could sleep. Otherwise, everytime she feel asleep she threw up and woke back up.

I do not know what else to try and I think we are prolonging her death. I am thinking we should put her out of her misery but since this is our first sick hen I know nothing about that. I am very sad about it but think it would probably be best. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Oh, I was going to give you a picture but I do not know how.

 

[nzpouter]

did you put any oil down her throat and up her bum?

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

I've heard if you have an impacted crop you can give them some olive oil in a dropper and massage that through the crop area. It couldn't hurt - of course, I can't see her and she may be way worse than I think but seems pretty drastic to put her down so quickly - but if she is not doing well, sometimes you have to make a drastic decision which is never an easy one.

I know - I just did that on Thursday after trying to get a pullet to recover from a mysterious semi-foot and leg paralysis for over 7 weeks. She would not make any attempt to walk - a caged life sitting on one position is no quality of life at all.

 

[Cetawin]

Try giving her olive oil or vegetable oil that sometimes helps. Remember that chickens do not vomit so it either goes out that backend or it stays inside.

Does her breath smell sour? How does the crop feel? Is it hard, squishy, bloated with air?

The more information you can give the more likely assistance can be given. Do not give up on her yet...you would be surprised what they can bounce back from.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Putting a chicken down, especially one you know, is not easy. What helps
is knowing you are doing the right thing. Did you give her a good life up
to this point? I think you did.

After having to euthanize a few dozen birds and harvesting a few hundred
meat birds taking a chickens life is still a challenge for me too. The
alternative is worse though.

When you are ready just take a hatchet and make it quick. It's the most
humane end for the bird. You won't enjoy it but you will feel better
afterwards knowing you did what needed to be done.

 

[tpantali]

Her crop feels like baking soda. It no longer feels gassy.

I do not know what you call what is coming out her mouth if hens do not throw up. We massaged hr crop last night to force the flushing out of her but now when her head drops fluid just comes out. It is sort of a dark greenish color. When we flushed her crop, lots of grass and seed came out and it was not pretty and it smelled terrible.

She is barley moving this morning and when she breaths you can hear the fluid.

I am trying to just keep a level head about the whole thing. Again, we have been very fortunate and I would not have predicted how hard it would feel to have a sick hen or face the potential of losing one.

I will try to put this image here:

You can see grass and baking soda she has expelled through her mouth.

 

[deerman]

She may be egg bound, place cod liver oil down her vent. can you see any part of any egg.

Egg bound hens will act like they are constipated.

If so you may have to break the egg and remove a piece at a time.

 

[tpantali]

We check for an eggs first thing. We pulled poop out her after we checked for an egg. The only thing inside of her at this point is fluid.

Problems at this moment are: she inhaled fluid, she can barely stand and is not eating or drinking.

I am waiting for some else in the house to wake up so I am not doing this on my own. I am going to try to put the oil in her crop. My friend primay concern last night was that she is not strong enough to deal with more of our trying to help her. Our friend, is not a vet, but he owns many animals and birds, knows lots of things about them and he runs the animal program at the local science center.

I can not do it on my own so I need someone else to wake up if only to be by my side while I put the oil in her crop.

 

[deerman]

In the pic, it looks like she still has a full crop, in rare case of impact crop, I have cut open the crop to remove.

The crop should feel soft. still check for an egg blocking the vent.

 

[Homesteading_Bound]

I'm sorry I can't help you with advice...I just wanted to give you a

and let you know my thoughts are with you and your hen.