Weak Dominique!

[Naz223]

My favorite hen, Georgie
She is one of seven hens. 3.5 year old Dominique. She’s eating and drinking, but not enough. Mainly she is weak. She she walks a little at a time, the sits/falls back on her butt. No discharge, no eye color change, no other symptoms. She does have a hard mass growing on her comb, it grew there almost a year ago and stayed the same for months. Since I am a vet tech, I took her to work and radiographed her. I wanted to rule out obvious things like egg bound, broken bones or foreign body. I have a sent a fecal sample to the lab to check for parasites. My boss, (who knows she’s not an avian vet), looked at the X-rays and is leaning towards an abdominal mass pressing on her sciatic nerve. What do you all think? She obviously doesn’t feel well, but she also doesn’t seem particularly painful. I have her in the house and I’m giving her the weekend to resurrect. Any suggestions?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She she walks a little at a time, the sits/falls back on her butt.

She does have a hard mass growing on her comb, it grew there almost a year ago and stayed the same for months.

I took her to work and radiographed her. I wanted to rule out obvious things like egg bound, broken bones or foreign body.

looked at the X-rays and is leaning towards an abdominal mass pressing on her sciatic nerve.

I'm sorry to hear your hen is not doing well.

Do you have any photos of her or want to share a photo of the x-rays?
How does her abdomen feel-any bloat/swelling or fluid?

In the x-ray, are you seeing a mass? Internal laying, Salpingitis, Egg Yolk Peritonitis and other reproductive disorders can cause the symptoms you are seeing. IF she has fluid in the abdomen, that can be slowly drained to give her some relief for a short period of time.

Sadly, if she has a reproductive problem, supportive care is usually the only treatment option. Making sure she eats/drinks and the crop empties overnight. Antibiotics can sometimes provide short term relief if she has an infection.

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post a picture of the comb mass? At her age, one of the most common problems would be a reproductive disorder, such as salpingitis or internal laying. Those may lead to egg yolk peritonitis and ascites. Has she lost weight through her breast area, or have an enlarged lower belly? Lash eggs, large masses of egg material and infection, may be present, and sometimes they can pass small ones. They may prefer lying since walking becomes painful. We all see these diseases in out flocks over the years, and one we rule out the usual diseases, then try to keep these hens eating and drinking. One they appear to be suffering, they are put down. Here is a good link to read:
http://www.theveterinaryexpert.com/backyard-poultry/egg-yolk-peritonitis/

 

[Naz223]

I will try to get a pic of the X-rays today, they aren’t the best X-rays since I don’t work with birds at the clinic and our machine doesn’t have a poultry setting, so I used macaw.
Is it possible to have egg yolk peritonitis and not pass bits of yolk in the stool? Her poops contain very little fecal matter since she isn’t eating much, white urates and have a gooey, clear substance somewhat like albumin. She has lost weight and her lower abdomen feels slightly enlarged but also a bit like a balloon filled with pudding. (Compared to my healthy hens). Her temp is normal at 105.7. I have included pics of her comb mass, it’s been there for about a year and is very slow to grow. She’s not interested in her normal feed or scratch, and since last night she hasn’t been drinking, I’m going to start syringing her water. She eat bits of things like meal worms, peanuts, hard boiled egg, cheese.

 

[rebrascora]

Is it possible to have egg yolk peritonitis and not pass bits of yolk in the stool?

Firstly it is possible to have internal laying without it becoming infected (egg yolk peritonitis..... egg yolks can build up in the abdominal cavity for months and not become infected) and most times with internal laying and EYP, you do not get egg yolk material passed out of the vent. There is in fact no way for the yolks in the abdominal cavity to get into the intestines, but if the bird is getting really packed with yolks one could perhaps find it's way back up and into the oviduct. I would expect it to be treated like a normal egg though or possibly be passed as a lash egg if it is infected. I'm not sure why people think egg yolk material being passed indicates internal laying or EYP. I see it stated often here on BYC and would be interested if anyone can explain a mechanism by which it is possible.

As regards the clear gooey substance that she is passing, my guess would be urates. When the kidneys release the urates they are clear liquid but from what I have read, some of the water content is reabsorbed in the cloaca before being passed.... it is a really neat water reclamation system.... so the urates come out of solution as a white chalky capping when faeces are passed. If they are drinking lots due to heat or illness, there is more fluid passing through their system and a lesser % is reabsorbed so the urates become more liquid and the viscosity of the liquid will depend upon how much water is reabsorbed, therefore the urates may be thick and gelatinous with white chalky deposits in it and appear almost like egg white..... that is my understanding.

My guess would be that your girl has salpingitis and her oviduct is impacted with a large mass of infected egg material. You will usually see some abdominal swelling just below the vent with salpingitis and the bird will often soil herself, so she might have poopy butt feathers. Sometimes it is difficult to assess swelling without comparing to a healthy bird. Cupping your hand and feeling between their legs and below their vent one bird after the next whilst they are roosting at night is the easiest way to get an idea if one is abnormal.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I will try to get a pic of the X-rays today, they aren’t the best X-rays since I don’t work with birds at the clinic and our machine doesn’t have a poultry setting, so I used macaw.
Is it possible to have egg yolk peritonitis and not pass bits of yolk in the stool? Her poops contain very little fecal matter since she isn’t eating much, white urates and have a gooey, clear substance somewhat like albumin. She has lost weight and her lower abdomen feels slightly enlarged but also a bit like a balloon filled with pudding. (Compared to my healthy hens). Her temp is normal at 105.7. I have included pics of her comb mass, it’s been there for about a year and is very slow to grow. She’s not interested in her normal feed or scratch, and since last night she hasn’t been drinking, I’m going to start syringing her water. She eat bits of things like meal worms, peanuts, hard boiled egg, cheese.

Can you post some photos of her poop?

It sounds like she has a reproductive disorder - which one would be hard to know.
If you lose her, a necropsy will give much more information.

Dominques have a Rose comb which has a lot of nooks, crannies and sometime deep cavernous folds, for the lack of better term. Sometimes dirt/debris gets into those folds and festers, this is what I suspect has happened with your girl's comb, but I am not a vet nor expert.

 

[Naz223]

I am most likely going to euthanize her tonight. She is weak and not eating enough. Although still alert, she's just starving herself and it's not fair to keep her alive. I will perform a necropsy. But for what it's worth, here are the rads, like I said they aren't very good, (particularly the ventral dorsal film, I was by myself and she's not straight)

 

[rebrascora]

I'm sorry to read that she is not doing well, but I think you are right in making the decision to end it for her. I wish you courage to deal with that.
Would you be able to take photos of the necropsy and share them with us. It is helpful to add to our knowledge as well as yours and if we can learn something that might help someone else, then that may be some slight positive from her death.
The mass appears to be very close to her vent, so I am sticking with my guess of salpingitis from the X-ray. I think her oviduct will be packed with lash egg material, but hopefully you will be able to enlighten us tomorrow.

 

[Naz223]

I'm sorry to read that she is not doing well, but I think you are right in making the decision to end it for her. I wish you courage to deal with that.
Would you be able to take photos of the necropsy and share them with us. It is helpful to add to our knowledge as well as yours and if we can learn something that might help someone else, then that may be some slight positive from her death.
The mass appears to be very close to her vent, so I am sticking with my guess of salpingitis from the X-ray. I think her oviduct will be packed with lash egg material, but hopefully you will be able to enlighten us tomorrow.

Yes, I will take some pics and post them here.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

I’m so sorry about your sweet girl.