What could be wrong with this hen? With pics

[ChickieKat]

No, definitely not normal poop. She is still alive, but her poop is massive, slimy, greenish goo. She also let out a little yellow looking liquid this afternoon too. She has the leg on the side that she was favoring completely curled up now and will not extend it even when I lift her. I am so worried about her.

 

[dawg53]

If you can, get some Probios for her and keep her on it, and add vitamin B complex to it. You can buy vitamin B complex tablets at a pharmacy...crush 3 or 4 of the tablets into powder and mix it in with the Probios. Continue with the scrambled eggs as well. Do this for 5 days. The vitamin B complex may or may not help with her ability to heal quicker, especially being able to stand or walk.

 

[ChickieKat]

She laid another egg late this afternoon, so about 18 hours after the last one. I am guessing things are backed up in there and starting to move now. I gave her more scrambled egg with a crushed calcium tab and loads of garlic tonight and soaked her again in a very warm bath. She inhaled the egg and even pecked quite a bit at her dish of pellets too, so I am taking that as a good sign.

She was able to completely uncurl her foot that had been curled into a ball as she soaked and when she got out, she still flopped over on her side, but her foot stayed uncurled. I know she is not out of the woods yet, but I am feeling a bit more hopeful.

 

[dawg53]

You can add water to the pellets to soften them up for her to eat and mix the scrambled eggs in it. The soaks seem to be helping alot. Good job!

 

[ChickieKat]

So I am wondering if all of the eggs being backed up could be causing the paralysis or flopping to one side? She freaked out today when I tried to move her back onto her towel from the bathroom floor. I feel like it is so slippery, I thought she might be more comfortable on something grippy, but she freaked and flung herself all around. I was terrified that she was going to break a wing. I think she is ok, but holy smokes she is a mess.

 

[ChickieKat]

I am pretty sure she is not going to make it. She refused all food except for one or two tiny bites this morning. When I tried to look at her vent and feel her belly tonight, she almost seemed to have a seizure. She is extremely droopy and sleepy and is not even really able to hold her head up.

 

[dawg53]

Unfortunately, it might be time for you to make a decision whether to cull her or continue treating her. I think you've done your best with her recovery, too bad she declined like she did. I wish you the best in your decision.

 

[ChickieKat]

So I have a sneaking suspicion she has egg yolk peritonitis. I was reading a blog about a hen that had it and died and her downward spiral has looked exactly like what was described, down to the weird poop that looked yellow and smelled to high heaven.

It was saying that rarely antibiotics can help, but are usually not given in time. I had Pen G on hand and she has received .5cc every day now for the past 4 days, so quite a high dose and she has had it right from the start.

Last night I didn't have the heart to put her down, but her breathing had slowed and she was extremely lethargic. We had dropper fed her water with poultry vitamins all day and last night out of desperation, I dropper fed her a raw egg yolk. She wasn't thrilled to take it all, but it went down.

This morning, she was quite a bit more upright and had an almost normal looking cecal poop behind her. She is still extremely lethargic, but she again took another egg yolk and water via dropper. My question now is this, is raw egg yolk safe for her? What else could I feed her that is essentially liquid? She still flops around wildly when she is moved, so I would be more worried about injuring her if we tried to tube feed her.

I really felt like we should have put her down yesterday, but she definitely seems to have rallied a bit today, so we are going to keep trying.

 

[ChickieKat]

We ended up putting her down this evening. She hadn't moved all day and she wasn't responding to us anymore when we would talk to her or touch her. She was gasping and had mucus coming from her beak.

As she died, she pooped out what looked and smelled exactly like rotting egg yolk. It was the worst smell I have ever experienced and left no doubt in our minds that she died of massive infection from a stuck egg or shell-less egg that had festered in her egg tract.

Our poor girl is no longer suffering and holy hell is it hard to put down a beloved pet. :'(

 

[dawg53]

We ended up putting her down this evening. She hadn't moved all day and she wasn't responding to us anymore when we would talk to her or touch her. She was gasping and had mucus coming from her beak.

As she died, she pooped out what looked and smelled exactly like rotting egg yolk. It was the worst smell I have ever experienced and left no doubt in our minds that she died of massive infection from a stuck egg or shell-less egg that had festered in her egg tract.

Our poor girl is no longer suffering and holy hell is it hard to put down a beloved pet. :'(

It hurts, it NEVER gets easier...and for me, it's usually one of my favorites. You did the right thing and have comfort knowing you did everything possible to help her. Take care.