Sick Chicken - Please help!

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lorri192

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Hi All

Please help. I noticed that one of my chickens was a bit quieter than usual and when we had a look she felt quite swollen underneath. She was very quiet and her balance was not great. Also we could feel her breast bone which was quite pronounced and her crop was empty.

We kept her indoors overnight and took her to the vet the next day. The vet felt her over and does not think she is egg bound and said she is very thin with no musle or plumpness. The vet gave her an injection of antibiotics. She is taking a little water and very small amounts of food today but is reluctant to move and is very quiet.

I'm still not sure what is actually wrong with her and would really welcome ideas and advice on how to help her get better, because at the moment I am not very hopeful that she is going to ger better.

Many thanks
 
Hi, welcome to the forum :-)99 :-)99 :-)99 :-)99 :-)99 :-)99
I don't know what could be wrong with her, so cant be of much help. Was the vet you brought her to an avian vet? If not, It is worth contacting an avian vet because they are usually of more assistance..
 
Sorry to hear about your poorly hen Lorri, and welcome to the forum!

Couple of things, how has she been laying? How old and what breed is she?

The symptoms you describe do look rather like egg yolk peritonitis. This is where the egg contents take a wrong turn and end up in the abdominal cavity. The immune system then reacts by an inflammatory response which can manifest in fluid in the addomen which in severe cases gave a rather "bloated" appearance and the tummy area can feel tight to touch a bit like a drum.

In some circumstances the hen can absorb the fluid naturally, and can adjust, sometimes and usually the prognosis is not good, especially older typically hybrid exbatt hens where the underlying cause is cancer causing tumours of the reproductive tract.

Another situation is where an egg has broken, this is not good and can lead to infection, the area feels very warm to the touch and generally the hen looks unwell, very droopy with loss of appetite, which also occurs in EYP above.
 
Thanks for the welcome guys and your responses.

It was just a normal vet we took her to not an avian vet.

Molly is a 2 year old Black Rock. She's been molting so not producing eggs recently. Previously though she has produced lovely brown decent sized eggs with no problems.

Having kept her inside we noticed that she passed a clear type liquid with a bit of white in this morning and also a runny diahorrea type dropping later on.

Both possibilities suggested sound as though they could be at fault - are the antibiotics likely to help?

Thanks again for your help.
 
The antibiotics will work if there's some infection but they will need time to kick in.
 
Hi All

Just wanted to say thanks for your advice, it was very much appreciated. Thankfully Molly seems to be on the mend. We will obviously now need to concentrate on feeding her up to get her back to full strength - can anyone suggest foods, supplements, etc that can help us with this.

Thanks again
 
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