1 y/o Hen is lethargic, swollen, & has purple comb, please help!

[newtsdaisies]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Barred Rock Hen / 1 year old / chicken is swollen and puffy
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Lethargic, water coming from the mouth, comb turning purple, diarrhea, abdomen severely swollen.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Since yesterday morning.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Nothing that I'm aware of.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. Yesterday she ate some laying mash and drank electrolytes as well as regular water.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. When she pooped yesterday it was runny.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? Yesterday we tried to check to see if she had an egg stuck, felt no egg. We gave her a 10 minute Epsom salt bath (that's all she would tolerate before she started fighting). Her comb wasn't purple then and she seemed to perk up after the bath and even began eating and drinking.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I want to treat myself because there are no poultry veterinarians anywhere near where we live.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.

https://imgur.com/a/Fz1oKN1

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use Run is filled with sand, inside the house is filled with pine shavings, nesting box is filled with pine shavings on top of artificial turf.

We found her lethargic but still moving around some yesterday and she had a swollen abdominal region. We felt for an egg but didn't feel one. Regardless we soaked her in an epsom salt bath for 10 minutes while massaging the swollen abdomen. We dried her and kept her isolated until she was fully dry, used olive oil to lube her vent, and then returned her to the coop. While in isolation and once in the coop she ate laying mash, drank water, and drank electrolytes. She was acting somewhat back to normal with a little swelling still when she went to bed. Since we did not feel an egg and she was having diarrhea, we thought it might be vent gleet instead of egg bind. Today her comb is turning purple and she is completely lethargic. We have put her in isolation again and she is just laying down in front of her water. She is swollen way more today, probably double the size she was yesterday. That I know of, she hasn't eaten or drank anything. When I picked her up to bring her into the house to isolate her, liquid came out of her mouth.

We deeply care for our chickens and she's one of our more affectionate hens. There are no livestock veterinarians anywhere near our area but we want to do whatever we can to save her.

 

[newtsdaisies]

UPDATE: We got a 16 gauge 1" needle to drain the excess fluid. What came out looked very much like egg yolk (picture inserted) and that's as much that came out before stopping draining on its own. Her comb has gained some color back but I'm puzzled about the substance and don't know what to do next. I was able to use a syringe to get her to drink 4-5ml of electrolyte water but she's not interested in eating. She did seem to perk up personality-wise a bit after the draining but now she's sleeping.

I used directions from this video to determine where to insert the needle:

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

Not sure about the yellow part of the liquid, but it looks a bit like diluted yolk or fat maybe but that seems odd, if so the clear fluid could be from ascites (liquid buildup in abdominal cavity). I think draining was the best thing you could do.

Poor oxygenation of the chicken (consistent with purple comb?) causes increased blood pressure, which can cause the lungs to leak liquid into the body (consistent wi the liquid coming out of mouth). This in turn is hard on the heart/lung and can cause further issues. The cause can be a "weak" organ problem, but may be something else though. I have no idea how the runny poop fits in, but may have to do with the original cause?

Was your chicken generally less active or more easily tired than the others before this?

(disclaimer: not a vet, i may be wrong, i only read up a lot about this after one of my birds died with similar symptoms and doing a necropsy)

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

if the heart or lungs are not the cause, one of the causes of ascites can be cirrhosis / liver disease, you could check if that would explain the droppings as that is tied to digestive system.

To be a bit more uplifting, as all these options sound pretty bad: I have seen numerous posts here of chicken having fluid drained like this living good long lives after that.

 

[newtsdaisies]

Not sure about the yellow part of the liquid, but it looks a bit like diluted yolk or fat maybe but that seems odd, if so the clear fluid could be from ascites (liquid buildup in abdominal cavity). I think draining was the best thing you could do.

Poor oxygenation of the chicken (consistent with purple comb?) causes increased blood pressure, which can cause the lungs to leak liquid into the body (consistent wi the liquid coming out of mouth). This in turn is hard on the heart/lung and can cause further issues. The cause can be a "weak" organ problem, but may be something else though. I have no idea how the runny poop fits in, but may have to do with the original cause?

Was your chicken generally less active or more easily tired than the others before this?

(disclaimer: not a vet, i may be wrong, i only read up a lot about this after one of my birds died with similar symptoms and doing a necropsy)

Before suddenly being lethargic on Thursday, no. She was just as active as the other girls and even laid an egg the day before and was acting completely normal.

Unfortunately, she passed away Friday evening.

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[newtsdaisies]

So sorry for your loss.

Thank you T_T It was a hard one. This is the first chicken we've lost and she had such a personality and I miss her dearly.