Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Ben, sorry for your loss.

I'm glad it was nothing contageous. Your diagnose seems probable to me, but not having any own experience with this, I must say it looks weird how the yolk has accumulated in the abdomen. Did your research reveal how and why it happens?

 

[joannefiddler]

So sorry for your loss Ben. You have really had some bummer experiences in this chicken adventure. I'm glad too that it didn't prove to be something contagious. Another tough but valuable lesson for your kiddos too. Sometimes life hurts.

 

[satay]

Well, I have news. In some ways it's for the better, and to be honest (if I am right with my diagnosis) a relief it's is not a case of a contagious disease. Please, let me start from the start. It will be a in detail description, so if you are not comfortable with reading that, move away. There will be a graphic pic at the bottom of this post. I went back down for another crop massage, while she was laid back, fluid, feed, seed and grit ran from her, she seemed relaxed. Then she flapped her wings and flicked her head a few times and the large gas bubble in her crop escaped. He passed away in my hands. I am not certain if she drowned, choked or if she was that ill that she was going to pass away anyway. I then realised standing just outside the run with 13 chickens behind me it was dead quiet. The whole flock was standing quietly behind me in the run, not making a sound. It kind of freaked me out a bit looking over my shoulder. Like they were all giving respect or something. Impossible I know, but I have never seen my entire flock just stand still before. The children said their goodbyes. I had to know more, so I decided to give a necropsy a shot. I checked her crop, and found normal things inside there, but what looked like a fair amount of fat around her neck, unusual compared to other birds we have slaughtered in the past. I then thought I would check further down her abdomen as I had seen her go to the nest, but she did not lay an egg. While looking around, I found much more fat. The I realised, it was not fat I was looking at, fat is much more clear, this was thick yellow stuff. It was everywhere around the organs. I checked back around her neck, it was up there too. The stuff was right through her cavity. I thought she may have a terrible disease, I got a quick photo about halfway through. We finished up and I hit the internet to find the answer, and what treatment we will need to give to the rest of the flock. My diagnosis is Egg Peritonitis. I am no vet, but looking at descriptions, and others photo's thats what interfered with her internal process, and the yellow stuff was an accumulation of yolks. Poor girl, she was a lovely hen, but her eggs had been a little different to normal, colour had become patchy where before they were consistent, and the past week or so before getting ill they had been matte and kind of rough. We didn't think anything of it as eggs come in all shapes and sizes, but maybe that was an early indicator that there was something wrong. Here is a pic of her organs after the vent incision. Please advise if you think my diagnosis is wrong. The worming etc will still be going ahead.

 

[Fancychooklady]

There really was nothing you could have done for her Ben. Brave boy , doing the necropsy, inquiring minds. If you have a look at the chicken chicks poop chart it shows the poops leading up to diagnoses of egg peritonitis. I would go ahead with the worming, if you use levamisole at the higher dose it will treat for more than just round worm. You also need to aware of the protein levels in the feed. The higher the protein the more likely you are to be seeing fatty liver visceral gout and egg peritonitis. People also tend to get carried away with ' treats ' . Not saying that you do, just saying that people seem to think that a fat chicken = a healthy chicken.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/pou...uctive_system/egg_peritonitis_in_poultry.html

 

[Bens-Hens]

thanks team, just another curve ball. From what I have read in a few places, it seems probable this was the case. Other than natural causes, really high roosting may be a contributing factor. We have two low roosts and our main roost is 800mm from the coop floor, but we have about 150mm of straw over the top. I don't think our roosts were the cause.

Some info here matches what we found and saw in her the past couple of days.

Quote:
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/egg-laying-issues/index.aspx

She did not have the penguin stance, but she did lay down flat, which with the build up of yolk and laying on the crop caused what I thought was an impacted crop.

I really wish I had checked Luna over now, but they say hindsight is 20/20

 

[Fancychooklady]

It's certainly a learning experience, owning chickens that is. This morning I have a dozen silver laced Wyandotte hatched under 2 hens sharing and 5 more BLRW. My chicken little has been hoarding eggs but they are crosses so I will swap them out today for some SLW chicks. Chicken little loves to be a mommy.
It's raining here and I'm seriously considering lighting the fire. We raised $9000 towards the palliative bed on our garden walk day. The weather was perfect , just for one day.

 

[cwrite]

Congrats on raising 9K Fancy! What's a palliative bed though? A herb bed, or a hospital bed?

 

[Bens-Hens]

That is great news Fancy! Ibet the garden looked smashing too.

I am in the early phases of a charity plan too. With a bit of luck it will do ok. Next ANZAC Day is the 100th anniversary and so kind of special for defence personnel. There is a 100 km ANZAC Challenge being organised in Sydney's Blue Mountains. Most do it as a team or as a realy, but a few crazy people go it solo.

You all know I am crazy enough for that, what better reason than to raise some funds for Mates4Mates.

A way off yet, but the wheels are turning.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Congrats on raising 9K Fancy!  What's a palliative bed though?  A herb bed, or a hospital bed? 

When you are in the final stages of life you will be placed in palliative care. I was actually in one these beds for 9 months. They have an automatic air mattress that adjust to your every movement to prevent pressure sores. Small comfort to those in most need. They are $14000 each , so we are not quite there yet.
We had 2 x ministers through the garden and hopefully they will push to make up the short fall.

 

[cwrite]

That's wonderful Fancy - about raising the money, not being in one of those beds for 9 months. It's easy to see where your daughter gets her compassion for rescuing race horses from.