Sick chicken long story, PLEASE HELP!

[Rortw1]

We have had a 3 year old Buff Orrington named Blanca who has been a fighter. Since she was about 6 months she stopped laying eggs. She started laying lash eggs which just turned into those balls of hard puss. She started to have impacted crops from time to time and then she would lay another lash egg. Well this became a regular occurrence every 4-6 weeks. Over the last 6 months we have had to treat her to antibiotics and and meloxicam which seems to knock out the current episode and then she goes back to being a normal chicken for a few weeks only to continue the cycle later on. Well now we thought we had another cycle so we brought her in and dosed her with meloxicam and nothing really changed. She is acting normal but won't eat and solid food. She will only take baby food, oatmeal and meal worms. She is also having these really green watery poops every morning really bad. Her stools change a bit throughout the day but mostly all loose and watery. She is acting okay with evergy and interest but her interest in solid food is diminishing by the day. She has been such a fighter we hate to give up on her. I brought a stool sample to the vet yesterday for gram stain. Waiting on the results of that. Not sure what to think anymore about this. This time seems different. The weird part is she doesn't seem lethargic as she has in the past. This time is definitely different as she is not interested in solid pellets anymore and that was the reason we brought her in. She is also losing weight which was visually noticeable. I have posted a picture of her morning stool after letting her out of the cage. Any help on this matter is greatly appreciated. She is such a good bird and part of the family. She jumps up on the patio chair next to me for morning coffee. She is really part of the family.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

She needs a proper diet first off. Meal worms are basically candy healthwise, oatmeal is unhealthy, especially lo mg term, and baby food probably doesn't have everything they need. Use her chicken feed and make a mash for her if she won't eat it dry. Her poop should look at least a bit better then.

 

[Shezadandy]

Agree on making her a warm mash out of her crumbles/pellets. But please discontinue the oatmeal because as much as she might like it, it may well be adding to her problems:

The Shocking Effect of an Oatmeal Breakfast on Chickens | The Chicken Chick® (the-chicken-chick.com)

You can also try the Kaytee baby parrot food which can be made to any consistency, kinda like Cream of Wheat. It's not complete chicken nutrition, but we're talking survival, not optimal diet when it comes down to a hen with her medical history.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

3 year old Buff Orrington named Blanca

Since she was about 6 months she stopped laying eggs. She started laying lash eggs which just turned into those balls of hard puss. She started to have impacted crops from time to time and then she would lay another lash egg. Well this became a regular occurrence every 4-6 weeks. Over the last 6 months we have had to treat her to antibiotics and and meloxicam

Well now we thought we had another cycle so we brought her in and dosed her with meloxicam and nothing really changed. She is acting normal but won't eat and solid food. She will only take baby food, oatmeal and meal worms. She is also having these really green watery poops every morning really bad. Her stools change a bit throughout the day but mostly all loose and watery. She is acting okay with evergy and interest but her interest in solid food is diminishing by the day.

This time seems different. The weird part is she doesn't seem lethargic as she has in the past. This time is definitely different as she is not interested in solid pellets anymore and that was the reason we brought her in. She is also losing weight which was visually noticeable.

Welcome To BYC

From the sound of it, she's had issues most of her life and her condition is likely worsening over time. Often hens with Salpingitis also accumulate lash material in the abdomen as well.

I agree, I would try offer a little wet feed, bits of egg to entice her, etc.
Hopefully you will get more info from the gram stain.

Sometimes the best you can do is offer supportive care, monitor them daily and when they get to a certain point, let them go.

 

[Aapomp831]

Stop all carbs immediately for a hen with crop issues. Do the wet mash, and give scrambled eggs or plain Greek yogurt to up her protein. No more mealworms, oatmeal or any other treats - this is not only making the issues worse but she is not getting all the nutrients she needs to get better.

 

[Rortw1]

Stop all carbs immediately for a hen with crop issues. Do the wet mash, and give scrambled eggs or plain Greek yogurt to up her protein. No more mealworms, oatmeal or any other treats - this is not only making the issues worse but she is not getting all the nutrients she needs to get better.

Stop all carbs immediately for a hen with crop issues. Do the wet mash, and give scrambled eggs or plain Greek yogurt to up her protein. No more mealworms, oatmeal or any other treats - this is not only making the issues worse but she is not getting all the nutrients she needs to get better.

Welcome To BYC

From the sound of it, she's had issues most of her life and her condition is likely worsening over time. Often hens with Salpingitis also accumulate lash material in the abdomen as well.

I agree, I would try offer a little wet feed, bits of egg to entice her, etc.
Hopefully you will get more info from the gram stain.

Sometimes the best you can do is offer supportive care, monitor them daily and when they get to a certain point, let them go.

We actually lost her this morning at 5am. The crazy thing is we found out what the bacteria was in her loose watert stools. We treated with Baytril for 5 days and she came around like a champ. We even held her in an extra day to make sure she was healthy and eating. We put her back out with the other birds and she seemed fine for two nights. The morning of the 2nd day being back out she wouldn't come out of the coup. She had never done thet before. I immediately brought her inside. Her crop was very full but mostly liquid. I massaged it a couple of times and water poured out of her mouth. Throughout the day she became much weaker and weaker and stopped drinking anything. My girlfriend was sleeping for night shift at the hospital. I took her outside in bent her over in a lawn chair and massaged the fluid and grassy particles put of her crop. I think I mildly aspirated her at that time as well. Kicking myself in the ass for doing it. We were going to try an OTC antifungal in her crop but she was declining. Rushed her to the emergency vet and they sent me to a specialty emergency vet. They said the xrays were table and they could not make out any of her organs as they were all blocked out by some kind of mass or fluid. They my crop attempt aspiration couldn't account for all of that. It sounds like she became a very sick bird over the years. She was a damn fighter and the best bird we ever had. She never gave up so night did we. You might be right the lash egg/salpingitis really must have spread all over. Or we were dealing with some underlying. I am kicking myself for not keeping her in the house as she was doing so much better. I guess I need closure that no matter what we did it was not going to matter. We will never really know. All I know is she was a damn fighter and I will never forget that sweet baby bird.

 

[Aapomp831]

We actually lost her this morning at 5am. The crazy thing is we found out what the bacteria was in her loose watert stools. We treated with Baytril for 5 days and she came around like a champ. We even held her in an extra day to make sure she was healthy and eating. We put her back out with the other birds and she seemed fine for two nights. The morning of the 2nd day being back out she wouldn't come out of the coup. She had never done thet before. I immediately brought her inside. Her crop was very full but mostly liquid. I massaged it a couple of times and water poured out of her mouth. Throughout the day she became much weaker and weaker and stopped drinking anything. My girlfriend was sleeping for night shift at the hospital. I took her outside in bent her over in a lawn chair and massaged the fluid and grassy particles put of her crop. I think I mildly aspirated her at that time as well. Kicking myself in the ass for doing it. We were going to try an OTC antifungal in her crop but she was declining. Rushed her to the emergency vet and they sent me to a specialty emergency vet. They said the xrays were table and they could not make out any of her organs as they were all blocked out by some kind of mass or fluid. They my crop attempt aspiration couldn't account for all of that. It sounds like she became a very sick bird over the years. She was a damn fighter and the best bird we ever had. She never gave up so night did we. You might be right the lash egg/salpingitis really must have spread all over. Or we were dealing with some underlying. I am kicking myself for not keeping her in the house as she was doing so much better. I guess I need closure that no matter what we did it was not going to matter. We will never really know. All I know is she was a damn fighter and I will never forget that sweet baby bird.

It sounds like you did all you could. Very sorry for your loss

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry about your hen.
A way to find out more would be to have a necropsy performed. Some send the body to their state lab while others like me do an informal one to see if there's anything obvious.
Depending on where you live state lab services can be reasonable, some are not.
You can look up your lab in the link below. Since you did take her to a vet, they may also be able to do one for you.
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

Hard to really know what was going on, but if they were not able to see her organs because of mass and/or fluid - this sounds like a reproductive problem - which one would be a guess. Sadly it is not uncommon for laying hens to have cancer, tumors, peritonitis, fluid (Ascites) and sometimes Salpingitis.
It's also very common for a laying hen with reproductive problems to have crop issues - swelling from the mass/fluid, etc. blocks or slows the digestive system. Antibiotics are a short term measure for supportive care to see if they make the hen more comfortable.

In one way or another, most of us that keeping chickens, have had/or will experience something similar. Every situation is a bit different, but sadly the outcome is the same.