ChiknMLS
In the Brooder
Hello everyone!
First time posting, but I’ve been a lurker for quite some time now. I lost my favorite chicken today and just wanted to share our story for informative or research purposes. Or maybe it will help someone someday even though the outcome is not great.
My black bantam Cochin, Banty, stopped laying this year sometime in February or March. She was just under a year at that point but we were coming out of winter so I didn’t think much of it initially. After a week or so I started to worry, felt her abdomen for eggs nearly every day. And even did a few days of calcium citrate as recommended here just in case. She was eating less but otherwise normal. Not long after, I started seeing black feathers everywhere and found that she was going through a mini molt. So I attributed her symptoms to that after reading similar things on here. Didn’t think much of it after that and stopped checking her abdomen. She was still going into the nest box sometimes and squatting so I assumed her laying would pickup after this weird March/April molt.
She kept molting pretty much all summer in random places on her body. First her chest, then her tail, etc. She was still acting completely normal otherwise. She continued eating less but I brushed it off because she wasn’t laying. My thinking was that her body knew she didn’t need as much energy because she wasn’t making eggs right now. Drinking water perfectly fine, still eating treats like usual and gorging herself on blueberries which were her favorite. As long as she’s acting like her typical self, I’m just not going to stress or bug her about it. I even read some things recently about younger hens who just stop laying and she was hatchery so maybe she was already retired. But why was she doing little molts all summer? I don’t know, maybe she’s just a weird chicken.
Fast forward to last week. I was sitting outside with everyone and see her squat to poop. She kind of strains a little and rocks back and forth on her feet quickly a couple of times and just a little watery poop comes out. She walks off just fine. Ok well, we had a few hot days maybe she didn’t drink enough water and is a little constipated. I fill up the extra waterer and continue to monitor. I don’t see her do it again and there’s poo under her spot on the board the next morning.
Tuesday I notice she’s got a little bit of a waddle to her stance and some pasty wet poo down her booty feathers. So I go to check her out and her abdomen is very firm. Couldn’t feel an egg to the best of my ability but there’s a large oblong lump on her abdomen below her ribs, on the inside of her left leg. Doesn’t feel like I would expect an egg to, gently pressing will leave an indent from my finger for a second. She’s still acting normal, so I start researching on here. I read up on ascites, egg binding, salpingitis, peritonitis, impacted gizzard. She didn’t seem to have the symptoms for most of those. I had my sister come over that night to check her out and see what she thought and she agreed that her symptoms don’t really fit into any one thing. Plus she’s still acting completely normal.
She performed a digital exam, can’t feel an egg or much of anything since she’s so small. Banty was good for the exam but I could feel her pushing during the exam as I was holding her. She thinks the lump is her gizzard so maybe leaning more toward impaction. We talked about pulling off fluid but opted to wait since Banty was still acting normal. She didn’t want to dehydrate her by pulling off fluid and then having it refill, or the pressure from the fluid may be what’s keeping it from getting worse.
After the exam, I took her out some wet feed and she devoured it. I decided to leave her in the coop with her friends for the night and try an epsom salt bath in the morning.
She was more lethargic Wednesday morning and her crop didn’t empty overnight. She came out of the coop with the rest of the girls and had some water but then just stayed by the waterer. While she was in the bath, I set up a hospital for her to start monitoring poops and how much she’s eating and drinking. She was not happy about the bath and very clearly let me know with her grumpy squawks. I dried her off and put her in the dog crate hospital. Made up some epsom salt water to flush and was only able to syringe in about 2 ish mLs. She was a very uncooperative patient at this point and I didn’t want to further stress her out.
After I got home from work that night, she did have a couple of small poos that looked mostly white but there were small brown clumps as well. She was acting the same as the morning but didn’t want to eat anything. Her crop was softer but still not empty, no noticeable change in the bloating or lump on her side. She picked at a little bit of wet food. I tried egg as well and she only ate a few bites. Tubed in about 1.5 mLs of nutridrench and left her be for the night.
This morning I see on the camera that she was preening so maybe she’s feeling a little better, looks like some more poop too. When I go out there the poops are still very small, her crop did not empty and her breathing is more obvious. It doesn’t seem labored but she does seem uncomfortable. She was upset about me messing with her but would stand with her eyes closed after I left her be. No change in her abdomen. Maybe a little bit softer but I wasn’t sure if it was just wishful thinking on my part. The lump on her left side felt larger in size but softer. No interest in eating or drinking. I decided to move forward with getting a sample of the fluid at this point. At the very least, it would give us more information to go off of. I felt that she was suffering this morning and I didn’t want to prolong that needlessly.
I held Banty loosely in a towel with her head covered, while my sister inserted the needle into the right side of her abdomen. The fluid was pale yellow and clear. I felt a little relief at this moment, thank god it wasn’t infection. We may still have a chance. She pulled off about 12-15 mLs of fluid to give her some relief and then stopped.
I put Banty back into the hospital crate and she seemed like she felt better pretty much immediately. She started looking around for food and pecking at spots on the puppy pad. I went inside to make her some wet food and when I came out she was drinking some water. When she brought her head back up she started wheezing and open mouth breathing. Then she got wobbly on her feet and leaned to the side. I have seen this in chicks quite a few times now as they’re fading. She started having a spasm so my sister ended up culling her.
I wanted to know what actually was going on so we necropsied her. Lots of fluid, which was expected since not much was drained off. Fibrosis. All of her organs were essentially stuck together from this tissue. There were even areas against the muscle at the back and ribs that were completely encased with more fluid. Intestines were like rubber. Gizzard was surprisingly normal and was just being pushed down and out by the fluid. That was what we felt on her left side. And the likely culprit for all of this, granulomas all over what appeared to be her ovary.
My gut instinct at the beginning of this week was that she wasn’t going to make it. I knew with all the time that has passed where she was fine was way too long for anything other than some sort of reproductive cancer.
She had a great life though it was short. She was an unplanned addition to the three chickens we were supposed to start off with last spring. The lady at the store said they had some extra chicks delivered and offered them to us. Of course our original three were standard size so, we ended up with two more bantams. Chicken math got me right from the get go. She was the first to lay and she hung out in the coop when the other four laid their first eggs. I like to think she was their midwife or something, coaching them through. She was always the first to come running to me for treats, and that run was one of the most comical I’ve seen. She would sit on my lap and sing to me, I will miss that dearly.
I would like to thank this community, I have learned so much from so many of you! Your advice and experience have been an invaluable asset to making me a better chicken keeper!
First time posting, but I’ve been a lurker for quite some time now. I lost my favorite chicken today and just wanted to share our story for informative or research purposes. Or maybe it will help someone someday even though the outcome is not great.
My black bantam Cochin, Banty, stopped laying this year sometime in February or March. She was just under a year at that point but we were coming out of winter so I didn’t think much of it initially. After a week or so I started to worry, felt her abdomen for eggs nearly every day. And even did a few days of calcium citrate as recommended here just in case. She was eating less but otherwise normal. Not long after, I started seeing black feathers everywhere and found that she was going through a mini molt. So I attributed her symptoms to that after reading similar things on here. Didn’t think much of it after that and stopped checking her abdomen. She was still going into the nest box sometimes and squatting so I assumed her laying would pickup after this weird March/April molt.
She kept molting pretty much all summer in random places on her body. First her chest, then her tail, etc. She was still acting completely normal otherwise. She continued eating less but I brushed it off because she wasn’t laying. My thinking was that her body knew she didn’t need as much energy because she wasn’t making eggs right now. Drinking water perfectly fine, still eating treats like usual and gorging herself on blueberries which were her favorite. As long as she’s acting like her typical self, I’m just not going to stress or bug her about it. I even read some things recently about younger hens who just stop laying and she was hatchery so maybe she was already retired. But why was she doing little molts all summer? I don’t know, maybe she’s just a weird chicken.
Fast forward to last week. I was sitting outside with everyone and see her squat to poop. She kind of strains a little and rocks back and forth on her feet quickly a couple of times and just a little watery poop comes out. She walks off just fine. Ok well, we had a few hot days maybe she didn’t drink enough water and is a little constipated. I fill up the extra waterer and continue to monitor. I don’t see her do it again and there’s poo under her spot on the board the next morning.
Tuesday I notice she’s got a little bit of a waddle to her stance and some pasty wet poo down her booty feathers. So I go to check her out and her abdomen is very firm. Couldn’t feel an egg to the best of my ability but there’s a large oblong lump on her abdomen below her ribs, on the inside of her left leg. Doesn’t feel like I would expect an egg to, gently pressing will leave an indent from my finger for a second. She’s still acting normal, so I start researching on here. I read up on ascites, egg binding, salpingitis, peritonitis, impacted gizzard. She didn’t seem to have the symptoms for most of those. I had my sister come over that night to check her out and see what she thought and she agreed that her symptoms don’t really fit into any one thing. Plus she’s still acting completely normal.
She performed a digital exam, can’t feel an egg or much of anything since she’s so small. Banty was good for the exam but I could feel her pushing during the exam as I was holding her. She thinks the lump is her gizzard so maybe leaning more toward impaction. We talked about pulling off fluid but opted to wait since Banty was still acting normal. She didn’t want to dehydrate her by pulling off fluid and then having it refill, or the pressure from the fluid may be what’s keeping it from getting worse.
After the exam, I took her out some wet feed and she devoured it. I decided to leave her in the coop with her friends for the night and try an epsom salt bath in the morning.
She was more lethargic Wednesday morning and her crop didn’t empty overnight. She came out of the coop with the rest of the girls and had some water but then just stayed by the waterer. While she was in the bath, I set up a hospital for her to start monitoring poops and how much she’s eating and drinking. She was not happy about the bath and very clearly let me know with her grumpy squawks. I dried her off and put her in the dog crate hospital. Made up some epsom salt water to flush and was only able to syringe in about 2 ish mLs. She was a very uncooperative patient at this point and I didn’t want to further stress her out.
After I got home from work that night, she did have a couple of small poos that looked mostly white but there were small brown clumps as well. She was acting the same as the morning but didn’t want to eat anything. Her crop was softer but still not empty, no noticeable change in the bloating or lump on her side. She picked at a little bit of wet food. I tried egg as well and she only ate a few bites. Tubed in about 1.5 mLs of nutridrench and left her be for the night.
This morning I see on the camera that she was preening so maybe she’s feeling a little better, looks like some more poop too. When I go out there the poops are still very small, her crop did not empty and her breathing is more obvious. It doesn’t seem labored but she does seem uncomfortable. She was upset about me messing with her but would stand with her eyes closed after I left her be. No change in her abdomen. Maybe a little bit softer but I wasn’t sure if it was just wishful thinking on my part. The lump on her left side felt larger in size but softer. No interest in eating or drinking. I decided to move forward with getting a sample of the fluid at this point. At the very least, it would give us more information to go off of. I felt that she was suffering this morning and I didn’t want to prolong that needlessly.
I held Banty loosely in a towel with her head covered, while my sister inserted the needle into the right side of her abdomen. The fluid was pale yellow and clear. I felt a little relief at this moment, thank god it wasn’t infection. We may still have a chance. She pulled off about 12-15 mLs of fluid to give her some relief and then stopped.
I put Banty back into the hospital crate and she seemed like she felt better pretty much immediately. She started looking around for food and pecking at spots on the puppy pad. I went inside to make her some wet food and when I came out she was drinking some water. When she brought her head back up she started wheezing and open mouth breathing. Then she got wobbly on her feet and leaned to the side. I have seen this in chicks quite a few times now as they’re fading. She started having a spasm so my sister ended up culling her.
I wanted to know what actually was going on so we necropsied her. Lots of fluid, which was expected since not much was drained off. Fibrosis. All of her organs were essentially stuck together from this tissue. There were even areas against the muscle at the back and ribs that were completely encased with more fluid. Intestines were like rubber. Gizzard was surprisingly normal and was just being pushed down and out by the fluid. That was what we felt on her left side. And the likely culprit for all of this, granulomas all over what appeared to be her ovary.
My gut instinct at the beginning of this week was that she wasn’t going to make it. I knew with all the time that has passed where she was fine was way too long for anything other than some sort of reproductive cancer.
She had a great life though it was short. She was an unplanned addition to the three chickens we were supposed to start off with last spring. The lady at the store said they had some extra chicks delivered and offered them to us. Of course our original three were standard size so, we ended up with two more bantams. Chicken math got me right from the get go. She was the first to lay and she hung out in the coop when the other four laid their first eggs. I like to think she was their midwife or something, coaching them through. She was always the first to come running to me for treats, and that run was one of the most comical I’ve seen. She would sit on my lap and sing to me, I will miss that dearly.
I would like to thank this community, I have learned so much from so many of you! Your advice and experience have been an invaluable asset to making me a better chicken keeper!
