Well after last night’s appalling display of self-pity, I’ve had things (as I suspected) shunted into some sort of perspective.

Cynthia has been ill again recently. She had a swelling underneath and the vet had detected a ‘mass’ inside of her. However, a couple of days ago I found a slightly odd rubbery thing under the hedge. It was pretty tough and we ended up having to investigate by cutting it in half with a plasterboard saw! It stank. It was an old inside-out-back-to-front egg. Possibly Cynthia’s ‘mass’. We took it to the vet and she confirmed that it was about the same size and shape as the mass that she had felt. Cyn had been put on a course of oral baytril to help combat the ‘mass’ (oral baytril works on contact, so by going directly through the system rather than injection there was more chance it would come into contact with the ‘mass’).

However, last night I noticed she was getting more lethargic, so again I brought her in for the night. But before I went to bed, I noticed she was gurgling a bit, and when I moved her to get a better look she regurgitated some fluid from her beak. Her crop had ballooned and it was clear that she wasn’t very well. So I stayed up until 3am making sure she was coping with swallowing whatever fluid would come up, then got up at 5am and again just before 7am to check on her. By 9:40am we were at the vet. She had 100ml fluid drained from her crop, and a culture sent off to try and find out what it is. We picked up her course of anti-fungal Nystatin, and gave her a dose as soon as we got home. Then we tucked her up in bed (small dog carrier with straw, food and water with CCF in it in close proximity). We drew the curtains and left her to rest up.

However, after sorting Cyn out, I went outside to check on the other girls. Yoko was sitting in the nest box laying her internal egg yolk. All part and parcel of her sterile EYP. She’s still doing well, yesterday we cleaned her bottom up and she looks lovely and fluffy now.

But I noticed Maureen was sitting down under a hedge. I couldn’t see Pattie at first, but then I noticed her standing on top of the hedgehog house with her stuck in the hedge. I called her over, and she strolled over. Pattie is a runner, she usually zooms everywhere. I heard a gurgle, so I picked her up. Then fluid came pouring out of her beak.

I think Pattie is a bit more robust than Cynthia. If you read about it, last time she was ill I only had to give her some biolive yoghurt and she was as right as rain in a few days. But she didn’t have this problem last time I don’t think. I’ve noticed she’s been all over the compost heap lately. We’re going out today to get the wood to secure it all to keep them off. There’s also some old bird food (sunflower husks and grainy bits) that I’ve cleared up. I just don’t know where else they could be getting ill from. Maureen is a tough old bird, she seems fine thus far. They all, bar Cyn, ate some round lettuce yesterday…could that have caused problems?

So for now I’ve isolated them in the extension run with access to the henhouse. They’re not too happy about that, as they’re so used to completely free ranging. But I don’t want to risk them getting anything else. Pattie has had some bio live yoghurt, she drank loads of water with avipro in (we had to take the water away because she was actually drinking too much and starting to regurgitate again) and had some layers mash. Pattie has seemed to be drinking a fair amount over the past few days. I didn’t think much of it until now. She’s still fairly talkative, but not completely herself. Her crop is pretty big…I’m keeping an eye on her and if absolutely necessary she’ll have to see the emergency vet tomorrow. I’m hoping she’ll improve tomorrow and then perhaps we’ll have to consult our vet on Monday when normal practice hours resume. I bet she’s sick of the sight of me. I am praying for some divine intervention to end my chicken woes. Poor babies.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 29th, 2008 at 1:21 pm and is filed under hens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.