Yoko’s Vet Visit

I’m all worried again. Today we had to take Yoko to see the emergency (Saturday) vet. A couple of days ago I thought I saw her sort of ‘spitting’ water out of her beak. I only saw the drops of water land on the floor infront of me as I worked on laying the path in the greenhouse, and Yoko was nearby but I couldn’t be sure it was coming from her. However, today she was acting a bit under the weather. After I’d collected the eggs she made her way into the nestbox for the umpteenth time. I opened up the nestbox and peeked at her as she stood on the perch before she went in, and what I saw made me worry a lot.

As she peered down the ladder from the perch, the motion of her head going forward released a stream of water, bile or mucus from her beak. So I knew she had definitely been regurgitating something. In a panic, I checked the poultry forums and found heartbreaking stories about hens that had been really lethargic and thin with similar symptoms (but Yoko’s are not as acute) that had died. So I booked her into the emergency vet and took her in pronto. I’m not one for leaving things – if I think there’s a problem, I want it sorted out sharpish.

The vet conceded that she was not a poultry expert, and so gave Yoko some baytril to go in the drinking water. We decided the others should also have this, as the vet thought that Yoko’s condition – whatever it was – was chronic and not acute, and we thought there might be a chance that the others might have lost some weight like her. So they’ve got to have the baytril in water for 5 days and we’re giving them probiotic yoghurt to help with the ‘good bacteria’ in their guts whilst on antiobiotics. Yoko has lost weight, but the vet thought she was ‘very thin’. Rich disagrees, he thinks it’s normal to be able to feel the breastbone of a hen and says that although she has lost a noticable amount of weight, she is not dreadfully thin. I hope that we have started the treatment early enough so that she can get back to normal health quickly.

So now I’m fretting and checking on her every half an hour almost. She is up and about, just slower and quieter than usual. Her crop was very squishy and empty and we don’t think she’s been eating and drinking enough, so if she doesn’t pick up we’ll put her in a run so that she can’t free range so much and will go to the food more. They’ll be restricted to the run in the mornings to make sure they’re going to the layers mash, corn and antiobiotic water and nothing else first. I gave the house and their feeder a really good clean today too (fret fret fret). I have read that she could have ‘sour crop’ (although I haven’t been able to smell her breath and I haven’t seen her regurgitate any more water yet) – we’ll be contacting the BHWT and trying to find a ‘poultry expert’ to see if we can get any more info on this. She did a plop on the vet’s table and we had a look – there were tiny red lines in her poo and I hope and pray it’s not blood. The vet wasn’t sure, she said the poo itself looked fine. I just hope that she starts putting on weight and chirping up a bit very soon. At least her diarrhoea has stopped – we cleaned up her feathers and bottom a couple of days ago and she did perk up afterwards. However she’s only doing small droppings because she doesn’t seem to be eating enough.

Anyone with advice or experience on this – I’m all but willing to hear if there’s anything else I should be doing or looking out for.