Lethargic Chicken

[EdnaAndEdith]

Hello, thanks in advance for any help or wisdom you can offer. I have one sick hen, Edna. And two others that are acting fine but seem to be having similar effects. And I apologize in advanced for writing a book but I wanted to include all the details I could think of that may help.

Let me start off by giving some background information: we have ten chickens, two are three months old, six are a year and three months, and the other two we got as adults two years ago and do not know anything about their past lives. We have a 12x12 covered outdoor run and three small houses attached to the run. The flock free ranges every evening and weekend and whenever we are home. All the adults eat an all purpose crumbled food from the local feed store (I believe the brand is Rogue or something like that from a co-op about 80 miles away in Oregon). They have free choice oyster shell. This winter was extremely wet. We live at sea level. The chickens in question are Edna (RIR), Edith (RIR), Dottie (Barred rock).

Edna was one of our two original chickens that we do not know the age of. She has been lethargic for about two weeks and last Thursday she started having symptoms of dyspnea (difficult breathing) and I finally realized what was going on with her (I could have kicked myself for not realizing sooner). Her abdomen was full of fluid. The following morning my veterinarian examined Edna and said it was probably some type of cancer that was causing her symptoms and said I should consider euthanasia. Edna still seemed happy, albeit uncomfortable and painful, and had a desire to eat just less than usual. I wasn't ready to give up on her quite yet so we drained her abdomen and her breathing got better. I have been nursing her at home and this is the sixth day since draining her abdomen and she actually had a good day today. Still lethargic and walks very slowly but is eating (she ate pretty well today for the first time) and drinking some and her abdomen is about the size of a baseball now (prior to draining it was about the size of a large grapefruit). I have done a lot of research and found multiple sources that said liver disease or cancers of the liver can cause ascites (fluid in abdomen) so I started her on milk thisle supplement daily and she gets her own special cocktail of organic fruits and veggies all she can eat. I'm not ready to give up on her because she is still fighting to live and wants to be with her family and is happy even though I know she must feel lousy; she's a tough girl. But I still have no idea what's wrong with her.... I would normally agree with my vet on the likely cancer thing, but I found two other hens with swollen abdomens. Edith is Ednas partner in crime and also of unknown age. She has been acting perfectly normal and eating, drinking, and bossing everyone around just like normal but her abdomen is about the size of a baseball as well. And Dottie one of my one year olds started off the size of a baseball but today was about the size of a large orange. She too has been acting perfectly normal. Today it took her a little while longer than normal to lay an egg but it did come out and looked like a perfect egg.

My question to you is could this be some sort of contaminated feed problem? Or is there any other ideas as to what this could be and how I could treat it? I'm just so confused as to what could be going on with my girls and any advice would be appreciated.

Things I've come up with include: mycotoxins or poor feed quality leading to liver and/or other organ damage???? But I feel like I'm missing something in this puzzle and I'm not sure what.

Update: I wrote this the other day when BYC was down still. Wednesday was a really good day for Edna but Thursday she started to get worse again. Friday and Saturday she had steadily decreasing appetite and was more lethargic. Today (Sunday) she won't eat a thing. Strangely her swelling in the abdomen has almost completely gone away. She vomited once that we know of this afternoon and I have tube Fed her with about 14 ml of critical care tube feeding formula. She is very weak and hasn't left her house all day.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would put the original sick hen down. She probably won't recover and will die a painful death. Ascites is generally a symptom of heart problems or liver failure.

Some disease like Mareks and lymphoid lukosis causes internal tumors. If all hens were exposed to them than it's possible they all will eventually succumb to them.

It is odd to have 3 birds suddenly show symptoms of ascites. It's possible you are finding things because you are looking for them.

Older hens can get various tumors, and can get cystic ovaries.

Salpingitis is another thing that can cause problems. It's basically a e coil infection of the oviduct that eventually will cause the symptoms you are seeing.

These are all just possibilities. Chickens often seem to die in groups. I will have no deaths and than suddenly in a short time a couple will pass. It will usually occur during times of stress like during season changes.

Unfortunately it can be hard to say what it is until a necropsy is performed. Chickens tend to be healthy until they aren't, than often what is wrong is fatal.

 

[EdnaAndEdith]

Thank you for your response.
We had planned to put her to sleep in the morning when my veterinarian opened because tonight she started vomiting and could not lay down. Her neck was moving like there was a living creature inside her. In a desperate effort to relieve her discomfort for the night we "vomited" her even though this is risky we didn't want her to spend her last night in pain. She seemed instantly relieved and we brought her inside and she laid down and fell asleep immediately. We offered Apple cider vinegar water but she wouldn't drink any. She certainly isn't doing well but I've been doing some reading on sour crop and think this is a secondary problem to whatever she has going on. We are going to reevaluate her in the morning and see if she has improved or not and make the call on euthanasia then.