Impacted oviduct-photos

we noticed this hen the other day, all hunched up outside; she is in a full blown molt right now.
we brought her in the house with chick started and water.  She sits in front of the food and water all day.  i picked her up when i got home, and noticed that her chest, belly is almost devoid of feathers.  This morning changing her litter etc, i noticed it looked like her abdomen is a bit swollen, quite a bit and she is walking quite upright like a penguin...So am thinking is this egg bound?

wonder why they don't write....

i have now soaked the chicken for about 20 minutes in nice warm water....
tried to massage what feels like a very large egg-perhaps a tumor
and have applied olive oil around the vent.  i have also tried to feel inside the clochea (?)..unsure of terminology.. and can feel nothing other than inerds... am i supposed to be able to feel the egg?
seems like the egg is off to the side, and it also feels like there is another one right behind it...
she is now in a darkened crate by the wood stove keeping warm, with just water..should i be worried about feeding her
seems like everything i have read she should be dead by now...so perhaps food is the last worry
Wow...am i getting chicken 101 or what?...lots of learning to do...guess i am on the steep part of the curve like Coopslave says
any other things i should do...thinking to myself...they must all be out doing chores or drinking whiskey in the chicken houses....i think that is where i am headed next...whiskey-not chores

also one place mentions Calcium....how does one give calcium to a chicken...and where does one find calcium>,,,can i give her some tums?..it has calcium...?

Sorry no one has answered Bigrock. Sounds like it may be peritonitis.
Have a look here:

http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html

This may be better, just realised that other is for cage birds. Have a google search for it.

http://simplelifeainteasy.blogspot.ca/2012/03/egg-yolk-peritonitis-diagnosing-sick.html

thank you coopslave
just read the article....she has no loss of appetite, in fact sits in front of her food dish and just eats and eats and eats...then drinks copious amounts of water...
but it could be peritonitis
...will give her another bath in an hour or so..with epsom salts this time...see how this all plays out

The little hen was getting worse throughout this day, and i made the decision to dispatch her.
horrid thing to do-wish i knew of a better way
but post mortem otopsy
i think i found her oviduct which was completely filled with a solid cheesy mass the whole length of the oviduct, or at least a foot of it.  I kept thinking of bumblefoot and the same kernal and cheesy stuff and it was the same.  This is the same hen i treated for bumblefoot a while ago, and i thought she had completely recovered from it.  But this stuff.  in the middle was a hard yolk like substance -yellow, outside was white...
i don't know what this was...any ideas at all.  it had layers surrounding the yellow or yolk part...very curious
no worms!
i am not sure about keeping chickens....does it get better? what gives anyways?

now after doing a google search, am certain this was Oviduct Impaction

That sucks. But good for you for dispatching the poor thing quickly. (Some people don't seem to be able to bring themselves to do the kindest thing, because it's also the hardest thing.)

does it get easier?  i dont know..I guess so..but there is such a huge learning curve keeping any animal...good for you for doing an autopsy.  once I had a bantam hen seem off and then walked like a penguin. ..and died. unlike you I didnt investigate and later guessed it may have beeen oviduct infection or tumor.  you looked and now you will have more wisdom and knowledge than you had before.  I guess that is all we can do sometimes...what we have to do.  there are highs and lows in everything and keeping animals can be hard emotionally.but also has capacity to be very rewarding as well

Crikey Bigrock, what a day you had. Glad to hear about it though, good for me to know so even though it was a suck gas sort of day and loss and rotten - at least there was learning. Thanks for sharing the autopsy results.

I want to know where posts disappear to when you push a button and they don't get posted!

Lost that post. Damn!

In point form:
- calcium is provided through constant access to oyster shells, which you will find at the feed store. It is a common chicken requirement. I serve mine mixed with grit, free choice, all the time.

- A Tums is a temporary way to get rid of indigestion but chickens need long term calcium levels to continuously produce eggs, oyster shell is the best way to do that.

-apple cider vinegar is believed to aid the body metabolize calcium faster/better. So you can add a splosh to the drinking water, but NOT if you use metal waterers. Vinegar is death to metal waterers.

-some people save their egg shells, bake them, crush them and feed them back to the chickens for calcium. Some people are crazy.  

-I would have diagnosed egg bound too and you took all the right steps. But from your autopsy report, it sounds like you had something much worse to deal with. It might have been an egg that was formed with no shell, broke on the way out and had been in there a long time. Was this an old hen or new to laying?

-This has been a brutal learning curve. I think it's time you went to the chicken house and poured yourself a little medication and partook of some quiet meditation with your medication.  

-Good job of ending the suffering when it looked hopeless. That is a hard call to make, it does not get easier, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Now go get that shot glass and here's to your good health!

This is awful to hear, and I am sorry that you have had such a wild introduction to the world of the poultry fancy. Does it get any easier? Not sure how this could be defined back to you. Probably not. You have experienced in your first year, probably more than what many have in many years. Me included. I admire that you do the things that you do, that you can do the things that you do, and as said, do the things you do. That autopsy on poor pullet was one of the most incredible things, to see what had actually gone on inside. If I ever need one done, perhaps I will lean on you       . I don't know if I could cut open a bird and look at innards within, my hat off to you girl! Don't give up on chickens, you are becoming well armed with first hand knowledge of so much stuff, really, you are...make a list of the things that you have worked with taking care of your birds that have had issues, like bumble foot, impacted crop, this cheesy oviduct thing, think there is more, just other stuff doesn't come to mind. Again, my hat off to you to have that intelligent and curious nature to get to the bottom of things, yahoo!! You go, girl.

So, did you by any chance take a picture of the horrid mess? I hope you did. If you did not, is it too late to go and get a picture. You might need a gas mask, but pictures tell a thousand words. And I for one, would like to see this mess. I really would. And I bet others would too. If it is in the garbage, go and get it out, put on a face mask, so you don't gag from stench (probably smells like bloody he!!), but do it please. If you will, I would appreciate it for surely. I am sorry to hear of this loss, a point of lay pullet has come a long ways with growing and feeding and loving and being cared for. Which breed was she???? Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

thanks girls; I am a little teary eyed over this one....
We also need to sort out a quick dispatch method..i think that was part of the trauma to me.
perhaps i should start a thread on quick dispatch methods...
i didn't take pictures, not sure if i want to go get her, but i might....
The info i could find on this said it happened in birds who perhaps started their point of lay early. This was one of the hybrid production birds ...the exceptionally friendly ones "Lowman". Chuck and i have been thinking; we have lost three of the original 5. So, i think they just burn themselves out too fast.
It was some consolation that i could not have done anything to help her. We provide free feed calcium all year round in the form of oyster shells.
I am going to make a book just for chicken record keeping so i can keep track of all of this stuff.

.

Ok, here are the pictures. This first one is of the outside of one of the masses. Picture the oviduct covering this:...sorry, these may be huge



The next two pics, you can see the layers, yolk in the centre, and then all these other layers surrounding it





and lastly my poor chicken, gives you an idea of the location, and you can see some more of these masses

Bigrock you are some kind of mighty. I once heard we only get in our lives what we are equal to and you got lots happening. I appreciate you doing this - taking the pictures makes it really easy to see what you were describing. Thanks.

HigginsRAT wrote:Don't get the impression that raising up and breeding the birds is all carnage and sickness...it is not but sometimes at the beginning of your journey, you have no clue about what birds are the strong ones and what ones are the flakes that are here for a short time...like spring flowers, kinda a burst of beauty and then gone. Leaving you wondering, what happened, was it me or? What you want to get in your flock are the perennials. The ones that live more than eight years, the hens that survive to still give you a whomping big egg every three or four days at the age of seven. The ones that jump up on your knee to visit, look at you with wisdom behind their chickeny eyes. A knowing regalness of ancient age (fer a chicken!). Those are the ones I have come to rely on...my geriatric chickens like Chantelle and Charles (who even nipped off a piece of Death Camas and lived several more years just to spite my worries over him! BAD bird--he had me spend a sleepless night wondering if he was a goner...dang birds!). After age of two or so, you can often rely on these ones to be our foundations, invest emotions in them and appreciate the routine of them. They know how to forage safe, don't get into troubles, come home to roost, thrive under your conditions and care.

These words make my nose feel twitchy and I knew some tears of pride were coming to me eyeballs. That was probably one of the most beautiful paragraphs I think I have ever read in a long, long time. Long live the chicken!! I totally agree, those that live long do give you a promise that you have done something right in the care and the genetics that they have for longevity, health, ones that we should aspire to having in our flocks. Just had to say. Now off to finish off looking at BigRock's pictures in this thread. I glanced at them yesterday, whilst I was eating my lunch sandwich, almost puked, had to get out of the thread quickly and then finished eating and went back outside to finish off what I was doing. I couldn't even entertain the thought of looking at those pictures eating my lunch, mostly, almost puked from pukey feelings of what I saw, but held it all down, smiling. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Boy, still haven't got down through the threads to look again at the pictures, just keep finding things that I need to draw attention to, and that seems to be things that you are saying this morning, Tara, another beautiful thought, which you presented so nicely.  Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

HigginsRAT wrote:The boys will sing in the sun and the girls will mark each day with a blessing of whole goodness...eggers for your family to eat or for you to set for the future prospects; whichever you choose and please.  These feathered pets with benefits.

So go see how many eggs yer sun loving chooks have blessed you with this morn.  Walk proud and revel in your new found understandings.  The birds know the true meaning of living and celebrate life every single day with great style.  Appreciate your riches of being able to enjoy being married with chickens.  There's no life like it; good day or bad, they are THE best of days when shared in company of creatures.   Sun          

We can't have good days if we never have a bad one to compare it by.

With that, now I CAN go look at the pictures, smiling...

Well, right, now that was some pretty horrible pictures for surely. Boy oh boy. My hat off to you girl for going and retrieving that bird to take pictures, hope she wasn't too terribly stinky and awful. I think these pictures were so good for others to use if they ever encounter something like what you did with your hen. Pictures tell a thousand words, that saying is so true. Gotta wonder what causes things like impacted oviduct. She has probably not been well for some time I would think, geeze, that poor girl. And the human would never in a million years know she had issues, until she became lethargic, as you saw. She had a good life. I have seen the good life of the birds at your place, and her temperament proved she was loved. There are so many things that you will learn, and I will say again, during your short time with chickens, you have had amazing things that you have done with things like the bumblefoot, impacted crop, probably other things too, and now this one, the impacted oviduct. Does it ever get any easier? Not sure, but enjoy it, girl, you have a love for the chooks, clear to see and you pay attention to things, clear to see. There are so many birds you have that have great health, look to them to make you keep on with desire to have the breeds you have chosen. It is worth it!! Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.