Chicken with egg peritonitis

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:28:32 GMT

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Kate Everett — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:03:20 GMT

Hi everyone,

Just to throw my 5 penny worth in.....

I'm a big fan of the suprelorin / drain it once / antibiotics approach and have probably done over 50 though I've lost count. Last time I took a bit of a retrospective look at the cases I've treated that way 17 out of 20 were doing well 3 months to 3 years down the line. Case selection is key though, completely agree with Mark that opening them up usually is the end of the road if you have widespread abscessation which you can usually detect before you start.

Just for interests sake, has anyone else doing this had them 'butch up'? Start chasing the females, muscle up, even crowing

Bye for now, Kate

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Mark Rowland — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:22:50 GMT

Nice one David Bailey

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Ian Mostyn — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 23:12:08 GMT

LMAO

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Mark Rowland — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:09:35 GMT

Thats ok then

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

James Laidlaw — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:11:31 GMT

It made me laugh - that's all I meant!

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Mark Rowland — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:02:06 GMT

It wasnt angry. I sincerely apologise it it was taken that way. I was a bit tired but it was meant in jest.

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

James Laidlaw — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:23:40 GMT

5 for the angry reply though...

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Mark Rowland — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:18:36 GMT

Oh P**s off

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Ian Mostyn — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 22:06:35 GMT

Not so sure about that - there is no scale for size & your depth of field could be greater. 4 stars for the photo

Ian

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Mark Rowland — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:47:53 GMT

He He He for shame! only 3 stars? the picture alone is worth four! Curse you rating system!

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

emma o'connor — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:45:34 GMT

Thanks Mark.

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Mark Rowland — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:40:42 GMT

Hello

This chicken sounds as if its quality of life is low anyway.

The mass you are feeling could be the gizzard, an inspissated egg or a neoplasm.

The coeloem is likely full of adhesions and infectious material. This chicken likely has an overwhelming sepsis as well as metabolic derrangement. If I were presented a case like this, I would probably offer surgery or euthanasia. Im not a fan of draining these cases. It achieves little and i liken the procedure to these cardiac dog cases that get their abdomen drained.. Also there is the risk of air sac penetration. Often however the fluid has displaced the airsacs dorsally so doing a centesis isnt that problematical. If it went to surgery, you would have the opportunity to assess this chickens issues and therefore its longer term qol, as well as physicially removing as much material as possible should you choose not to euth it on the table. You would need ventilation at least to go to surgery.

In real terms, these cases often get opened up and put to sleep. Its not always egg peritonitis though,

This was a pancreatic carcinoma, fluid obtained from the coeloem similar to yours

Im not convinced about implants and cessation of oviposition yet. I havnt seen the studies. From my own experience, their use for the same job in female reptiles hasnt been succesful.

Goodluck

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

emma o'connor — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:09:18 GMT

Many thanks. I will look into using the implants. I would agree that surgery seems a bit too far, but the owner asked me, so I felt I needed more information in order to make the right decision, and now I can speak to the owner again with other options. He just felt that the chicken had no quality of life given the stress of coming in for repeat drainage.

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:52:51 GMT

Hi,

with these I try and reduce the ongoing inflammation (metacam and amoxyclav) alongside drainage and if they settle into a dormant state then consider placing a suprelorin implant (though the ethics of using a mammalian hormone analogue in a potential food-producing animal are complicated and owners must sign waivers assuring you they will never eat the chicken or any future eggs!) but replace the implant every 6months to avoid flare-ups.

Surgery is unfortunately not as straighforward as spaying a mammal and shouldn't really be considered unless you've done cadaver surgery or practical labs to be familiar with the chicken anatomy (particularly blood vessels) and have suitable retraction, ventilation and bipolar radiosurgery. Flushing is contraindicated as you are accessing the coelomic cavity through the air sacs and large quantities of fluids into the open respiratory system does not end well!

Marie

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

sharminda — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:37:54 GMT

I have heard of flushing the abdomen surgically, but I don't believe this will be curative in the long term. It would need to be followed by antibiotics. The problem is they can still keep laying yolks in to the abdomen, so the problem will continue. Some vets have spayed chickens, or I was advised once by a chicken vet to implant a suprilin implant to stop the laying.

Re: Chicken with egg peritonitis

plantagenet — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:33:06 GMT

is surgery fair on the chicken?

I see a lot of back yard poultry but have never encouraged clients to go for surgery. It is a common complaint, and I am sure all sorts of things are possible, but......