Chicken Worries

[misssweden]

I'm a little concerned about my favourite chicken. She was a stray, so I have no idea how old she is but she must be older than four.

When I got back from holiday last week I noticed that see seems to be moving a lot slower than the others, more like a waddle than a walk and every now and then she almost falls over and have to throw her right wing out to balance herself. She eats like normal (haven't seen her drink), but when she eats food off the ground she doesn't do the stand-up-and-bend-down like normal but she crouches down and almost lays down on her belly.

As a result of that she has rubbed all the feathers off her belly and the skin is raw and sore. We caught her yesterday and put some Savlon on her belly (thank god she's easy to handle , hoping that would soothe the skin. 

I'm a bit worried that she suffers from egg binding, as she seems to stop and strain a lot - occasionally producing small, wet droppings - but I thought she would have deteriorated quicker and there seems to be no loss in appetite.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

 

[Andy™]

you can borrow my barbeque?

 

[misssweden]

you can borrow my barbeque?

No way, Henrietta would be far too chewy for a bank holiday barbeque Plus she's my pet

 

[Apache]

Doesn't sound good I have to say. Is there any chance of popping her down to your local vets in the morning?

Think this is one of these cases where we are in the dark without a proper examination.

 

[steptoe]

:shakehead

where will it end?

 

[misssweden]

Unfortunately Henrietta didn't make it. She seemed to perk for a bit, but the other evening when I picked her up I noticed that her breathing was really laboured and sounded fluidy. And she has lost weight and she refused to eat one of her favourite foods, although her belly was still swollen.

Got a vet appointment for the following morning and the vet's verdict was that she had a massive growth inside her, so big that it had reached the lungs. The vet offered antibiotics but also said it was unlikely that it would work, and bearing in mind Henriettas age (we did a bit of counting and she was probably about 7 years old) I would probably just find her dead one morning.

So I felt that the best thing to do was to have her put down, couldn't stand the thought of her getting weaker and choke to death.

 

[Apache]

Sounds like it was for the best