Treacle has a relapse

For the last three days Treacle seemed back to her normal self, eating, scratching about, dust bathing and bossing the other girls. This morning when I went in at first light, I could instantly see she was back to where she was before we went to the vet. I picked her up and offered her the tuna with her medicine on and she refused it for the first time. She wasn’t interested in any treats and was slow and lethargic.

For the first time we had to resort to syringing her medicine into her beak. I had watched  this being done by Terry on “Hen Cam”. You squeeze open their beak and give them a small drop in the side of their beak then let them swallow and repeat until it’s all gone. You must never pour it down their throat as it could go into their lungs and drown them.

I had also e-mailed Terry and updated her on Treacle’s recovery and said that I wondered if she had got infected from being pecked. Terry said that it was unlikely that infection had come from an external source. She said it’s likely that Treacle had an egg-laying glitch that got infected. Egg yolks are the perfect medium for germ growth, and if one gets stuck in the tract, it can easily get infected.

This made us wonder if as Treacle had got better, she had starting making another egg and the same thing that may have happened before, was happening again. I knew that this time I needed to contact the vet quickly.

I called and updated him, and he said to bring her in at three o’clock and he would x-ray her to see if anything was stuck. He listened to her heart and lungs and had a good feel of her but could find nothing. He gave her a little anaesthetic gas so that he could lay her on her side for the x-ray. He then showed it to me, he said it didn’t show an egg or any evidence of anything being stuck inside. All it showed was a collection of grit in her crop, poor girl.

He said that he felt we hadn’t got on top of her infection and he would give her another steroid injection to kick start her appetite again, this time twice as much so that it would last twice as long, giving her more time to fight the infection. He said to continue with the antibiotics and hopefully this time she will be okay. He said we are doing everything we can for her.

When we got back I tried offering her some tuna but she still wasn’t interested. I started my evening sweep up while keeping an eye on her. She put herself to bed which didn’t surprise me, but then a little later she came back out, had a drink of water then returned to bed. I hope this is a good sign. I am hoping after a nights rest she will eat in the morning and start to pick up again. I now realise it will be a while before we will be able to tell if she is really recovered. I can only hope so, I have had a few tearful moments today and have dreaded the possibility of having to have her put to sleep, I just can’t bare to think about that yet. I really hope that tomorrow brings better news.