I just had a hen die :( from an ovaduct infection. I thought I'd share what the symptoms were so if anyone else gets these symptoms they will know to act earlier than I did.
Basically, Queen Elizabeth, our Aracauna, started misfiring, laying eggs that had weak or missing shells. I tried calcium, etc. but to no avail. Then she started "laying" just yolks and whites.
A few days later she looked really off. Her tail was drooping and she was sleeping and drinking lots and lots of water. She was a pet, so I took her to the vet ( not an easy task, as we don't have any poultry vets around here, I took her to an exotic bird vet. She's exotic! She's an aracauna!) She layed an long white mass that looked like the whites of several eggs strung together.
At that point the vet did a blood test and she had a white blood cell count of almost zero. She was septic and died today :(. THe vet thought that if I had given her an antibiotic earlier after I had tried the calcium, she would have probably lived. So watch out for egg laying problems in otherwise healthy looking hens. It could be this type of infection. It is a real bummer!
ovaduct infection symptoms
So sorry to hear about your "Queen Elizabeth", but thank you for the info and warning! Hopefully we want ever have to "manage" a serious infection like this but will now know what to watch for!
( Eufaula)
Thanks! Its sad when your hens die unexpectedly, but I guess it is all a part of being a farmergirl!
This message was edited Jun 30, 2006 9:51 AM