Part 0800.0005

[Nicola O]

Opened them up this morning at 8am and found Lily lying awkwardly in the nest box with her right leg shoved out behind her. I carefully hoiked her out and checked her over but could find nothing obvious, but it was clear that she could not walk and the the leg seemed useless.

 

I managed to get her to the vet (good poultry guy) and he has suggested a few poss reasons for it. 1 - break or dislocation so high up that he can't feel it. 2 - a stuck egg that is either soft or high up (again can't feel it). 3 - a virus. or 4 - lead poisoning apparently if she has eaten a lead nail/tack/piece of wire lead poisoning can present with this 'paralasis' (spl?).

 

So she will have an x-ray as this will show results of 1,2 or 4. If nothing comes of that then she will have blood tests to check for virus etc (also if it's lead poisoning he will do blood test to see how severe).

 

I'm keeping everything crossed. She is normally a fiesty girl - she suffered a fox attack 3 months ago where her wing was badly damaged and the vets thought they may need to amputate it, but is healed up great and she has been fine so don't want to loose her now.

 

 

Nicola

Edited October 2, 2010 by Guest

[Nicola O]

The vet phone this afternoon. He said the x-ray showed an enormous egg stuck so far up it was still in her uterus. He said it was so huge (equivalent to a supermarket's extra large) that she would never have been able to pass it, so whilst she was still under the anaesthetic for the x-ray they inserted a sucky/suction thingy and sucked it out , and fortunately it came out without breaking.

 

When I went to collect her the nurse showed me the egg and I was surprised, because it was no bigger than her normal eggs. Lily only lays diddy eggs (about 35g - 40g at the most) as this was no larger than normal which raised two questions. 1 - could this mean that the problem wasn't caused by an egg, and 2 - what supermarket does the vet go to when something of Lily's size is 'extra large' .

 

Anyway, once home in her box in the spare room she stood for a second before plonking herself into a corner, and when I gave her a small dish of cat food, deliberatly placed behind her - she got up, turned round (though rather wobbly) and threw herself in it with gusto. So hopefully she is on the mend already.

 

Nicola

[Egluntyne]

Good news.

[Plum]

He must have bantams. Anyway hope it's worked.

[Nicola O]

Last night she ate half a sachet of cat food, some meal worms and three chunks of cucumber. Gave her the same this morning but she's not really interested. I had lifted her out of the box onto the bedroom floor so she can move about and exercise the leg so perhaps she doesn't feel so 'secure' out of the box so will try her with the food back in it.

 

The vet did say 24-48 hours to fully get the feeling back so don't want to push her too soon, but her toes are curling round my finger now, and if I give her a nudge up the bum she does get up and walk a couple of steps, and the leg is now lovely and warm (felt dead and cold yesterday). So hopefully on the mend now.

 

Nicola.

[dancing cloud]

Sounds like Lily may be on the mend . Fingers crossed your feisty little one makes a full recovery.

[Donna C]

I really hope she gets better soon . Was wondering why u feed her cat food i asume you mean wet food.

[Nicola O]

I really hope she gets better soon . Was wondering why u feed her cat food i asume you mean wet food.

Hi Donna

 

Yes, wet food. I thought I'd keep her off layers pellets for a few days (to let her 'bits' settle down) and gave her a few different things to make sure she was eating OK. They normally go mad over cat food, I don't know if its the taste, texture or smell but it went down a treat sprinkled with meal worms .

 

Nicola