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Bramble

Peritonitis - to Treat, or not to Treat?

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Hello!

My four year old chuck has, I'm pretty sure, peritonitis :( She's alert in herself, but not moving about much at all, her tummy feels HUGE and very spongy/squashy. Her vent area was very mucky and I've cleaned all that up, but she's not at all well and I can't leave her like that.

The question is - do I try to treat the peritonitis, or ask the vet to put her to sleep (I don't have the know-how to cull her myself)? It's not that I don't want to try, but having read lots of posts in the past about gallant efforts by other Omleteers to help chucks with peritonitis - would it be putting her through more pain for no benefit to her?

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You will get different opinions on here, naturally - some people have treated and believe it's worthwhile.

 

Personally I would opt for PTS. The treatment might succeed for the time being but it won't cure the underlying problem and in my view the stress for the hen of being treated would outweigh the short-term benefits.

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Is it 'peritonitis', another internal infection or 'water belly' Bramble? Peritonitis can't be cured, just the symptoms removed rather expensively. An internal infection may be easily resolved but can often reoccur (green poo). Water belly is just that and can be drained and may not reoccur. All will cause them to stop laying. However you will have to spend time at the vet.

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I think probably PTS is best option. We've had two go this way in last few years - each time we probably left it too long to go to the Vet thinking the chook would perk up. The trouble is by the time they actually show symptoms in their behaviour they are often very bad indeed inside - peritonitis basically seems to just disolve their insides. Each time when we've checked with the vet they've confirmed that the chicken must actually have been suffering - which has made us feel awful for delaying in putting them out of their misery. Our vet has charged £28 each time to PTS and cremate and has been lovely as although it is silly i've still wept buckets on leaving each of them at the vet. But sometimes it is just selfish to try and prolong the agony.

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Thank you everyone for your helpful replies, made a hard decision much easier. I managed to get an appointment with the vet today, she was lovely, agreed completely that it was peritonitis, she thought it was septic peritonitis as chuck was so hot. She offerred ABs and drainage etc but said she thought it was MUCH kinder to PTS, so chuck had general anaesthetic first then she put her to sleep. Lovely vet and VERY knowledgeable. Thank you very much for your help everyone

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Thanks everyone. Your thoughts helped hugely with little Noodle yesterday along with a lovely vet who clearly thought it best not to prolong things unnecessarily. She did say there'd have been a better chance if it was sterile peritonitis, but even then, treatment is full of problems and she said there is always an underlying cause of the peritonitis, which she thought might have been a tumour in Noodle's case (she said she could feel something inside). Very sad, but as you've all said, the right thing for Noodle, I think. Sleep tight little one xxx

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Sorry to hear that ANH - how old is your girl? My little one was 4 - not old, but not young either, I guess.

She was well enough yesterday to enjoy eating some slugs I found in the garden for her :vom: and it was a sunny day, although she wasn't up to moving about much hopefully it was nice for her ...

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Big hugs to you but it was the right decision I'm sure. I think a 'good' vet is not only one who konws how to treat your animal but also one who knows when enough is enough and helps you come to a decision that makes you feel have done thr right thing too and not feel guilty.

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I had to take one of my 3 year old hens to the vet today with EYP, having seen how hideous this ailment is in a previous hen I said no way would another hen suffer the pain again.

 

I went to a different vet as my usual practice could not see the hen until 5pm (I rang around 1pm), the vet was lovley he agreed PTS was the kindest path to take.

 

RIP Morticia

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