Hetty the unbreakable

A large animal rescue that we work with had a hen with a massive facial lump which looked to be caused by respiratoiry illness. After 11 days of antibiotics, the lump would not clear. So after she was PCA tested for an active mycoplasma flare up, and the results came back negative, we agreed to bring Hetty here for treatment.

Our vet (Chicken Clinic) tried to flush the lump here under local anesthetic, however it was full of hard matter and very close to the eye, so after a long attempt and when the sedative/pain relief and anesthetic began to wear off, we had to give up.

She was then booked into our local vet who don't routinely treat chickens but are often happy to perform simple surgeries for us. This option is more cost effective than using an exotic vet. Under general, Hetty's facial lump was cleared out.

She bounced back very quickly from the surgery itself. However a couple of days later, I noticed that her abdomen was starting to feel fluidy. So Chicken Clinic returned to give her an implant.

The next day, I noticed her comb starting to go blue. So Chicken Clinic returned to drain her as the fluid was beginning to put pressure on her air sacs. Over 600mls of fluid was drained from her and she continued to drain from the injection holes over night. Luckily, the next day, without all that fluid she seemed so much better. I really thought we were going to lose her and I think if we hadn't drained her we would have.

Throughout all of this, Hetty was so chatty and minus a couple of days where she was full of fluid, she was bright, active and very determined. Together with the rescue she came from, we decided to find her a small flock instead of return her to the rescue and so found her a small flock where she'd be the 5th hen and therefore receive closer monitoring.

Biosecurity remained really important in case she was a mycoplasma carrier as our permanent flock doesn't have it. We wore masks, gloves and suits to go in the run and segrated all cleaning equipment. Her new home is myco positive so this is not a worry for them.