Lost my young Zebra hen to a burst tumor
Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:59 pm
It looked just like egg binding. Exactly like it. Swollen abdomen near the vent, splayed legs, puffed, all the signs, looked like every egg bound picture ever, so I jumped into action and did all the egg-binding stuff. I thought we were doing well, because by day three she was still passing droppings, eating, drinking, moving around freely...but still puffed and still relying on her heat lamp. She just wasn't getting better, but she wasn't getting worse.
So we went to the vet.
Vet felt around, and then drew some liquid from her abdomen with a needle. That's when I knew it wasn't an egg: it was either a burst tumor or a massive infection.
He spun the sample, and we both looked under the microscope: tumor cells and a normal white blood count. He told me she could come in once or twice a week to have her abdomen drained and maybe buy her a few weeks or a month, he'd done that with a tame chicken, but it was that or let the tumor swell and eventually suffocate her, or block her up.
But just taking her away from the heat lamp to visit the vet, plus the weird environment, plus being handled and having the needle stuck in her...she looked upset and bad. Worse than she'd been all week. I couldn't imagine putting her through that every week, when she wouldn't feel that much better in between times.
So I made the choice to put her to sleep; a little gas, a little needle when she couldn't feel it, and it was all over.
A really nice lady hugged me in the waiting room when I was on my way out; I was (and still am) a mess.
It was really, really bad carrying her mate home with him all alone in the cage, and her in a box.
I've called her breeder to let her know what happened; Cassandra was only ~10 months old. Way too young. Poor little thing. I'm so messed up right now, and I only had her a month.
So we went to the vet.
Vet felt around, and then drew some liquid from her abdomen with a needle. That's when I knew it wasn't an egg: it was either a burst tumor or a massive infection.
He spun the sample, and we both looked under the microscope: tumor cells and a normal white blood count. He told me she could come in once or twice a week to have her abdomen drained and maybe buy her a few weeks or a month, he'd done that with a tame chicken, but it was that or let the tumor swell and eventually suffocate her, or block her up.
But just taking her away from the heat lamp to visit the vet, plus the weird environment, plus being handled and having the needle stuck in her...she looked upset and bad. Worse than she'd been all week. I couldn't imagine putting her through that every week, when she wouldn't feel that much better in between times.
So I made the choice to put her to sleep; a little gas, a little needle when she couldn't feel it, and it was all over.
A really nice lady hugged me in the waiting room when I was on my way out; I was (and still am) a mess.
It was really, really bad carrying her mate home with him all alone in the cage, and her in a box.
I've called her breeder to let her know what happened; Cassandra was only ~10 months old. Way too young. Poor little thing. I'm so messed up right now, and I only had her a month.
