hen with swollen abdomen

[chickengr]

hi,

I have a hen with swollen abdomen. it was soft. she laid eggs normally but I found 2-3 that looked like a ping-pong balls. she has not been able to walk for a few days although she gives some signs of improvement. her abdomen is hard now although does not look like egg bound. is it possible that she has an egg inside and that she laid other eggs? what else could that be?

I lubricated her vent a few times but no eggs came out. she had a heavy infestation of tape worms. I gave her vermox 4-5 days ago and probably it was too strong for her condition. she collapsed but today she moved around a bit. she eats a bit and drinks water normally.

 

[SuperChickRuth]

There's a couple things it could be, ascities, or egg yolk peritonitis. We went through a similar thing with one of our hens. I would try draining her with a needle/syringe. If she does have, ascities, she will start dropping weight, so keep her eating and drinking.

 

[chickengr]

There's a couple things it could be, ascities, or egg yolk peritonitis. We went through a similar thing with one of our hens. I would try draining her with a needle/syringe. If she does have, ascities, she will start dropping weight, so keep her eating and drinking.

thank you.

she has been like that since winter but she didn;t loose any weight. she has been bad for the last few days after worming with vermox (I used to worm chicken with vermox before). I did a cloacal exam and syringend some st. john's wort oil and she went straight away to the corner where she laid her last eggs.

can she have egg yolk peritonitis and still lay eggs? she laid a lot of eggs. I am afraid she has bad genetics.

 

[SuperChickRuth]

I am not totally sure, but I think yeah, she could still lay eggs. I'm certain our hen who passed away from peritonitis had bad genetics, too. She was a Barred Rock, and never laid even half of what they are supposed to. And her sister now, is showing some
egg problems...sigh...

 

[chickengr]

her belly is more hard now but I cannot feel egg. she is not loosing weight either. my parents will come to visit me soon so they will kill all of my sick birds that I should have done long ago. I am a new chicken keeper so killing is still not my option.

 

[SuperChickRuth]

Okay, if her abdomen is getting full with fluid, I strongly suggest draining her. At this point, I doubt she's got an egg there.

Why on earth would your parents kill your birds? If you're keeping chickens strictly for business, or eggs and have limited space,
I guess maybe it could be justified, but I personally don't agree. Keep on taking care of her! Glad she's not loosing weight- that's really good.

 

[chickengr]

Okay, if her abdomen is getting full with fluid, I strongly suggest draining her. At this point, I doubt she's got an egg there.

Why on earth would your parents kill your birds? If you're keeping chickens strictly for business, or eggs and have limited space,
I guess maybe it could be justified, but I personally don't agree. Keep on taking care of her! Glad she's not loosing weight- that's really good.

I am not sure what her problem is. if there is any fluid it is deep inside. and her belly is not hard enough for the egg. I suspect she has a tumor. she is not a happy bird any more. she cannot walk properly and she is sitting in the corner alone. I haven't decided yet what to do but if she continues to be like that and does not get any better I think it is better to put her out of misery. I do have limited space and I cannot put her back with my big flock as the roos would mate her constantly. they don't leave sick hens alone.

anyway, thank you very much for your time. I will tell my hen there is someone on another part of the planet who cares about her. let's see if that helps her to get better. sometimes little things make big things happen.

 

[chickengr]

Okay, if her abdomen is getting full with fluid, I strongly suggest draining her. At this point, I doubt she's got an egg there.

Why on earth would your parents kill your birds? If you're keeping chickens strictly for business, or eggs and have limited space,
I guess maybe it could be justified, but I personally don't agree. Keep on taking care of her! Glad she's not loosing weight- that's really good.

my hen did not get better. she was in pain and sitting in the corner or hiding under the coop. we killed her yesterday and found out she had salpingitis/lash egg. she would have died soon anyway.

we killed another one as well that was young. I bought her in may and she had been sick all the time (sneezing/rattle sound). she had like a ping pong ball size balloon full of water under her vent.

I am very sad for killing them but they had no future.

 

[ABchickenguy]

I went through the same thing with a hen. You did the right thing by putting her out of her misery.

 

[DrRock]

Just went through something similar with my beautiful silver laced Wyandotte. She'd been walking with her legs splayed for several weeks and I initially thought she had injured her legs somehow so just continued to watch her. She seemed happy enough, eating and drinking well, and still hanging with the other girls. But over this week she started to sit more, and eat less. Also I noticed her abdomen start to bloat.

I examined her to see if she was egg bound but couldn't feel anything in her vent. Her comb was still beautiful and red and she didn't seem stressed so I took her to my avian vet to see what was wrong.

After examining her he put a needle in a sucked out yolky coloured fluid. Egg yolk peritonitis. Even though she seemed comfortable it would only be a matter of time before she succumbed so I made the heartbreaking decision to have her euthanased. Interestingly the vet said they can do a wash out and put an implant in the suppresses ovulation, but if your bird survives the surgery then they never lay another egg again!