Water Belly or Ovarian Cyst? AND Internal Layer? GRAPHIC PICS

[Mountain Lori]

@Country4ever: Awesome info. Thank you.

(Ummm... do you make house calls?)

 

[stormylady]

Is this what your girl looked like in the beginning?

 

[Mountain Lori]

Hi - I don't think that's quite what she looked like, but that could be due to the density of the remaining feathers on your girl's rear. lol. My girl seemed also seemed to be pinker at that stage of feather loss. Having said that, I've noticed a couple more of my hens are developing bare butts that kinda look more like yours. I am keeping an eye out for changes in color and skin texture, but haven't noticed any yet. Even with all the good advice and the excellent procedural description from Country4ever, I'm hesitant to think these hens have the same condition - that would be too weird if they all developed ovarian cysts -so I'm thinking it may be something else here. Maybe in your case too?

Is her belly soft and squishy compared to the other hens? Have you noticed any new feathers growing in the area? I had one girl who was molting and lost all her underfeathers, but when I inspected her, I could see the new quills developing. Do you live at a high altitude? My place is around 4,460 ft above sea level. Although I don't know where the cutoff line is, altitude is supposed to be a contributing factor for water belly.


Sorry I can't help you more, but I'm not really sure what's what myself.

 

[stormylady]

Her belly is very squishy, but I tried to feel for eggs and I felt nothing hard, I have not noticed any refeathering in the area, she has been like this for months, she is a very Plump girl though. She is acting and eating normally, runs and play with the others, she is bright red in the face, wattles, comb. Her skin color looks really good to me from the area that the feathers are missing. I have never noticed any discharge from her either? I have noticed that my Reba( red cochin ) is loosing feathers in this region too, but with her I think it is due to all the rain weve been having and she sits in MUD and I think that she is self plucking but Im not sure. This girl in the picture does not look like her skin is irritated at all? Where Reba's does, also Betty in the picture hers was very gradual (Sp) and Rebas has just happened and she looks dirty where betty doesn't.Hmmm ?? I was concerned because OP said that her girl acted normally for the most part til close to the end and that concerns me with betty. No, no high altitude here. Thanks for all you help! Sandy

 

[Symphony]

Thank you so much for this! It has helped me in investigating the death of my hen.

 

[comickook]

This is beginning to look like the problem I have with my ladies. I noticed one chicken yesterday...but now there are at least 4 chickens with bloaty butts. The description of draining the excess fluid is very helpful. Usually I am giving an animal fluids, not draining them out...live and learn. I am hoping my ladies survive. I also hope that this is not epidemic.

 

[Mountain Lori]

Hi Comickook. Sorry I haven't been here for a while - work has been getting in the way of my computer time. How did your girls do? Did you try the draining procedure?

 

[speckledhen]

These threads may be helpful to you folks dealing with this stuff:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195347

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ences-on-egg-reproduction-production-necropsy

 

[shadow rabbit10]

First off, I'm sorry for your loss. May she rest in peace. Now I am dumbfounded by this and although I have no idea what this could be, I do appreciate the pics. This was very interesting and I respect anyone who can cut their own pet up for an autopsy. I am hoping to be a livestock vet someday, so I really appreciate pics like these. You certainly had a strange case, and I hope you can find out what it is. Again, I really appreciate the pictures.

 

[pkg14]

I just recently took one of my chickens to an Aviary Vet as she was limping severely on her left leg. I thought she might have had some sort of infection in her foot, but couldn't see any signs of that. She was eating, but she wasn't her self and the lack of mobility concerned me. When we got her into the vets she was limping but only on her left side. The right side was fine. There was no issue with her feet or legs he said. He noticed she had some fluid in her belly and said we needed to explore this further. I thought she was my chicken that was laying no shell or soft shell eggs for the last 2 months. They did an ultrasound on her and found that she had a grape cluster of ovarian cysts and one of them was the size of a small orange. He said chickens only have a left side ovary so that's why she was only limping on her left leg and that's what gave him a clue that she might be having female issues. He gave me 3 options. One they can give her an implant into her pituitary gland that would tell her ovaries to stop and give her a rest. With this solution the implant could last 3 months or up to a year. No egg laying during that time, probably. It may not reduce or eliminate the cysts but he said she could still move around and she was still eating so she could be okay with getting that rest. He didn't see any signs of cancer and since she had her merck shot as a baby chick he didn't feel that cancer was in the picture. She's also just turned 2 years old. He said if she was a commercial egg layer then he would definitely consider her a good candidate for cancer since most of the commercial chickens do have cancer by the age of 2. With the implant they would need to check her again and see if the implant was helping with fluid and keeping the cysts in check. If not, then we would need to look at this further. It's still possible that she could have further complications with this method. The approximate cost for this is around $300-450. The 2nd option was to open her up and remove the cysts and check her abdomen for any growths or abnormalities. This would be invasive and would require several days at the vets along with a hefty surgery bill. Approximate costs would be around $2500 for just the surgery and hospital stay. There is also a chance of a complication or when opening her up they find something bad and well that could end it for her. The third choice was to do nothing and send her home and see if some miracle happens and it clears up. He didn't see this is a very good option, but it was one that I could consider. I've already spent over $300 on the visit and imaging they did to find the cysts. I'm making my decision today as to what to do. He told me putting her down is not an option at this point as she is still mobile enough to have a decent life and she's still eating. He also shared with me that female issues with chickens, like this are very normal.

Hope this helps others as they try to learn more about their chickens.