Lily has a Hernia?

Date sort Score sort
thndrdancr

thndrdancr

Songster
12 Years
Mar 30, 2007
2,211
96
246
Belleville, Kansas
Has anyone EVER heard of this?

It looks just like a hernia, a thin spot on her abdomen skin where you can see bluish intestines, etc. Its getting worse. I thought maybe she was eggbound, but its not that, she is laying fine, nice hard shell eggs.

She seems perky, feathers are shiny, etc, and she caterwauled like something crazy when I made her rest for a couple days. It looks to be getting worse.

It feels soft and squishy. For background info, Lily is about a 2 1/2 year old barred rock hen, always been healthy and a major character in my life.

Speckledhen, have any of your girls ever had this? I am worried about her!

001-2.jpg


002-2.jpg


003-2.jpg


If its something else, somebody have ideas?
 
Yes, just recently I heard about a hen having a hernia, though I'm not 100% sure that's what Lily has. Could be, though. One of Wynette's hens has one. I'll see if she can look at this, if she's around. Never had anyone here with a hernia, though. Can't remember what Wyn's vet said about it.


That girl is special. She's Hawkeye's first daughter, if I remember the timeline right.
 
Thanks, Cyn

Yes, she is special. I just dont know what else it could be, she doesnt seem to be eggbound, she is still laying really nice pretty eggs. I know chickens hide the fact that they dont feel well, but she doesnt ACT like she is under the weather at all.

She has had a bare bum now for a year, but I chalked it to rubbing when I had her in the house early last year. I did have mites but treated for those quite some time back. This is more than mite prob tho, you cant tell from the pics very well, she is a very wilful chicken and had to take about 15 pics at various times to get THOSE. You know how Lily is. Then she thought she deserved a grape!
lol.png


This winter was so horrid and so cold that I didnt do any more than cursory checks on everyone, and didnt do bottom checks at all. So now thats its warmer I noticed. So I dont know how long its been this way, but it looks worse today than it did yesterday and day before.
sad.png


This skin looks very thin in the part shown in the pic, and it bulges out.
 
This does appear to be a hernia; let me get some pics of my girl tonight that has one. The only thing I question with your girl is that you say it feels squishy/soft; my girl's is actually fairly hard feeling, not like a tumor/mass, just very, very firm, and my girl's is larger, too. My girl laid all last year without issue, and when I needed to take another bird to my avian vet, I took this girl, too, so I could find out what the mass was; the vet inserted a needle and tried to get fluid out to test, but no fluid came out in the needle. She then palpated the mass, and said that she had a hernia, which is actually fairly common (although this is the one & only I've had in my flocks). Vet indicated that it could be caused from early laying...folks that push their birds to lay early by automatically feeding layer feed at a certain time (typically 18 weeks) rather than just letting them start to lay on "their" schedule before starting layer feed. I think my girl began laying fairly early (she's a Black Jersey Giant crossed to a New Hamp. Red hen), like around 22 weeks, and that's when she was put on layer feed. the vet DID say this is just one reason it could happen.

There are many types of fluid buildups that can occur, too - I found this quickly by Googling:

I had two hens fall ill with this same weird ailment a few months back--distended abdomens (which felt like fluid, not solid tissue, to the touch), runny poops and dirty vent feathers, drinking lots of water. I took them to my vet and it kinda mystified him, as well. He finally gave me some Lasix (a diuretic) and Baytril (antibiotic) to give them, he also gave them a Lasix & Baytril injection as well. They pooped water like mad as the Lasix worked to reduce the fluid build up. They SLOWLY improved and while the large abdomen did not fully go away, they were perking around and eating normally. Both were older hens.
I had another hen who developed the same symptoms about three weeks after the first two, so we took her to the vet and got the same treatment for her. She started to improve greatly, and then suddenly died.
sad.png
She was only 2 years old and had been as healthy as a horse.

All three hens had been robustly healthy beforehand. The only thing out of the ordinary that had happened just before they got ill, was a strange outbreak of tiny black & orange caterpillars in one of our trees, which the chickens refused to eat--except I think that these same three hens had each tasted or swallowed one. When chickens won't eat a bug, it MUST be something awful.

Poison caterpillars? Best I could narrow them down to was Gypsy Moth caterpillars, but it was not an exact match.

The vet still seems to think it was some kind of bacterial infection. If it was, it was a resistant strain, because it was VERY tough to kill! The fluid build up and excessive thirst pointed to liver/kidney failure, which is very often fatal. My vet didn't think the first tow hens would live.

If it's simply a hernia, she will likely continue laying and have no issues; my vet told me the biggest issue is they get dirty due to the swollen part sticking out (my girl didn't seem to get dirty - her bulge was down low, almost between her legs). Vet also that that eventaully, she'd likely become an internal layer and that's what she'd die from. Sigh...BEST of luck with your girl! If she's still laying & you've got a roo, I'd strongly consider hatching many eggs now, while she's still laying.​
 
Thanks Wynette
I have now found about three others that had chicken hernias. I am almost certain that is what it is. She SEEMS healthy otherwise. She is 2 1/2 years old now, but she didnt lay early at all, in fact I think it was about 27 weeks or older when she finally started. But its right where the belly button, or whatever you call it on a chicken, healed up. So it must have been a weak spot with her. It looked like it healed as a chick (I hatched her from one of Speckledhen's Lexie egg's) but apparently there was some weak tissue there.

She really hated being in the house, so I let her go back with the other hens, and will just keep watch on her, think thats the most I can do, and feed her special goodies. No roo right now, mine are still adolescents and being a pita so trying to choose my main guy.


We have a sweet old farm vet, but she is not the kind of chicken you take to the vet, she is bouncy, wilful, struggles madly, and I know would be a nervous wreck in the car, that and at her age, not sure how she would take anaesthesia, as you would surely have to give it to her in order to do ANYTHING. Taking a picture was an episode in itself.



(Oh and Cyn, on a side note....I have a blue roo that looks might end up looking a lot like Suede from Big Daddy, he is a monster but is going to be gorgeous!)
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

C
Special needs chicken - hernia
2
Replies
12
Views
1K
Chicken_Labyrinth_Seer
C
my beautiful girls
Emergency!! one year old pullet egg bound or internal infection?
2
Replies
11
Views
1K
azygous
azygous
redriding
vent gleet ?
Replies
3
Views
621
redriding
redriding
I Miss u Loaf
Help hen has black spots on comb
Replies
2
Views
407
I Miss u Loaf
I Miss u Loaf
Lyris
Sick chicken has mystery blackening on comb/waddles
Replies
8
Views
751
Lyris
Lyris

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom