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Swollen belly on non-egg layer

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geoaware

geoaware

Songster
12 Years
Dec 3, 2007
181
7
131
Southern Maine
Hi all...we are desperate!. One of our older chickens has a very swollen belly. She is lethargic...we can pick her up easily.

She has not been laying for six months or more....so being egg bound seems unlikely...

What can we do????
 
We soaked her tonight in warm water and massaged her belly.....which is so swollen. No vets near us will see her
sad.png


I felt inside her as much as I could and could not feel anything like an egg.

We are so sad we can't seem to help her.

Damn animals...they break your heart at times
 
Sounds like the last stages of internal laying. Sometimes, the ovary and the oviduct just fail to connect properly. When a hen of this kind begins to lay, the yolks "miss" the opening to the oviduct and are deposited inside the body cavity, slowly filling all the empty space. Some hens will recover if only a few yolks are laid and if they reabsorb them, but more often than not the hen continues to expand and infection eventually sets in. There's not much you can do at this point.
sad.png
You could try to remove the yolks with a needle and syringe, but if she's acting sickly a nasty infection has likely set in.
 
How old is your hen? Could be internal layer, but depending on age the swelling could be the symptom ascites (fluid filled cavity), which sometimes occurs with heart failure and other ailments. Does she have any other symptoms?
 
She doesnt really have any other symptoms. she is drinking. she is pooping. i havent seen her eating but i havnt hung around long enough to check. We brought her in last night to sleep, but have put her back out with the other girls this morning. She used to lay eggs. So could she have turned into an internal layer? is there anything a vet could really do if we found a vet to bring her to??

edited to add she is about 2 years old
 
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Quote:
A vet could possibly surgically remove the eggs, give her a hysterectomy and prescribe antibiotics.

ETA: a 2 year old should definitely still regularly lay eggs - not as much as a 1 year old, but often.
 
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