Hen with squishy, distended abdomen.

When I got home from work today, my husband told me that I have a sick chicken. "She's walking like she has leg problems." So, I went down to take a look at her. She was waddling like a duck, tail down, and not moving very well. I caught her and her abdomen is very squishy and distended. It felt kind of like a mostly-filled water balloon. She appears to have white, chalky feces around her vent. Could not feel an egg with gentle palpation. I'm just not sure if there is something simple I can try to relieve her symptoms, or if I should just put her out of her misery now. I don't believe in dragging things on trying to make them better. I don't want her to suffer unnecessarily. But if it were a simple matter of a warm soak, I could do that. My chickens aren't pets, but that doesn't mean I don't want to help the poor thing if I can do so. Right now she's in a cat carrier in my laundry room. I will most likely put her back in the coop until I figure something out, but thought I'd check here first. Thanks!

Well, I have been looking for other information regarding her symptoms. Nothing sounds very promising, so we have decided to put her down. I will be doing an autopsy afterward to see if I find anything particularly interesting.

Yeah -that doesn't sound good. I would have done the same thing.

Let us know what you find.

Autopsy done. For those of you who are interested, feel free to keep reading. Those who are sensitive to these things might want to stop here. It's OK, I totally understand. It's not for everyone. My DH who is the official head-lopper in the family doesn't like to stay around for dissection. (He'll gut them and cut them up when we're processing them, just doesn't care to hang around for the exploratory cutting.) I can dissect them, but have yet to actually kill one. We make a good team.

Anyway, here is what I found. I drained approx.420 ml of very warm, clear fluid out of her. When I opened her up, I found the sac with approx. another cup of fluid in her. (I can't do the math - not sure how ml translates to oz, but a 16.9 oz bottle of water is 500 ml) Inside the sac were lots of eggs in various stages of development. There was also a yolk-colored substance in there. No shells or anything like that. The largest egg was about 1 1/2" long, and maybe 1/2" or so in diameter. After I removed that sac, I found 2 more walnut-sized fluid filled sacs. Nothing else in them. She also had a slimy, dark orange substance on her gizzard, her intestines and further up into her cavity. It was getting dark so I didn't pull out the heart. I'd satisfied my curiosity by then. I don't believe the orange stuff was fat. It didn't look like any I've ever seen when processing my well-fed roosters. It was darker, and not as thick as fat. It also wasn't exactly attached to things like fat tends to be. I hope that makes some small bit of sense. It's hard to describe and I didn't take pictures. It was getting dark and they wouldn't have turned out well.

bobbi-j said:

Anyway, here is what I found. I drained approx.420 ml of very warm, clear fluid out of her. When I opened her up, I found the sac with approx. another cup of fluid in her. (I can't do the math - not sure how ml translates to oz, but a 16.9 oz bottle of water is 500 ml) Inside the sac were lots of eggs in various stages of development. There was also a yolk-colored substance in there. No shells or anything like that. The largest egg was about 1 1/2" long, and maybe 1/2" or so in diameter. After I removed that sac, I found 2 more walnut-sized fluid filled sacs. Nothing else in them. She also had a slimy, dark orange substance on her gizzard, her intestines and further up into her cavity. It was getting dark so I didn't pull out the heart. I'd satisfied my curiosity by then. I don't believe the orange stuff was fat. It didn't look like any I've ever seen when processing my well-fed roosters. It was darker, and not as thick as fat. It also wasn't exactly attached to things like fat tends to be. I hope that makes some small bit of sense. It's hard to describe and I didn't take pictures. It was getting dark and they wouldn't have turned out well.

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Wow I admire your bravery.

It sounds like this hen had severe internal problems. When you say you drained clear fluid out of her, was it out of organs, crop or body cavity/s?

Thanks for asking - I wasn't very clear on that, was I? I'm quite sure it was in the sac that contained the undeveloped eggs, since that was about where I was sticking the needle in to drain her. This sac was where I found the rest of the fluid when I opened her body cavity. There was no fluid in or around her organs.

Sounds like it was ascites and/or EYP.

-Kathy

casportpony said:

Sounds like it was ascites and/or EYP.

-Kathy

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From what little information I was able to find, I was guessing it might be ascites. What is EYP? I hadn't seen anything on that. I just know that what I read about hens with this condition, people had tried draining the abdomen, and it would work for awhile, then they'd have to do it again and again. I just didn't think it was right to take a chance on having to put her through that.

EYP is egg yolk peritonitis, which I have seen a few of this year and it, as cites or cancer was probably what one of my old hens died from yesterday. Like you, I will be doing a necropsy on her today.

Sorry for your loss, but thanks sooooo much for sharing your story.

-Kathy

Thanks, Kathy. I did figure out what EYP was after I thought about it for a while . What did you find with your hen?