1-year old egg layer has water belly. Lost 3-year old just 2 weeks ago to water belly. Can this be connected/spread through the flock?

[counterWULF]

OK, back again needing more help. We discovered one of our youngest egg-laying hens now has water belly. I wanted to find out if this might any way be connected so we can fix things before more and more start dropping. We have 3 generations of hens. The last one with water belly was 3 years old. This new one is only 1. Do a lot of chicken owners deal with water belly from hens of all ages? Is this from poor breeding? Our first 2 batches came in the mail. This youngest generation is from one of our hens and possibly 3 different roosters. So maybe there is some genetic connection through the hen or rooster line? Our 1st gen chickens came from a reputable breeder, but our 2nd year chickens did not. The first gen breeder accidentally allowed his website domain to expire and someone else snatched it up and we didn't realize it until it was too late and we purchased gen 2 from the bad breeder. We had plenty of issues with gen 2 chicks with crossbeak and other sicknesses early on. We were able to save most though. The dying runt from gen 2 is now our biggest fattest hen. Haha! Anyways, please let me know if we need to change or add anything to help prevent water belly in the rest of our egg layers. They all seem too young to be dying off like this. I thought their life expectancy was 5-7 years, and they are only 1-3 years old now. Below is the previous thread from just 2-3 weeks ago where we lost our first hen to water belly. I wanted to start a new thread so this gets more attention.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...f-44-is-sick-please-help-me-save-her.1513579/

 

[coach723]

Water belly, or ascites, is not uncommon and the causes can be varied. The fluid is from a liver that is over taxed or failing usually and that is a symptom of something else. Common causes are various cancers, reproductive infections, internal laying, organ failure (like heart), or fatty liver disease. There are avian virus's that cause cancers that will only be identified by necropsy. Without a necropsy to tell you what the actual cause was, it would just be guessing. Genetics and breeding can be a factor, but any laying hen can have problems. With the exception of heritage breeds that are bred by responsible breeders that are breeding for the standard of the breed and longetivity, most modern birds were bred for heavy egg laying, which causes a higher percentage of problems. Environment, feed, supplemental lighting, all sorts of variables, can also have an impact. The best thing to do is have a bird necropsied to find out what the actual cause of death is. That information can be invaluable in figuring out if you have an issue you can resolve, or if it's more likely just in the birds genetics. I've lost many birds that had ascites, the majority were caused by reproductive cancers or infections.