7 month old hen limping and full round soft belly

[oneoftheflock4]

One of my sweet hens has some mystery health symptoms and I could use help diagnosing the issue.

She is 7 months old, and my largest hen from her flock/hatch. Aside from the limp and abdomen swelling, she looks otherwise healthy, with bright red comb and wattle.

The first symptom I noticed was her not putting weight fully on left foot/leg and kind of limping. Also some open mouth breathing after moving about which I figured was maybe from stress of being injured and some pain.

I’ve checked her over a few times in recent days, palpated around her leg and foot and hips to see if she would let me know where it hurt and she didn’t respond at all.

So I’ve just been keeping an eye on her and her symptoms.

This morning realized I haven’t seen her in the nest box the past couple of days, though she may have laid while I wasn’t out there. They had some eggs collecting in the nest and I wasn’t keeping daily track so hard to know if she has laid or not these days. Cleared the nest today and will start tracking forward.

This morning she seemed like she was waddling a bit and looked full in her belly. So I picked her up and checked out her belly and vent. Her vent looks clean and normal from outside. Her belly however seems very full, round, soft, squishy, and is pink. It otherwise looks clean and skin healthy, though I’ll try and get a better look later.

I’ve moved her into a ‘hospital’ crate with clean bedding, herbs, water with acv, and some greens to nibble while I try and figure out what’s going on and limit her stress and jumping around.

Here are a couple photos of how she’s standing on her foot, kind of standing on her tip toes, and another showing a pouch under her abdomen. Don’t have an up close photo of her belly but will try to get one later. I picked up a couple other hens and felt their bellies for comparison and they all seemed empty comparatively. Hers feels like a big squishy water balloon and I’m worried.
Anyone have ideas for figuring out what is wrong and how to help her?

Thanks all for reading and any help.

Update:

Going to try a gentle massage of her abdomen and give her some yogurt for a boost of probiotics and calcium in case of egg bound, and check on her again before bed.

I read that searching for a stuck egg inside their cloaca might be needed to diagnose, but really don’t want to put her through this… has anyone had to do this with their hen? Did it go okay? Could you easy feel the egg?

 

[Eggcessive]

I usually keep my sick chickens with their flock, unless they are being picked on or bullied. A wire dog crate with food and water is good if she needs to be separated for observation, but being kept close to the others would probably make her happier. What do her droppings look like? Does she have any yellow urates in her droppings? Those may be common in fatty liver disease or water belly. It also can occur with egg yolk peritonitis. Is she eating okay? What do you feed her? If you suspect her of being egg bound, you could give her a human calcium tablet with vitamin D today.

 

[oneoftheflock4]

I usually keep my sick chickens with their flock, unless they are being picked on or bullied. A wire dog crate with food and water is good if she needs to be separated for observation, but being kept close to the others would probably make her happier. What do her droppings look like? Does she have any yellow urates in her droppings? Those may be common in fatty liver disease or water belly. It also can occur with egg yolk peritonitis. Is she eating okay? What do you feed her? If you suspect her of being egg bound, you could give her a human calcium tablet with vitamin D today.

Thanks for your reply and advice. She is in a crate inside the coop so still near her flock mates. She seemed to appreciate the space, doesn’t seem stressed about it. A couple of the hens have had little retreats in the carrier themselves and they all seem kind of fond of it now, lol. Her flock mates were rallied around her in the crate and all seemed okay when I last checked.

I did notice earlier one of the hens was pecking at her a bit, but mostly just want her in a space to better monitor and care for her and limit her activity and potentially hurting herself more.

Haven’t caught her poop since this started but with her in the crate can keep an eye on this.

They eat a mix diet of layer pellets, vegetable/fruit scraps, meal worms, grit, oyster shells, and other supplemental food treats.

Thanks for the idea about the calcium supplement. I’ll keep that in mind if it does seem that she is egg bound.

Oh and yeah, she still seems interested in food.

 

[oneoftheflock4]

Thanks for your reply and advice. She is in a crate inside the coop so still near her flock mates. She seemed to appreciate the space, doesn’t seem stressed about it. A couple of the hens have had little retreats in the carrier themselves and they all seem kind of fond of it now, lol. Her flock mates were rallied around her in the crate and all seemed okay when I last checked.

I did notice earlier one of the hens was pecking at her a bit, but mostly just want her in a space to better monitor and care for her and limit her activity and potentially hurting herself more.

Haven’t caught her poop since this started but with her in the crate can keep an eye on this.

They eat a mix diet of layer pellets, vegetable/fruit scraps, meal worms, grit, oyster shells, and occasional other food treats.

I wonder if they have access to too many calories and maybe she’s been eating a bit more aggressively, maybe overweight. I’ll feel her chest later and evaluate for bone and muscle vs fat.

Another factor is they have been more limited on free ranging access lately so lack of exercise may be a factor. This is hopefully changing next week. There is space to move around and explore and dust bathe in the coop but not as great as running around outside.

Thanks for the idea about the calcium supplement. I’ll keep that in mind if it does seem that she is egg bound.

Oh and yeah, she still seems interested in food.

Another update:
Massaged and felt around outside her abdomen more closely and the distension feels about the size of two full eggs, so egg bound might be the issue… after a gentle massage gave her some yogurt and egg. If there isn’t a change in a couple hours, I might try giving her a soak next.

She hasn’t pooped yet in the crate.

 

[Eggcessive]

Egg bound hens cannot poop. If she seems very weak, a soak may not be so good or could be dangerous, but if she seems strong, then she might enjoy it. Let us know how she is tomorrow.

 

[oneoftheflock4]

Egg bound hens cannot poop. If she seems very weak, a soak may not be so good or could be dangerous, but if she seems strong, then she might enjoy it. Let us know how she is tomorrow.

Thanks, and chickens poop a lot, so if she doesn’t poop in the next couple hours, I’d think that supports an egg bound situation, yeah?

She has this limp happening with her left leg but otherwise doesn’t seem weak, just uncomfortable.

Wonder if maybe she sprained something the other day and then got egg bound on top of that…

I’ll do my best to help her through this and will update tomorrow.

Thanks again!

 

[oneoftheflock4]

Latest update:

Poor girl hadn’t passed an egg by the evening or pooped, so last night tried an epsom soak and more abdomen massage. After a half hour or so she did pass one egg (progress!) but which seemed to break on exit followed by a bit of broken misshapen shell. Nervous about this for her but it seemed all or most of the egg did make it out, so hopefully will be okay.

Unfortunately as of next day afternoon, she is still limping, no signs of poop yet, and think she may still have another egg stuck. I've had her crated comfortably, gave her more high calcium food this morning, and giving her some space to see if she can naturally make progress today.

I read online somewhere that the limping could be due to a bound egg pressing on a nerve and causing lameness. Fyi if anyone else out there has a hen with these symptoms...

Planning to try another soak and more massage and intervention this evening if needed.

Will keep an eye out here for potential advice, and update again, probably tomorrow.

 

[oneoftheflock4]

Good news...

Yesterday evening she was back to pooping, and this morning laid a normal looking egg

Her underbelly still seems large though and she still has a limp, so will be continuing to crate with tlc and monitor for now.

Hopeful she is on the mend

 

[Eggcessive]

So glad that she passed the 2 eggs and is now pooping. That seems like a classic case of being eggbound, and having a second egg is rather common too. I would repeat the calcium for a total of 7 days. Did the second egg break as it came out , and did the egg possibly have a tail on it? Misshapen eggs with a tail can be common. If the egg broke inside, you might want to treat her with some antibiotics such as amoxicillin. Amoxicilin is difficult to get anymore. The only one I can find is here:
https://birdpalproducts.com/product...W9SE4aL3t077yB_kHCELL2ue6qspX2h4ANY5rqM-LXikL