A few questions about internal layers

[Country4ever]

Am I right in thinking that a little egg-laying can be okay and might even be common, but when it starts to pick up speed and the hen's body can't absorb it, then you start getting things like.....peritonitis? increased internal abdominal pressure?, etc.?
What are the main symptoms? Can you have a perfectly healthy-looking bird with good weight/feathers, etc. but still be an internal layer?
I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my 6 year old Buff Orp.
If I drain her abdomen and she is an internal layer, will I get yellow/green fluid?
Is it possible to internally lay eggs for a couple months before it starts affecting the hen?
Thanks.

 

[speckledhen]

I had one who wasn't laying for eight months, then began to lose weight and become weak. In all, I've lost six to this same ailment. It's sometimes just in their genetics and all the ones Ive lost and are suffering from it now are hatchery girls.

Sometimes, the abdomen is not full of eggs and fluid. Sometimes, it backs up in the oviduct and packs in, layer upon layer like an onion. Most of mine were like that when we opened them up.
Sometimes, you cannot drain the stuff because it's thick and there can be clumps of infection, solidified that you will not get out.

Short of an actual hysterectomy, there is no permanent solution to this. I was told that it's quite common in high-production layers and sometimes is caused when the cloaca becomes " loose" and feces are sucked back into the oviduct, causing an ecoli infection. By the time you know what's happening, it's usually too late. And at the end, their combs and wattles look purplish.

This thread contains some information and clues for you, regarding my hen, Ivy, and Ginger, who are currently in the middle of this.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195347

 

[Country4ever]

Thanks Speckledhen,
I went out to give Lady Marmalade a baking soda flush, thinking maybe she had a crop problem (even though I couldn't even feel her crop), because she had fluid coming out of her mouth.
Maybe I got it down her lungs, but it killed her. The first flush brought up some stuff, but the second one did her in. She died just a minute or 2 after that.
I felt awful. Just awful.
After she was dead, I drained her to see if her abdomen had anything in it, and I got clear, but red fluid out. I'm not sure what that means......maybe it was cancer that caused some ascities? I felt a little better, thinking that it was a worse problem than I had thought. But still.........I feel absolutely awful about causing her death sooner than it needed to be.

I hope she didn't think I was hurting her at the end.