- Aug 2, 2011
- 13
- 2
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I was reading through this old thread and knowing how we chicken people search a symptom thought I could help. So many posters expressed despair that there was no answer for the swollen rear abdomen problem. I have a definitive answer but it is not happy. I lost two hens to this problem: an 18 month barred rock and a 3 yr old araucauna. I had both hens treated by avian vets who explained the problem very clearly and provided answers. There are two very helpful posts in this thread: 1 on 12/29/11 by silkiemama? and the other - one of the last posts in the thread which pictures a necropsy.
The necropsy photos reveal the problem. These hens are probably all suffering from varying stages of egg yolk peritonitis and salpingitis. Sometimes, inexplicably, a hen will lay internally. If the egg remains in the abdomen the body will try to absorb the foreign but very often the body builds up fatty tissue to "protect" the organs from the foreign substance (an autoimmune response) which then can become infected over time. Unfortunately the owner rarely has any indication this is happening until so much infected tissue has built up around the organs that the hen can no longer lay, eat or sometimes even breathe or move. The swollen abdomen is probably a pocket of fluid that has formed around the infected mass. This was the case with my Barred Rock hen who looked exactly like the pictures. She was behaving other wise normally until I noticed the swelling. When I took her in, they aspirated and tested the fluid and did an x-ray. The diagnosis was probable egg-yolk peritonitis/salpingtis.
Sadly, as the poster said on 12/29/11, there is no cure other than culling or surgery, but the vet advised that the surgery was expensive and the hen still might not survive. I had one of my hens put down and the other died on the x-ray table when they anesthetized her. Both necropsies confirmed large masses of "cheesy substance" around the organs, as in the poster's pictures. in the case of my aracauna, limiting the air sacks and lungs. The vets (2 different practices) assured me that since the hens were acting fairly normally they had probably not been in any pain. The aracauna was having difficulty getting up on her roost bar, but that was probably shortness of breath due to constriction of the lungs/air sacs. The vets also said (and Gail Damerow confirms) that this is the most common cause of death among laying hens around or over 2 years old. There is no treatment and early diagnosis difficult. It has nothing to do with the keepers care, it is likely a result of modern breeding practices which have produced hens that lay at an abnormally high rate. Like little machines, they just burn out, and drop an egg internally.
One hopeful note: I now have a 4 yr old New Hampshire Red who may have the same problem, but I was alerted to it before the swelling developed. She was moving slowly, had and became egg bound. We knew this because she dropped a little egg yolk along with her poop. I took her to the vet who removed the egg, (do not try this yourself, you could kill her) put her on an antibiotic and a calcium supplement. She recovered and eventually went to laying fairly normally, but her eggs are very thin shelled and slightly off shape. I give her a calcium supplement every few days and if she ever lays a "rubber" shelled egg I put her back on antibiotics. She has lived another year after the problem started. The Salpinigitis will likely kill her eventually, but in the meantime she has had a great life possibly extended by care. Unfortunately I think once the swelling begins they are too far gone and it is better to cull. My other hens could not be saved. I am so sorry for all the posters going through this - it is heartbreaking to lose a hen. But in this case there is little to be done. Here are some good posts:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html
http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html
The necropsy photos reveal the problem. These hens are probably all suffering from varying stages of egg yolk peritonitis and salpingitis. Sometimes, inexplicably, a hen will lay internally. If the egg remains in the abdomen the body will try to absorb the foreign but very often the body builds up fatty tissue to "protect" the organs from the foreign substance (an autoimmune response) which then can become infected over time. Unfortunately the owner rarely has any indication this is happening until so much infected tissue has built up around the organs that the hen can no longer lay, eat or sometimes even breathe or move. The swollen abdomen is probably a pocket of fluid that has formed around the infected mass. This was the case with my Barred Rock hen who looked exactly like the pictures. She was behaving other wise normally until I noticed the swelling. When I took her in, they aspirated and tested the fluid and did an x-ray. The diagnosis was probable egg-yolk peritonitis/salpingtis.
Sadly, as the poster said on 12/29/11, there is no cure other than culling or surgery, but the vet advised that the surgery was expensive and the hen still might not survive. I had one of my hens put down and the other died on the x-ray table when they anesthetized her. Both necropsies confirmed large masses of "cheesy substance" around the organs, as in the poster's pictures. in the case of my aracauna, limiting the air sacks and lungs. The vets (2 different practices) assured me that since the hens were acting fairly normally they had probably not been in any pain. The aracauna was having difficulty getting up on her roost bar, but that was probably shortness of breath due to constriction of the lungs/air sacs. The vets also said (and Gail Damerow confirms) that this is the most common cause of death among laying hens around or over 2 years old. There is no treatment and early diagnosis difficult. It has nothing to do with the keepers care, it is likely a result of modern breeding practices which have produced hens that lay at an abnormally high rate. Like little machines, they just burn out, and drop an egg internally.
One hopeful note: I now have a 4 yr old New Hampshire Red who may have the same problem, but I was alerted to it before the swelling developed. She was moving slowly, had and became egg bound. We knew this because she dropped a little egg yolk along with her poop. I took her to the vet who removed the egg, (do not try this yourself, you could kill her) put her on an antibiotic and a calcium supplement. She recovered and eventually went to laying fairly normally, but her eggs are very thin shelled and slightly off shape. I give her a calcium supplement every few days and if she ever lays a "rubber" shelled egg I put her back on antibiotics. She has lived another year after the problem started. The Salpinigitis will likely kill her eventually, but in the meantime she has had a great life possibly extended by care. Unfortunately I think once the swelling begins they are too far gone and it is better to cull. My other hens could not be saved. I am so sorry for all the posters going through this - it is heartbreaking to lose a hen. But in this case there is little to be done. Here are some good posts:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/12/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard.html
http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html
