Big abdomen

[fatimastic]

My hen is laying but she has this big hard abdomen. Her vent also looks plump. She lays big eggs so is often screaming... she lays once every 3-4 days. She has diarrhea but it is due to extreme hot temperature.
I've lost 1 hen to ascites, 1 to EYP and another to ovarian cancer. All from the same batch. They got respiratory disease when they were young. My roo lost his eye due to coryza.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

She's probably internally laying, or has some other internal problems going on unfortunately. Are your hens higher production breeds?

 

[fatimastic]

She's probably internally laying, or has some other internal problems going on unfortunately. Are your hens higher production breeds?

They aren't... the seller said they are pure Australorp, but when I look at them, they aren't.
Is there anything I can do to stop her internal laying? But the thing is, she actually lays big eggs here and there and her vent isn't dry either.

 

[Chicalina]

That looks like ascites to me. is the bulge filled with fluid?

You can get a sterile syringe and drain it. If it is straw coloured thin liquid, it is ascites. If it looks eggy, then she is internally laying.

Hens can live with ascites for a long time (drained every couple of months). Internal laying needs antibiotics immediately.

Either way you are only treating the symtpoms and extending her life.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They aren't... the seller said they are pure Australorp, but when I look at them, they aren't.
Is there anything I can do to stop her internal laying? But the thing is, she actually lays big eggs here and there and her vent isn't dry either.

Probably not much you can do. Spaying would stop it, but that's not practical in a chicken. I'd follow @Chicalina advice to see if it's fluid or a hard mass.

 

[fatimastic]

That looks like ascites to me. is the bulge filled with fluid?

You can get a sterile syringe and drain it. If it is straw coloured thin liquid, it is ascites. If it looks eggy, then she is internally laying.

Hens can live with ascites for a long time (drained every couple of months). Internal laying needs antibiotics immediately.

Either way you are only treating the symtpoms and extending her life.

That bulge is too hard to be one for ascites.
I have a hen who is internally laying. We were about to take her to get culled twice! Her condition was that bad. But she miraculously survived both times. She still isn't normal and antibiotics have stopped working on her. We can say that she does everything a normal, active healthy hen would do, but just with less energy.

The hen in this post is extremely active and energetic. So much so, I can't really catch her.
My question is, is it really worth extending their life just for the sake of it, when we know they are terminally ill? Shouldn't we just end their suffering instead of when their reproductive issues get the best of them?


Thank you both for your input!!!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We cull if a bird appears to be suffering, or is too sick to recover long term. It depends on your husbandry and how you view your birds.

If a chicken is eating, drinking, and scratching about I let them be until it isn't. A chicken lives in the present.

 

[fatimastic]

We cull if a bird appears to be suffering, or is too sick to recover long term. It depends on your husbandry and how you view your birds.

If a chicken is eating, drinking, and scratching about I let them be until it isn't. A chicken lives in the present.

I raised them since they were chicks and honestly, it hurts me to see their abdomens, to look at their condition getting worse day by day.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I raised them since they were chicks and honestly, it hurts me to see their abdomens, to look at their condition getting worse day by day.

I think you will know when both you and the chicken has had enough. I always believe in quality of life over quantity. Chicken keeping at times is heartbreaking, especially when we have these decisions to make.

 

[fatimastic]

I think you will know when both you and the chicken has had enough. I always believe in quality of life over quantity. Chicken keeping at times is heartbreaking, especially when we have these decisions to make.

I read somewhere that since chickens get attacked by predators, they try not to show their illness to the flock by acting tough.
Don't you think it's also painful for them because due to eggyolks their lungs and heart start taking pressure.

I actually had an extremely dear hen die in my arms on our way to get her culled... her abdomen had gotten so big due to EYP that it started turning purple, but since she was acting fine, I let her be. But now that I look back, she was in pain because she would scream every morning in the egg box and pretend to lay. Little did I know, she was laying, just internally.

So I think they are in pain all along, they just know how to hide it from everyone.