Bloated abdominal area and crop - help!

[VTchickenlyfe]

We have had a very hot and humid week here in VT, and noticed today that one of our girls didn’t greet us to be fed this morning. This was odd, since she was acting completely normal (visually, and eating and drinking) yesterday. Today when we brought her inside (we thought maybe heat stress, we had to bring a different lady inside this week to address the heat stress), we were alarmed to notice her abdominal area and crop very swollen and firm. She’s been pooping watery, and a bit yellow (yolky perhaps) poops and I did feel inside her cloaca, so I don’t think she is egg bound.

She is no longer able to stand and clearly isn’t in good shape, closed eyes and falling over. This has come on all quickly we trying to figure out what to do. I think it’s either water belly or egg peritonitis. We going to head to the drug store to get a needle and syringe to hopefully drain her abdomen, but would love to hear any thoughts or feedback folks might have.

Thank you!

 

[azygous]

Let's see if we can confirm if this is ascites or an obstruction. It sounds more like an obstruction to me since the crop is involved.

When you stand the hen up, are her legs far apart? Is the abdominal swelling between and in front of the legs or limited to a swollen pouch just behind the legs and under the vent?

How old is this chicken? Has she been grazing on long stemmed grass? How about grit? Does she have access to it?

Poop. You say it's runny. Is there a lot of fluid dripping onto her butt feathers? Have you noticed any cecal poop lately from this hen? (Cecal is the brown, pudding consistency smelly stuff)

 

[VTchickenlyfe]

Thank you for your reply! We are new chicken owners and inherited them with the purchase of our home, so am not 100% sure of age. I believe they are between 2 and 3 years old.

The bloated area I thought was her abdomen is not pushing her legs out. It definitely seems to be right below her vent, behind her legs. They are not free range so do not have access to super long gross. There is some straw in their run, but that has been there for awhile, so would be surprised if her eating it just became a hobby of hers.

She does have some brown/pudding like remnants on her feathers. But otherwise, her poop is runny and clear or yellow. As for grit, we give them layer pellets, a small helping of scratch, veggies ends from the garden, and have crushed oysters shells available. So perhaps we need to add grit to their diet? They have not had any since we’ve had them (just under a year).

Let's see if we can confirm if this is ascites or an obstruction. It sounds more like an obstruction to me since the crop is involved.

When you stand the hen up, are her legs far apart? Is the abdominal swelling between and in front of the legs or limited to a swollen pouch just behind the legs and under the vent?

How old is this chicken? Has she been grazing on long stemmed grass? How about grit? Does she have access to it?

Poop. You say it's runny. Is there a lot of fluid dripping onto her butt feathers? Have you noticed any cecal poop lately from this hen? (Cecal is the brown, pudding consistency smelly stuff)

Let's see if we can confirm if this is ascites or an obstruction. It sounds more like an obstruction to me since the crop is involved.

When you stand the hen up, are her legs far apart? Is the abdominal swelling between and in front of the legs or limited to a swollen pouch just behind the legs and under the vent?

How old is this chicken? Has she been grazing on long stemmed grass? How about grit? Does she have access to it?

Poop. You say it's runny. Is there a lot of fluid dripping onto her butt feathers? Have you noticed any cecal poop lately from this hen? (Cecal is the brown, pudding consistency smelly stuff)

Let's see if we can confirm if this is ascites or an obstruction. It sounds more like an obstruction to me since the crop is involved.

When you stand the hen up, are her legs far apart? Is the abdominal swelling between and in front of the legs or limited to a swollen pouch just behind the legs and under the vent?

How old is this chicken? Has she been grazing on long stemmed grass? How about grit? Does she have access to it?

Poop. You say it's runny. Is there a lot of fluid dripping onto her butt feathers? Have you noticed any cecal poop lately from this hen? (Cecal is the brown, pudding consistency smelly stuff)

 

[VTchickenlyfe]

Oh shoot, well she just passed. In reading some other forums, it may have been a hernia. We did have one chicken that laid very large eggs, I bet it was her. Hopefully she wasn’t in too much pain for too long before she passed.