Chicken with hard, swollen abdomen - help!

[mrsdelore]

I already had one chicken like this that I ended up putting down. Her oviduct was FILLED with huge lash eggs. Now I have another one with the same symptoms except I seem to have caught it sooner and several months later, she is still alive but no change to her belly.
In both cases, it seems to be something they developed coming out of molting. My guess is salpingitis and I would further guess it's caused by the same thing that shows up in other hens as bumblefoot.I don't know where that is coming from. Feed is kept dry and clean in a metal garbage can and it's under cover, not out in the weather. Water dishes are elevated and changed often to keep the water clean.

Anyway, the hen's issues/symptoms are:

Enlarged/hard belly/bottom - like from her vent to her legs, not from her legs up to her chest. It has kind of pushed her legs further apart.
Comb - pale and small (about the same as you would see during molt)
Occasional runny poo
Occasional penguin stance, but she also moves around fine. She gets up on the roost, runs around the yard fine. She does not, however, lower down onto her feet when roosting but stays more upright.
Loss of breast muscle mass

She does NOT and has never shown symptoms of - rasping, wheezing, coughing, eye discharge, nasal discharge

On internal exam - I can feel there is *something* filling up her abdominal cavity, but I don't know what or how to get it to pass. I'm assuming lash eggs, but how do I get her to get them out?

We do not have a vet anywhere within a 4-hour radius that treats chickens and as much as I love her, I'm not driving 4 hours.

Treatments so far:
For the better part of the past two months, she's been on oxytetracycline.
Currently, she is off the OTC and I'm working on trying to get some weight on her. She gets two daily meals of oatmeal and mealworms with some vitamins and electrolytes.
Periodic warm water soaks with epsom salt.

What else can I and should I be trying?

Aside from not wanting to lose another hen to this, I'd like to have some clue of what it is and how to prevent it ideally, but at the very least treat it going forward.

Thank you for any insight you can share.

 

[PD-Riverman]

I already had one chicken like this that I ended up putting down. Her oviduct was FILLED with huge lash eggs. Now I have another one with the same symptoms except I seem to have caught it sooner and several months later, she is still alive but no change to her belly.
In both cases, it seems to be something they developed coming out of molting. My guess is salpingitis and I would further guess it's caused by the same thing that shows up in other hens as bumblefoot.I don't know where that is coming from. Feed is kept dry and clean in a metal garbage can and it's under cover, not out in the weather. Water dishes are elevated and changed often to keep the water clean.

Anyway, the hen's issues/symptoms are:

Enlarged/hard belly/bottom - like from her vent to her legs, not from her legs up to her chest. It has kind of pushed her legs further apart.
Comb - pale and small (about the same as you would see during molt)
Occasional runny poo
Occasional penguin stance, but she also moves around fine. She gets up on the roost, runs around the yard fine. She does not, however, lower down onto her feet when roosting but stays more upright.
Loss of breast muscle mass

She does NOT and has never shown symptoms of - rasping, wheezing, coughing, eye discharge, nasal discharge

On internal exam - I can feel there is *something* filling up her abdominal cavity, but I don't know what or how to get it to pass. I'm assuming lash eggs, but how do I get her to get them out?

We do not have a vet anywhere within a 4-hour radius that treats chickens and as much as I love her, I'm not driving 4 hours.

Treatments so far:
For the better part of the past two months, she's been on oxytetracycline.
Currently, she is off the OTC and I'm working on trying to get some weight on her. She gets two daily meals of oatmeal and mealworms with some vitamins and electrolytes.
Periodic warm water soaks with epsom salt.

What else can I and should I be trying?

Aside from not wanting to lose another hen to this, I'd like to have some clue of what it is and how to prevent it ideally, but at the very least treat it going forward.

Thank you for any insight you can share.

If she is extremely egg bound you will NOT be able to get them remove besides a Operation. The oval duct is blocked and all the soaking is not going to do any good. Re-read---I said extreme egg bound. For people that have never seen this I have some "gross" pic some call them----I call them educational pics that I could post if the Moderator says its ok! Just a cut open extreme egg bound hen.

 

[Eggcessive]

Unfortunately, I doubt if anything you do could help her. Internal laying, salpingitis, egg yolk peritonitis are all related. If you could have spayed her or a vet had given her hormone implants early on, she might have lived longer. Antibiotics might help temporarily with salpingitis, but I don't think there is any long term cure. This is such a common problem in many hens. There are some good threads to read about these subjects, especially egg yolk peritonitis. Speckledhen and others have posted a lot on their experience. Sorry that you have dealt with this.

 

[mrsdelore]

Unfortunately, I doubt if anything you do could help her. Internal laying, salpingitis, egg yolk peritonitis are all related. If you could have spayed her or a vet had given her hormone implants early on, she might have lived longer. Antibiotics might help temporarily with salpingitis, but I don't think there is any long term cure. This is such a common problem in many hens. There are some good threads to read about these subjects, especially egg yolk peritonitis. Speckledhen and others have posted a lot on their experience. Sorry that you have dealt with this.

Thanks.
This hen and the one I had to put down in December were both red sex links. I wonder if they are more susceptible for it being bred to be heavy layers? They were the same age and the one that's still alive is about a month shy of 2 years old.

 

[Eggcessive]

From what I have read since joining BYC, the high production hens that hatcheries produce for the public demand, are most likely to suffer from reproductive problems-- egg binding, internal laying, and prolapses. Red sex links, golden comets, hatchery RIR or red production hens are some of those breeds. Bacteria transported up the egg tract from the vent can cause infection leading to some of these problems. The Merck Vet Manual has a number of short articles on many of the rproductive disorders that explain some of these things.

 

[bmaw]

I already had one chicken like this that I ended up putting down. Her oviduct was FILLED with huge lash eggs. Now I have another one with the same symptoms except I seem to have caught it sooner and several months later, she is still alive but no change to her belly.
In both cases, it seems to be something they developed coming out of molting. My guess is salpingitis and I would further guess it's caused by the same thing that shows up in other hens as bumblefoot.I don't know where that is coming from. Feed is kept dry and clean in a metal garbage can and it's under cover, not out in the weather. Water dishes are elevated and changed often to keep the water clean.

Anyway, the hen's issues/symptoms are:

Enlarged/hard belly/bottom - like from her vent to her legs, not from her legs up to her chest. It has kind of pushed her legs further apart.
Comb - pale and small (about the same as you would see during molt)
Occasional runny poo
Occasional penguin stance, but she also moves around fine. She gets up on the roost, runs around the yard fine. She does not, however, lower down onto her feet when roosting but stays more upright.
Loss of breast muscle mass

She does NOT and has never shown symptoms of - rasping, wheezing, coughing, eye discharge, nasal discharge

On internal exam - I can feel there is *something* filling up her abdominal cavity, but I don't know what or how to get it to pass. I'm assuming lash eggs, but how do I get her to get them out?

We do not have a vet anywhere within a 4-hour radius that treats chickens and as much as I love her, I'm not driving 4 hours.

Treatments so far:
For the better part of the past two months, she's been on oxytetracycline.
Currently, she is off the OTC and I'm working on trying to get some weight on her. She gets two daily meals of oatmeal and mealworms with some vitamins and electrolytes.
Periodic warm water soaks with epsom salt.

What else can I and should I be trying?

Aside from not wanting to lose another hen to this, I'd like to have some clue of what it is and how to prevent it ideally, but at the very least treat it going forward.

Thank you for any insight you can share.

I have a 2.5 yo buff orpington who laid enormous eggs October-December 2021, then a raw egg, with scrambled looking egg in December of 2021. She saw a vet and went to the vet hospital, treated with antibiotic and I was told she'd be fine. In February 2022 she began laying lash eggs about 1/month then it escalated in September to weekly. The tip of her comb would turn purple. That month, she got on Oxytetacycline and Meloxicam and emptied a bunch of lash eggs that week. In October, she got a Suprelorin implant and had a rough 2 weeks adjusting but she quit laying lash eggs. She got better until the last 2 weeks when she began drinking more water, i'd see liquid excretions on her roosting tray along with stool, she began losing feathers around her vent and i can see her abdomen is red. The last 4 days she'd had trouble walking up the roost, like her bottom is heavy and it definitely feels more swollen and rock hard. She's not been as interested in chicken food, but still goes for treats. Her comb may be very pale at times. Idk what is in her belly, but I was told the implant would not stop her from passing the lash eggs if they were in there. I thought it may be water belly but everything I read says the abdomen is squishy. She's not laid a normal egg since December 2021.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a 2.5 yo buff orpington who laid enormous eggs October-December 2021, then a raw egg, with scrambled looking egg in December of 2021. She saw a vet and went to the vet hospital, treated with antibiotic and I was told she'd be fine. In February 2022 she began laying lash eggs about 1/month then it escalated in September to weekly. The tip of her comb would turn purple. That month, she got on Oxytetacycline and Meloxicam and emptied a bunch of lash eggs that week. In October, she got a Suprelorin implant and had a rough 2 weeks adjusting but she quit laying lash eggs. She got better until the last 2 weeks when she began drinking more water, i'd see liquid excretions on her roosting tray along with stool, she began losing feathers around her vent and i can see her abdomen is red. The last 4 days she'd had trouble walking up the roost, like her bottom is heavy and it definitely feels more swollen and rock hard. She's not been as interested in chicken food, but still goes for treats. Her comb may be very pale at times. Idk what is in her belly, but I was told the implant would not stop her from passing the lash eggs if they were in there. I thought it may be water belly but everything I read says the abdomen is squishy. She's not laid a normal egg since December 2021.

I'm sorry to hear this, it sounds like your hen is failing.

 

[bmaw]

I already had one chicken like this that I ended up putting down. Her oviduct was FILLED with huge lash eggs. Now I have another one with the same symptoms except I seem to have caught it sooner and several months later, she is still alive but no change to her belly.
In both cases, it seems to be something they developed coming out of molting. My guess is salpingitis and I would further guess it's caused by the same thing that shows up in other hens as bumblefoot.I don't know where that is coming from. Feed is kept dry and clean in a metal garbage can and it's under cover, not out in the weather. Water dishes are elevated and changed often to keep the water clean.

Anyway, the hen's issues/symptoms are:

Enlarged/hard belly/bottom - like from her vent to her legs, not from her legs up to her chest. It has kind of pushed her legs further apart.
Comb - pale and small (about the same as you would see during molt)
Occasional runny poo
Occasional penguin stance, but she also moves around fine. She gets up on the roost, runs around the yard fine. She does not, however, lower down onto her feet when roosting but stays more upright.
Loss of breast muscle mass

She does NOT and has never shown symptoms of - rasping, wheezing, coughing, eye discharge, nasal discharge

On internal exam - I can feel there is *something* filling up her abdominal cavity, but I don't know what or how to get it to pass. I'm assuming lash eggs, but how do I get her to get them out?

We do not have a vet anywhere within a 4-hour radius that treats chickens and as much as I love her, I'm not driving 4 hours.

Treatments so far:
For the better part of the past two months, she's been on oxytetracycline.
Currently, she is off the OTC and I'm working on trying to get some weight on her. She gets two daily meals of oatmeal and mealworms with some vitamins and electrolytes.
Periodic warm water soaks with epsom salt.

What else can I and should I be trying?

Aside from not wanting to lose another hen to this, I'd like to have some clue of what it is and how to prevent it ideally, but at the very least treat it going forward.

Thank you for any insight you can share.

I know this is an old post but I currently have a hen just like this. She had an egg erupt inside her almost a year ago, had antibiotics. Lash eggs came 1/mo in Feb then increased in the fall. Sept/Oct had Oxytetracycline for 5 doses then got a Suprelorin implant. In Nov her belly became enlarged, hard and she has mushy to loose stool. The thing is she's eating better and more social than she has been in months. Any suggestions?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

. Idk what is in her belly, but I was told the implant would not stop her from passing the lash eggs if they were in there. I thought it may be water belly but everything I read says the abdomen is squishy. She's not laid a normal egg since December 2021.

I'm sorry about your hen.
It sounds like she's failing.

While an implant may stop ovulation and can be part of a supportive care plan, it would not be a cure or effective treatment for an underlying condition.

Sadly it sounds like your hen has Salpingitis which is inflammation of the oviduct. If caught very early, antibiotics may help for a period of time but not always.
It does sound like your vet was able to advise you that the implant would not stop the production or the passing of the lash material. It's likely that she has laid those internally if she's not been expelling them from the vent.

Often, the best you can do is keep watch on a hen, see that she's eating/drinking, that you stay on top of parasites (lice/mites/worms), make sure her crop is emptying overnight and address any minor symptoms that arise. Continue to let her chicken with her flock the best she can, enjoy her company and then when it becomes clear that she's in a continual state of decline, kindly let her go.