Chicken with water belly. Brown drainage

[gharvey444]

I have a lethargic chicken with water belly. I drained it an she seems more comfortable.I got about 3 cups worth. I am concerned because the liquid was dark brown and not yellow. I was hoping someone could help me with what that indicated.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

I have a lethargic chicken with water belly. I drained it an she seems more comfortable.I got about 3 cups worth. I am concerned because the liquid was dark brown and not yellow. I was hoping someone could help me with what that indicated.

That doesn’t sound good, hopefully somebody that is real knowledgeable on here can help you. Try not to drain too much liquid at once because that can make your chicken go into shock.

 

[TwentyOneChickens]

I have a lethargic chicken with water belly. I drained it an she seems more comfortable.I got about 3 cups worth. I am concerned because the liquid was dark brown and not yellow. I was hoping someone could help me with what that indicated.

I'm pretty sure that means she has Sour Crop. Please do not drain her crop, as that can be very dangerous.
Would you happen to have some miconazole on hand, or could you buy some? Sour Crop is a fungal illness and that should help.

 

[coach723]

I don't know why the liquid was dark brown, it's usually amber colored (I've seen it very light amber to darker amber, but not dark brown). In humans it can be dark from containing bile. Ascites is a symptom of another condition, and draining can make them more comfortable for a time, but it usually will recur since the underlying condition is still there. The fluid is from pulmonary hypertension or from a liver that is failing. It accompanies many conditions, including reproductive problems like cancers, liver disease, and heart failure. The unfortunate truth is that the prognosis for birds that have ascites is usually poor long term, most of the conditions are not really treatable and ultimately terminal. Without veterinary care (and sometimes even with it) it can be difficult to say absolutely what the illness ultimately is until a necropsy is done. In general, I leave them with the flock as long as they are still doing normal chicken things, eating and drinking, and relatively happy. Once they are obviously not feeling well, go off food/water, isolate themselves then I euthanize rather than let them suffer. The fluid can make them very uncomfortable, can make it hard to breathe, hard to walk and roost, and if handled roughly or dropped, or they fall, they can actually rupture in some cases, so be gentle handling her. I'm so sorry, probably not anything you wanted to hear.