Does this look like water belly?

[Jessica241]

Hi everyone! This is Stella- she’s 7 years old and a delaware. I noticed yesterday that it looks like her feathers were dragging, and I thought it was from sitting on a cracked egg or something, but then I went to wash her off this morning and noticed how squishy and swollen her abdomen was. Does this look like water belly to you? It’s not hard so I don’t think it’s a tumor. She has always had issues of laying soft eggs, but I don’t feel like it’s a back up of eggs either? We do have an appointment with a vet this afternoon to check her out, but I wanted to see if this looked familiar to anybody? She’s wet because I had just washed her bottom off.

 

[Eggcessive]

She may have water belly, egg yolk peritonitis, cancer, or fatty liver disease. Those all can cause water belly. I have had a couple of hens who looked like that, had yellow urates in their droppings, who lived a couple of years longer. I never knew which problem they had until I could open them up after death and look at the organs. When yellow fluid comes out when the abdomen is opened, that will confirm water belly (ascites.) I usually don’t try to drain a hen with water belly unless they are having labored breathing, since their is no cure. But it may give temporary relief. Do you have any pictures of her droppings?

 

[Jessica241]

She may have water belly, egg yolk peritonitis, cancer, or fatty liver disease. Those all can cause water belly. I have had a couple of hens who looked like that, had yellow urates in their droppings, who lived a couple of years longer. I never knew which problem they had until I could open them up after death and look at the organs. When yellow fluid comes out when the abdomen is opened, that will confirm water belly (ascites.) I usually don’t try to drain a hen with water belly unless they are having labored breathing, since their is no cure. But it may give temporary relief. Do you have any pictures of her droppings?

Thank you so much for your reply! The vet did some x-rays and ultrasound, and it turns out that she has some sort of mass most likely in her reproductive area that is pushing her gizzard and intestines down, that is what is causing the bulge- I attached a couple pictures for you to see. Unfortunately, my toddler also accidentally stepped on another chickens foot this morning so I had x-ray done of her as well to make sure her foot wasn’t broken and it’s not thank goodness, just swollen. But I attached her x-ray to compare because they are just so different. She’s happy right now and the vet said all the other vitals were good so I’m just gonna let her be, but if she starts to deteriorate quickly, I will not let her suffer.