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Bluepheonix13255
Chirping
I was sort of worried about underlying conditions. Honestly it's sort of a relief that I'll at least know. Bad as it is, at least she won't have to suffer because of my ignorance. Thank you for letting me know.Sounds like your bird may have ascites aka water belly. This is a symptom of something wrong with the reproductive tract or liver(?), often cancer. Birds with ascites don't recover, but will eventually succumb to whatever underlying condition caused the ascites. You can give antibiotics and see if things will clear up. You can remove fluid from her belly (there's threads and Articles on this site on how to do that). But if it is indeed ascites as a symptom of reproductive issues, odds are very high that she will not improve long term. If this were my bird, I would try to treat her and see if she gets better, if so, I might expect a few more months with her, but either now (if she doesn't respond to treatment) or in a few months (when her belly fills with water again), I would put her down. Basically, with ascites, you know the end is coming, and you have time to say goodbye.
In the short term, you can offer cooked egg yolk or cooked scrambled eggs, or yogurt to try to stimulate her appetite. Also moistened commercial feed (applesauce consistency) can tempt them to eat.
I'm so sorry you and your hen are going through this.