Hell everyone,
I just want to share with you my experience with my darling bantam cochin frizzle named Munchkin. About a week ago I noticed she wasn't eating very much. She was slow and labored in her walking and I noticed she was breathing heavily. When I picked her up I noticed she had a really messy bottom with matted poop on her feathers etc. So, I separated her from the flock, cleaned her up, administered antibiotics and and kept her warm. After a few days she looked the same. I thought maybe she was being moody/broody since a few of my hens have already began sitting in their boxes trying hatch their eggs.
I returned her to the flock only to find her two days later in really bad shape. She had diarrhea, tail was down, not eating or drinking and her comb looked ashen. That was the last straw! I looked up an Avian specialist in San Diego and brought her in. Her diagnosis was egg yolk peritonitis. Her lower belly was swollen because it was filled with fluid. This cause her breathing difficulty because the belly is so close to the lungs. The condition is not preventable and is only 20 percent curable with treatment. In the end I decided to euthanize Munchkin and end her suffering.
Prior to this, I had never heard of this condition so I wanted to share the symptoms with everyone because I was clueless when looking up what could be wrong with the two year old chicken. I was considering maybe she had worms-thank goodness I didn't administer the Vabazen!
So the symptoms are:
Heavy or labored breathing
Labored walking (because the tummy is close to the legs and is filled with fluid-she is heavier than normal)
Swollen tummy
Diarrhea/messy bottom
Loss of appetite
Listlessness
Comb starts to look sad and droopy
Off by herself etc..
Hope this helps the next person!
In memory of my sweet girl Munchkin.
Sam
. I was really surprised how little information there is about this. It is often misdiagnosed as Egg Bound and sounds like many don't make it. The easiest way to tell the difference is to gently feel the (out) sides of the vent, if she is egg-bound you will be able to feel the hard eggs within. Our story: We recently found one of our girls collapsed and weak in the coop. Her abdomen and vent were swollen. First thought it's an e-coli infection, and contacted our local grange to get antibiotics. Her sister had just started laying, and she was likely due to start too. We figured it was probably related to this, and suspected her to be egg-bound. Tried a warm bath and gentle massage but did feel any eggs, instead the swelling felt spongy. After 5 days giving her SULMET (sulfadimethoxine) and praying, the swelling in her abdomen and vent were still increasing. We were desperate, searching the internet, calling the avian vet, etc and the most helpful thing I came across was this video on youtube, showing a chicken that had all the same symptoms , but had also recovered! Pretty much everything else I had read said the prognosis was poor and to puther in the pot. During the video the speaker holds up a bag of the antibiotic he used to treat his chicken: DURAMYCIN-10 I went back to the grange to get some. Very glad I did, because after only 24 hours she is nearly back to her old self; the swelling is down, she is active and standing more often, even making coos which she had not made for nearly a week! She is still quite lethargic and weak, but I think she is going to make it 
