debigag
Chirping
- Feb 26, 2016
- 51
- 15
- 56
Help! MY 7year old Buff Orp has an abdomen that is tight as a drum....not squishy with fluid like some of my other (RIP) hens had 2 years ago. She is currently living in my house the last month due to our extreme cold weather. She runs loose when we are there and is in a big dog crate with her food/water when we are at work. She of course was not laying due to short days, but now being in the house with more lights she has been laying again regularly.......usually every other day. Once it was 2 days in a row, bit on average every other or every third day. Eggs are normal through a wee bit smaller than in the past (though she is elderly too now). She has been eating just fine....layer crumbles, black sunflower seed and some cracked corn (small amounts) freeze dried meal worms, daily in a.m. she gets organic spring greens I cut up into bite size pieces (she wastes less if I cut it up). She does eat some table scraps here and there. She did get into a plate and ate about 1/4 or 1/2 ounce of swiss cheese 2 days ago (our visitors at told to not sit a plate on the food with anything on it......the chicken will fight off the dogs to eat whatever it there!). She has been eating fine up until about 24 hours ago. Her abdomen has been tight and full for about 4-5 days now. Last night she came into the living room and just sat down on the rug and did not walk around as usual. She was exhaling through her mouth and kept shaking her head as if trying to dislodge something.....though I could find nothing odd and there is no discoloring or mucus. I made her stay in her cage last night. Normally she roosts on top of the cat tree. She sat in her shaving all night....she was not interested in getting up much or moving around this morning. I did make her get up and I pulled her out of the pen. She made a big sloppy poop on the floor......very smelly as compared to what she normally does. She did peck around at her greens this morning and she was walking around the LR some.....but I did not want that sloppy poop in the house so I sent her back to the pen. (she "goes home" when you tell her to) She laid back down in her corner. She is not breathing like she was last night but her abdomen is so tight. I literally fills like it is full of air. It is not all squishy and fluid mushy. I have had that before. I thought perhaps this evening when I get home, I would try to drain whatever is in her, out. I hate to do that (I have never syringed any of my hens before but I do have the supplies to do so). She is very uncomfortable. Any ideas? My online searches give me every weird disease on the hen planet but the symptoms they give she does not have. I think most of her symptoms are secondary to the discomfort of the bloated tight belly. Again, she is laying....she laid an egg 2 days ago. Please any ideas.....I don't want to lose my girl and I do NOT want her to be in pain or distress.
