My yr old cochin had a red distended belly. The belly was warm and very red with hardly any feathers. I couldn't feel anything hard. It was like a fleshy balloon. It was several days before I took action, and it was walking around normally so I don't think it was egg bound. After looking on here I thought it may be ascites, so I tried to drain the pouch. Nothing came out even after softly squeezing. No blood, liquid, goo. I didn't puncture very deep. When nothing came out, I put some wound cote on it and set her down. She was panting heavily and was suddenly very lethargic. She just sat in the shade panting. After some more research I was afraid she may have something contagious, some kind of leukemia maybe, so I put her in a separate cage with food and water. She initially paced and had increasingly watery white diarrhea. Eventually she settled down and continued to pant. She seemd to be tightening and relaxing her vent. An hour later she was dead. I'm trying to find an avian vet in the area to autopsy and try to find out if it is something more serious that could have been spread to my other chickens. Obviously i did something wrong either way. Any ideas as to what it may be or what I did wrong would be very helpful. I'm worried I may have to cull my whole flock if it was a more serious illness. Thanks!
