Fat belly

[Sfraker]

My one WH hen has a huge belly compared to the others. She had been this way since they started laying last August. She seems fine, gets around well and eats well. She is bottom of the pecking order and was our drakes favorite for a while. We separated her until he started "sharing his interest." That has been fixed for a while now.

When I feel her belly it feels like a fat belly. No lumps, bumps, hard spots, etc

Should I be worried or is it just her shape?

Fat belly

Another duck for comparison

 

[Amiga]

You might consider a vet visit, or you could continue to keep an eye on her. There is something called water belly. I need to see if I can find the reference material for that. It is fluid in the body cavity, and - don't panic, I am not sure I remember correctly - may be related to a heart condition.

Do you have a vet who might take a look?

 

[Sfraker]

Let me read up on water belly and see if the symptoms fit.

 

[Sfraker]

Eek!!! Could we have caused this by giving meal worms as a bedtime treat each night?!
They love them so much and clean up all their feed so I didn't sorry about giving them nightly mealworms. However she doesn't seem to have any symptoms of water belly other than the big belly. She doesn't pant. Her skin is not red. And it's been going on so long she would have passed away if that was the issue.

My other thought is eggs. I don't believe she is egg bound. However one of my ducks lays a double yoke egg 4-5 times a week. Those eggs are huge. I thought it could be her since her belly is so big all the time.

 

[Amiga]

It could well be egg belly, with ducks sometimes the symptoms of something serious can be mimicked by a very common condition. She did look kind of eggnant.

There is something called egg yolk peritonitis, and sometimes there is fluid in the body cavity with that, also.

But with EYP, there is lethargy and just that off look.

I don't think a nightly snack sounds like it could do that…how many mealworms?

 

[Sfraker]

I'm not sure how many worms. We just pour some in their food bowls each night to get them to go in the coop.
If we don't give worms or greens they will all run in the coop, see that they only have feed and run right back out. Lol! Naughty ducks.

No lethargy on her part. She is bossy as ever.

 

[hollys chooks]

Hi, I have no experience with ducks or what can go wrong with them, but I'm wondering if it's a hernia.
I would rule out peritonitis or any type of infection if she is behaving and eating normally and has had it for a while.

 

[JanetMarie]

I have a hen with a fat belly, and from what I can tell it is just that: excess belly fat.

Another hen we recently butchered, because of a behavioral problem, and could not help noticing the excessive amount of belly fat, and fat around her organs, and her liver was almost yellow. Probably fatty liver syndrome, which from researching is caused by eating too many carbohydrates. She also only had grain in her gizzard, even though she was in a free range environment. When she was alive she seemed healthy and was active. I decided to make some changes, and cut most of the corn in all of their food, and am mixing higher portions field peas and wheat, also offering more greens and sprouts when they cannot go outside, but some of the chickens don't like to eat the greens.

Not everything different is an acute disease, but may just be some dietary adjustments.

 

[Sfraker]

I took my girl to the vet today. After X-rays and a tube inserted into her vent the vet determined that she is not getting enough calcium. She is full of eggs with no membrane or shell. The vet was able to remove 20cc of yolk like material from her.

The mass of yolks and white part (I forgot the name) is the size of a grapefruit

They gave her some oxytocin and I am to keep her separated. She is also underweight when you feel her keel bone. So I now have her in a crate with a big bowl of feed, some mealworms and plenty of calcium.
She is chowing down and everyone else is circling the crate full of envy.

 

[Amiga]

Wow! Glad you got her that help! And now we all know this can happen.