HELP! Hen swollen as big as a turkey.

[gsim]

Just noticed yest that I have a hen swollen so big that her feet are over twice the normal distance apart. She looks like a meaty on steroids. She has quit eating, but gets around ok. I see a pale yellow oozing from her butt. Tried to coax her to eat a grape with Cascara Sagrada (natural laxative) inside. She refused. Last two days she would not come out in AM until several minutes after the others had. Even my cripple beat her outside by several minutes.

All I know is to try to give her some liquid from an eyedropper. Crop seems normal, but belly and butt are huge. Am going to take some epsom salts and dissolve in water to force feed her from an eyedropper. I do not know what else to do.

Others seem fine, so I do not think it is a disease.

I think that she is going to die.

Gerry

 

[PeakyBeaky]

I'm so sorry...we have a similar problem now too. Is yours maybe egg bound? Have you tried a warm water bath for her bum or done a digital check for a broken egg in her?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Awww, the poor dear! How old is she, what breed? Is she swollen around her abdomen, as if she swallowed a basketball? If so it might be internal laying. My understanding is that it's when something goes wrong with their egg-making apparatus and the eggs fall into their abdominal cavity instead of being laid out their cloaca. That causes swelling & infection. Some folks have success with draining the fluid from the abdomen and treating with antibiotics. I have not.

Do a search on internal laying, try to contact the members who have had successful treatments with their affected hens. I have tried those methods but had no success, and have had to help my old dears Cross The Road.

 

[Chihuahuamom444]

I hope she gets better.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So sorry to hear that about your hen gsim, there is something called ascites where large amounts of fluid accumulates inside of the abdomen which is commonly associated with heart failure, liver, or pulmonary hypertension, you might want to do some research on this, Hope you can help her..

 

[geebs]

try feeding her tumeric... see if that will help her... in her feed.

 

[speckledhen]

This thread may be helpful to you. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

 

[gsim]

Am going to do warm bath and also some castor oil via her mouth for lubrication, using a small plastic syringe. Will also try gentle compression. Not sure about anything really. May be fluid. Her belly feels like a water balloon. I suppose that being egg-bound would also cause fluid buildup?

 

[speckledhen]

I've had only one hen who was eggbound, but no, I don't think fluid would build up over time with egg binding since a hen can die from that fairly quickly. Warm baths and lubrication are for egg binding, but won't help with internal laying/egg peritonitis.

 

[BarefootMom]

Quote:
To me chickens are not worth the money to be taken to a vet. A full grown laying hen only costs about $10-12 and a vet visit alone will cost around $30, not to mention in medicines. Chcikens are livestock, not pets. I have about 30 chickens at this moment and would never consider taking them to the vet. We don't even take our cats and dogs to the vet- only the cows go if there is something terribly wrong-but even then we try to self medicate first before loading them up.