Hen lethargic with hard belly

[daisychickiemama]

Good morning community,
I have a hen, named Crystal Gayle, that is lethargic, not standing very well, she has still been eating some and drinking some. She’s had poopy butt and she had a bath this morning. I am attaching a picture of her poop. But the biggest thing I’ve noticed besides her energy level is the fact that her stomach is pretty hard, especially around her left leg.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas of what this might be?

 

[alinas2010]

Good morning community,
I have a hen, named Crystal Gayle, that is lethargic, not standing very well, she has still been eating some and drinking some. She’s had poopy butt and she had a bath this morning. I am attaching a picture of her poop. But the biggest thing I’ve noticed besides her energy level is the fact that her stomach is pretty hard, especially around her left leg.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas of what this might be?

Hey I’m so sorry to hear your chicken isn’t doing well. How is she doing tonight?

 

[daisychickiemama]

I put a little B12 in her food earlier and I think she ate a little bit of that. It’s hard to tell though. She’s still alert but not standing up. Sort of using her wings to shuffle herself around. I have her staying in the bathtub in the house in case whatever she has is contagious and I will put her back when she is strong enough. I hope she’s able to recover. I appreciate you asking!

 

[alinas2010]

I put a little B12 in her food earlier and I think she ate a little bit of that. It’s hard to tell though. She’s still alert but not standing up. Sort of using her wings to shuffle herself around. I have her staying in the bathtub in the house in case whatever she has is contagious and I will put her back when she is strong enough. I hope she’s able to recover. I appreciate you asking!

Aw I’m so sorry to hear that. How old is this hen and what breed? When was the last time she laid an egg?

 

[daisychickiemama]

My girls all lay together so I’m not entirely sure when her last egg was laid. But I do believe she is a black Orpington, we adopted her from a friends coworker who was getting rid of his flock, so I’m not certain of her age or many of her details. I have had her for two years now.

 

[alinas2010]

My girls all lay together so I’m not entirely sure when her last egg was laid. But I do believe she is a black Orpington, we adopted her from a friends coworker who was getting rid of his flock, so I’m not certain of her age or many of her details. I have had her for two years now.

With that being said, you may not be able to answer this, but has she had any egg laying issues in the past? Odd shaped eggs, pretending to lay eggs and not really laying, watery egg whites, etc?

What I am getting at is that usually a distended and bulgy feeling abdomen (between the hens legs) points to a reproductive infection or a cancer, which is also fitting with her droppings. Assuming when you say that her belly is hard, we are referring to the same thing, she may have ascites or pus internally building up from these reproductive issues. Can you describe it more? Does it feel like a water balloon? Or is it an actual hard lump? You can post pictures of her if you’d like, that could help.

Unfortunately there isn’t a lot to be done about reproductive infections and cancers of the reproductive tract, but you can try antibiotics. They can bring relief for a while, a few months sometimes. Usually the hen will fall ill again at some point. There is always the chance she won’t respond to antibiotics, too. You have to consider that antibiotics could also throw off her crop flora and cause another problem you have to treat before she feels well. I went through this with my hen and there were a lot of ups and downs. Antibiotics bought her about 5 more months (if I remember correctly) of quality life after we got through the crop issues caused by the treatment. When she became ill again, she didn’t respond to a second course of antibiotics and developed another crop issue at the same time that we now had to deal with. It was very sad to go through with her.

Sorry I’m just rambling now, what I mean to say is that if she does indeed have something like a reproductive infection, there are things you can do to try to treat her, but there aren’t grantees they’ll work. I’m terribly sorry she is going through this. It’s tough to watch and I hope with supportive care she can have some quality days left.