Hen with a swollen abdomen

[sarahpaige]

My hen has a swollen abdomen. It's very soft and seems to be filled with fluid. Her vent area is very red and crusted with poop. She's been having diarrhea and she's still eating and drinking. Her abdomen and vent area are warm and I'm afraid this means she might have some kind of infection. I thought she may be egg bound, but I stuck my finger up her vent area and could feel nothing. She's had this problem once before and I was able to cure her by giving her canola oil and calcium, but this time none of those things seem to work. I'm afraid she might not last much longer and there are no vet's around here that will see chickens. Any advice?

 

[The Chicken People]

Wash her vent area and get the pooh off! Use vasaline on vent! Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in...

 

[speckledhen]

She may have a buildup of infection/fluid in her abdomen, possibly due to internal laying or an ovarian infection. I just treated two of mine for that symptom (previously, six died from internal laying and one of the two I just treated recovered last year, albeit temporarily). If you do three of four days of heavy penicillin injections (rather than 1/2 cc, use 3/4 cc each day, injected into the breast meat), you may help them drain out that stuff. It may only be a temporary fix, though. Both mine have lost weight, but the excess fluid is gone and they are much more comfortable, eating and drinking, though not laying again. There's not much else you can do. Sometimes, if it's ascites, you can drain them, but if the stuff is built up in there and it's infection, some solidified, draining won't fix it.

 

[sarahpaige]

We have Pen-aqueous penicillan for livestock and it's one cc per 100lbs of animal. What kind of penicillan do you recommend?

 

[speckledhen]

I use Penicillin G Procaine injectible 30,000 units per ml (I think the number is correct).