hen with swollen abdomen... help?

[sandywade]

My black sexlink hen (11 months old) has a very swollen abdomen. She has stopped wanting to walk. She just lays down wherever she is. Yesterday, I gave her a long bath, tried massaging her abdomen, thinking maybe she had an egg stuck. I massaged her vent with some olive oil. Once I drained the water, she put her legs down and stood up. We put her in the run that is attached to the coop. She VERY SLOWLY walked up the ramp into the coop, straight to the nesting box and laid down. She stayed there from 5:30 last night until we brought her out at 10:00 this morning. I don't know what's wrong with her. She isn't eating or drinking. She will perch if we put her up on something, so I know she isn't paralyzed... and she also squirted a large amount of water out of her vent when she was perched up there... I am thinking that was just from the water of the bath? I don't know... I'm new to chickens and feeling very inadequate right now.

 

[Pyxis]

It could be egg yolk peritonitis as a result of internal laying, which unfortunately is common in high production birds like her. There's not really much that you can do for it. Here's some further information: http://beautyofbirds.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html