Hen with Swollen Abdomen

[thechxwhisperer]

Please help! My hen has a very swollen abdomen and she can't seem to be able to lay an egg! She will try to lay an egg everyday. She is not weak or lethargic or anything! She seems perfectly normal. I don't think she has an egg stuck inside of her,because it is not hard where it is swollen. Also, where it is swollen, all the skn around her feathers is bright red! Please help!

 

[Eggcessive]

Please post a picture of her vent so we know for sure what is happening. She may have a prolapsed vent. Look at these links to see if that is what is happening, and follow instructions:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic.html
http://beautyofbirds.com/Prolapse.htm

 

[thechxwhisperer]

Sorry, I could not get very good pictures.

As you can sort of see, it is very swollen and red.
She definitely does NOT have prolapsed vent. I looked at it and it was perfectly fine.

 

[Eggcessive]

Is it swollen in her lower abdomen? If her belly is swollen and spongy, she could be suffering with internal laying or egg yolk peritonitis, especially if she has not been laying eggs regularly. . It usually occurs in hens over 1 1/2 to 3 years old. Sometimes they will lose weight in their breast area, and fluid can collect in the belly making it look full like a balloon. Here is some info to read again to see if this matches what you are seeing:
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/egg-laying-issues/index.aspx
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/526089/egg-yolk-peritonitis

 

[thechxwhisperer]

I am positive that it is egg yolk peritonitis.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Eggcessive]

I'm sorry to hear that. If you have a vet in your area who treats chickens, they may be able to help her with some good antibiotics. Not a lot can be done for this except to drain fluid occasionally if present, and try to make her comfortable. This is very common in todays high production laying hens unfortunately. There are many threads on BYC about this, and Speckled Hen has a lot of good information.

 

[cafarmgirl]

The symptoms you describe can also be caused by things such as tumors/cancers of the reproductive tract or other organs as well as other disease that affects major organs. All can cause laying to stop and fluid to accumulate in the body cavities. It can be very hard to impossible sometimes to tell exactly what the cause of a swollen belly is. An x-ray and examining some of the fluid, if there is any in there, can go a long way towards a diagnosis.