Is this water belly ?

[yakitori]

One of my girls has had a bit of a bare bottom for a while, and I finally checked her out today as she’s super skittish and very hard to catch. It is squishy. Does this seem like water belly? She’s very active and doesn’t seem sick in anyway, which was also another reason I didn’t check on this earlier.

 

[Tookie]

Compare her to another hen and that’ll help you tell.
It does look a bit bloated in the first picture.
Any labored breathing? When was her last egg?

 

[yakitori]

Compare her to another hen and that’ll help you tell.
It does look a bit bloated in the first picture.
Any labored breathing? When was her last egg?

She lays daily, it’s hot right now so all the hens are panting, and usually by the time I catch her, she’s also panting Maybe I’ll have to sneak a camera up to the roost.

she’s super active, and lays daily. Her eggs are sometimes kind of odd, sometimes they look like they had a crack through them, and was welded together in the middle. Other times her eggs are slightly flattened on one side. She’s always the first to come for food.

Her belly definitely feels somewhat squishier than all of my other birds, Initially I suspected mites and did a round of ivermectin for everyone, but no one else has a balding belly like she does.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

One of my girls has had a bit of a bare bottom for a while, and I finally checked her out today as she’s super skittish and very hard to catch. It is squishy. Does this seem like water belly? She’s very active and doesn’t seem sick in anyway, which was also another reason I didn’t check on this earlier.

She lays daily

she’s super active, and lays daily. Her eggs are sometimes kind of odd, sometimes they look like they had a crack through them, and was welded together in the middle. Other times her eggs are slightly flattened on one side.

Photos of the eggs?
What do you feed, including treats?

Ascites (Water Belly) (Fluid In the Abdomen) is a Symptom. The abdomen would feel tight like a drum. You describe squishy.

While yes, the abdomen looks a bit distended, it can look like that without feather or fluff coverage.

She's very active, eating/drinking, laying eggs daily.

The eggs you mention, sounds like perhaps you see a mended egg on occasion and a slab sided egg, hard to know without seeing them.

Is she getting to the nesting box on time, is she having to wait to lay an egg, is she stressed or disturbed when laying an egg?

 

[Tookie]

She lays daily, it’s hot right now so all the hens are panting, and usually by the time I catch her, she’s also panting Maybe I’ll have to sneak a camera up to the roost.

she’s super active, and lays daily. Her eggs are sometimes kind of odd, sometimes they look like they had a crack through them, and was welded together in the middle. Other times her eggs are slightly flattened on one side. She’s always the first to come for food.

Her belly definitely feels somewhat squishier than all of my other birds, Initially I suspected mites and did a round of ivermectin for everyone, but no one else has a balding belly like she does.

Ah, panting makes it hard to tell. When she lays down or sits on the roost does her body kinda move a lot?

It’s good she’s acting normal and such. Not sure if the eggs have anything to do with it?

Her abdomen may just be like that and it’s normal for her. Personally I would just closely monitor for now.

 

[Eggcessive]

She does have feather loss, and others may be pecking her feathers out. That can make her belly look more prominent. She also could be pulling her own feathers out if she has some discomfort. Has she started looking like she is going into her yearly molt? It sounds like she doesn’t really have a problem now, since she is eating and running around normally, laying eggs. Hopefully she is just a healthy hen. Hens with reproductive problems or fatty liver disease can develop water belly, but I would not worry now.