large soft red swelling on underside

[endo12]

One of our Buff Orpingtons has a 3 in diameter red warm swelling about 1-2 inches toward the front on her underside. There doesn't seem to be anything inside the swelling. It's very soft. The vent looks open, clean and normal in color. Otherwise she's going after scratch and appears to mix well with the others (doesn't seem sickly). Any idea what the problem is and what I should do?

 

[dawnchick]

There are several possibilities. She should be isolated, probably indoors, and allowed to rest, and observed. Some research on here might give you some better clues. This will give you a bump, anyway.

 

[teach1rusl]

If she's acting normal in her eating, drinking, and pecking about behaviors, and if she laid an egg yesterday or today, I would almost just think a spider bite or something...

With no other symptoms to go on, it's purely guesswork at this point...

 

[endo12]

She's roosted with the others tonight, so I'll pull her out in the morning. She's acted fine all day. The swelling is really a baseball sized boggy sack. It's way posterior to where the crop is, but it sort of has that same kind of feel as sour crop. It's definitely warm and red. Looking at an anatomy chart it seems that it's where the gut should be, but there is no evidence of constipation. A bound egg should be more toward the top, I'd guess.

Absent any other ideas I thought I'd do a warm bath treatment. If I can get to a store to get some gloves I guess I'll try to see if this sac is connected to the vent. The vent looks fine. I can give her some oil orally, also. So I'll keep her inside and see what happens. I can't find anything anywhere on the internet that describes this sort of symptom.

Please let me know if anyone has any other suggestions. (Can't afford vet).

 

[teach1rusl]

Read down through this posting...especially the pic, and Barns 2nd or 3rd comment...he/she listed two possibilities....neither of which I've dealt with. But I sure hope it's not internal laying, because I don't think there's a cure for that????
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=379956

 

[endo12]

Yes, the picture is exactly what we have. This morning she's still doing fine, but I don't know if she's laying. We'll separate her out today and see what we can find out about poo and eggs. The swelling looks quite red.

If anyone has dealt with this, please let me know how they figured it out.

 

[teach1rusl]

Why don't you PM that Barns person and ask them directly????

 

[endo12]

OK, Thanks to BarnsB I now know the swelling is in the GI tract. I can enter it directly from the vent. The hen has been inside now about 24 hours and hasn't pooped, but I did get a little bit of poop out of the sac with gloved finger. Since the sac is swollen/boggy and red it seems like maybe it could have some sort of infection. BarnsB's hen has a hernia and seems to be doing fine. No where can I find any information about GI hernias in chickens. Has anyone heard of this???? Should I treat her with probiotics???? Leave her alone????? Don't know yet if she is laying. Hoping she'll settle down and lay in the box we have her in inside.