Lost my first chicken (my fave chicken) maybe water belly - HELP

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

Today my favorite chicken (2.5 year old leghorn) passed away. I noticed her comb was starting to turn purple a bit but other than that she was acting normal so I didn’t worry. She was also having a dirty bum the last month but I’d bathe her and she would be fine. But now I’m thinking maybe she had water belly this past month. Today she took a huge turn for the worse and passed this evening. Today when I went outside she came out with the rest of the hens (I didn’t see how or in what state she was because I not noticed her once she was just standing there in the middle of the yard by herself straining to pass something. I immediately thought egg bound and started treating her for that. After a couple bathes, giving her crushed up tums with a syringe since she was going fast at this point - I started to realize there was no egg and she most likely had water belly. We isolated her inside with a crate and a space heater to keep her warm. She was barely drinking, wasn’t eating, and was completely lethargic. She passed this evening.

I just don’t know if it was water belly. I guess my questions are:

Can water belly look like egg bound?

Why was she straining like she had an egg? Was she trying to pass the water / fluid?

Can water belly cause leakage from the vent / butt area?

I have someone who laid some soft eggs with no hard shell recently - could that have been her? Would water belly cause a calcium deficiency?

Ugh feel defeated I wish I could have saved her but I didn’t recognize the signs until today when it was too late.

RIP my little girl. I’ll miss your funny personality out in the yard.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

I’m sorry for your loss. It’s tough losing favorite hens. As for what she passed from, you may never know unless you perform an autopsy. An egg-bound hen won’t live much longer than three days unless she lays the egg. From your description of your girl, I’m guessing it went on longer than that, and you just couldn’t tell. Don’t beat yourself up about it, hens are masters at hiding disease. Ascites, water belly, could present some of the same symptoms as an egg-bound hen, but hens live longer with it. Was her belly swollen at all, and was she walking funny? She may have been straining to pass an egg, in which case she was egg-bound. Or the ascites may have just progressed too much for her to handle, and she couldn’t lay a normal egg. The third option is that she could have been laying internally, and developed egg yolk peritonitis, an infection where the hen’s egg duct ruptures and they end up laying eggs inside themselves. The soft-shelled eggs are a symptom of that. She wasn’t young, but she wasn’t too old either. It’s quite possible you’ll never know what happened to her, and I’m sorry to tell you that. I know it’s hard to not have closure.

 

[ACluckAboveTheRest]

I’m sorry for your loss. It’s tough losing favorite hens. As for what she passed from, you may never know unless you perform an autopsy. An egg-bound hen won’t live much longer than three days unless she lays the egg. From your description of your girl, I’m guessing it went on longer than that, and you just couldn’t tell. Don’t beat yourself up about it, hens are masters at hiding disease. Ascites, water belly, could present some of the same symptoms as an egg-bound hen, but hens live longer with it. Was her belly swollen at all, and was she walking funny? She may have been straining to pass an egg, in which case she was egg-bound. Or the ascites may have just progressed too much for her to handle, and she couldn’t lay a normal egg. The third option is that she could have been laying internally, and developed egg yolk peritonitis, an infection where the hen’s egg duct ruptures and they end up laying eggs inside themselves. The soft-shelled eggs are a symptom of that. She wasn’t young, but she wasn’t too old either. It’s quite possible you’ll never know what happened to her, and I’m sorry to tell you that. I know it’s hard to not have closure.

Thank you, I guess I’ll soon find out if ther soft shell eggs are no more. I think she could have been laying internally.

Her belly was squishy but not a lot but definitely different than the other hens which led me to think oh water belly but it wasn’t huge like others have described

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Thank you, I guess I’ll soon find out if ther soft shell eggs are no more. I think she could have been laying internally.

Her belly was squishy but not a lot but definitely different than the other hens which led me to think oh water belly but it wasn’t huge like others have described

It’s different from hen to hen, too. Some just can’t survive it long, and they don’t get into the advanced stages of waddling around miserably. Others are fighters, and they basically live until they can’t move anymore. I’ve had both kinds, and they were very different. One hung on until the very last, doing her best to eat and drink, and another died within three days. Sorry, I didn’t mean to take that morbid turn, I’m just saying that every hen is different. The good thing is, laying internally or ascites aren’t contagious, so your other hens can’t catch it from the sick one.

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

Today my favorite chicken (2.5 year old leghorn) passed away. I noticed her comb was starting to turn purple a bit but other than that she was acting normal so I didn’t worry. She was also having a dirty bum the last month but I’d bathe her and she would be fine. But now I’m thinking maybe she had water belly this past month. Today she took a huge turn for the worse and passed this evening. Today when I went outside she came out with the rest of the hens (I didn’t see how or in what state she was because I not noticed her once she was just standing there in the middle of the yard by herself straining to pass something. I immediately thought egg bound and started treating her for that. After a couple bathes, giving her crushed up tums with a syringe since she was going fast at this point - I started to realize there was no egg and she most likely had water belly. We isolated her inside with a crate and a space heater to keep her warm. She was barely drinking, wasn’t eating, and was completely lethargic. She passed this evening.

I just don’t know if it was water belly. I guess my questions are:

Can water belly look like egg bound?

Why was she straining like she had an egg? Was she trying to pass the water / fluid?

Can water belly cause leakage from the vent / butt area?

I have someone who laid some soft eggs with no hard shell recently - could that have been her? Would water belly cause a calcium deficiency?

Ugh feel defeated I wish I could have saved her but I didn’t recognize the signs until today when it was too late.

RIP my little girl. I’ll miss your funny personality out in the yard.

Water belly can appear in hours. It is a symptom. It is something a hen can recover from if the underlying cause is resolved. In this case, the purple comb indicates organ failure. You would have to pinpoint what is causing the organ failure. That in itself is a task. The dirty butt points to a GI tract infection. You then have to figure out which parasite is the culprit. There are worms, fungi, protazoa, bacteria and viruses that can do it. Add to that, leghorns are known to be susceptible to genetic heart and reproductive system failures. Unfortunately, some are not resolvable.

You loved her and she passed quickly. Be grateful for the spark of joy that she brought into your life during her short time.

I am vigilant about exams and very watchful of ailing chooks. Still, a hen will be healthy and thriving one day, I wake up to a lethargic hen & hours later she passes with zero symptoms. I feel inadequate every time, but I usually come to terms with knowing I never had a chance, but I did my best.