Need Help! Chicken's Stomach is Large & Hard

[Danielc1234]

Hi,
I've read about the water belly and the eggs being stuck and I am still having a hard time determining what is going on with one of our chickens. She is a Rhode island red.
Quite a while back we had a hurricane and she completely stopped laying eggs. Her feeding habits have remained the same and she seemed to be in overall good health.

Yesterday we noticed her stomach is huge and very hard/tight. I don't know how long she has been this way. We thought it was water belly, and so I used a 18 gauge needle to try and drain her stomach. No fluid/water came out at all, but something that looked like yoke was pulled out. It did not come through the syringe very easy at all. And this even though she hasn't laid an egg in about 8 months.
Where we live there really isn't the type of Vet that works on chickens.

Is there anything else I can do? She still is eating, just walking strange and looks a little labored to breath at times.
Thanks

 

[carriej]

I'm no expert, but a college near me has a ag/vet campus. if u call 1 they are usually able to give good advice.

 

[coach723]

It sounds very much like internal laying or salpingitis (similar conditions, slightly different causes). They both can result in matter building up in the abdomen over time, and can cause a wide, waddling stance as the legs are pushed farther apart. Neither has a good long term prognosis. The matter will continue to build and put pressure on the internal organs, may eventually cause a complete blockage, or serious infection, ascites may develop also, and will eventually be fatal. I generally leave them be as long as they continue to act like a 'normal' chicken, eating, drinking, preening, staying with the flock. When they no longer do those things or are obviously not feeling well, I euthanize. Treatment options are limited, and not very successful the majority of the time, if you want to pursue that I would recommend finding an avian vet to discuss options. Sorry that the news isn't better. Most of mine that have suffered with this have been hatchery RIR's, I'm reluctant to get more of them due to my experience.