Slow, heavy and walking funny.. Is my chicken sick?

[Dook]

I have a 2yr old layer hen who has been a bit off the last couple of days, she feels very heavy compared to my other girls, walks like she has a ball between her legs and does alot of sitting around. She eats and drinks fine, not sure on droppings as i havent caught her doing any, and i'm not sure who is laying eggs.
Her comb is a bit dark and seems smaller than usual, much smaller compared to the others too.
I lost one of my girls about a month ago too, her bowls had come outside her body, and was so servere she had to be put down.. She was fine that night and acted perfectly fine too, except for the blood..so unexpected, I really don't want to loose another!
Any ideas??
Thanks in advance!

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like she may have egg yolk peritonitis, be laying internally or combination of the two, which is usually the case. You can try to drain her, BUT, and listen to me here, that is only temporary relief. Some will call this ascites, but ascites is not just fluid, but a symptom of infection or system shutdown. Unfortunately, there is no cure for internal laying, it's nearly impossible to fix the egg yolk peritonitis since it's very far advanced if her comb is purple already and both these conditions are chronic.

These threads may be helpful to you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195347

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lks-update-rip-beautiful-reba/50#post_8068877

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ences-on-egg-reproduction-production-necropsy

 

[aoxa]

Sounds like she may have egg yolk peritonitis, be laying internally or combination of the two, which is usually the case. You can try to drain her, BUT, and listen to me here, that is only temporary relief. Some will call this ascites, but ascites is not just fluid, but a symptom of infection or system shutdown. Unfortunately, there is no cure for internal laying, it's nearly impossible to fix the egg yolk peritonitis since it's very far advanced if her comb is purple already and both these conditions are chronic.

These threads may be helpful to you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195347

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lks-update-rip-beautiful-reba/50#post_8068877

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ences-on-egg-reproduction-production-necropsy

I was reading this thread and got distracted (work stuff - blah) and was hoping you would reply. It sounded like internal laying to me.

 

[Dook]

Sounds like she may have egg yolk peritonitis, be laying internally or combination of the two, which is usually the case. You can try to drain her, BUT, and listen to me here, that is only temporary relief. Some will call this ascites, but ascites is not just fluid, but a symptom of infection or system shutdown. Unfortunately, there is no cure for internal laying, it's nearly impossible to fix the egg yolk peritonitis since it's very far advanced if her comb is purple already and both these conditions are chronic.

These threads may be helpful to you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=362422

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=195347

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...lks-update-rip-beautiful-reba/50#post_8068877

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ences-on-egg-reproduction-production-necropsy

Ohhh...

Doesnt sound good at all >.> I think it may be getting worse, she was roaming slowly inside the external pen for quite a while when the others came out for food, she's only just now come out and had a bit of food.
I know there isn't much I can do for her, so.. do you reccommend I get her euthanised? ;___;
It absolutly broke my heart loosing my other girl... Do you think the other had the same thing? But ended up pushing it out along with all her bowels?
And Is it genetic?
We incubated and hatched them ourselves, which is why it's so hard to loose them for me.
To begin with we had 4 hens and a silkie rooster
Then we lost Arnie (my icon pic) when she was only 1 from an unknown sickness, then Charlie only a few weeks ago.. and now Penny is sick. The only birds left in this group will be Imposter and the silkie. (and we also have one other hen, Flomp, who we hatched 6 months later)
I took some photo's to compare her to the others aswell.

Penny is the one on the left, compared to Flomp on the right.


Penny's comb


Flomp's comb


Imposters comb... she sure has a huge comb and she is also the only one who appears to be balding.. is this bad?

andd.. if any one likes silkies, here's our roo man.. (while i have photos rolling) my other half hates him for his annoying crow, but he's too pretty to get rid of!
His name is Rabies! =P

 

[Dook]

Annnd she got worse still, she sat at the back door all day, and did not pass any waste or try to eat anything more, so I got the courage to take her to the vet to be put down ;__; it was the best thing to do.
They checked her over and they were sure she was sufferening from egg peritonitits, as you said. And examined her to be very thin aswell (which I didnt notice due to the mass of feathers and her heavy weight) while I was waiting, she started to bring up fluid aswell.
After they put her to sleep, the vet did a test and found her to be very full of the fluid, I can't remember what he said it was called, but it was due to heart failure.
So either way, this is what had to be done. I was devestated >.> Now we only have two girls left and the roo.

RIP Penny, I will miss you so much. <3

 

[Winterr]

I have a 2yr old layer hen who has been a bit off the last couple of days, she feels very heavy compared to my other girls, walks like she has a ball between her legs and does alot of sitting around. She eats and drinks fine, not sure on droppings as i havent caught her doing any, and i'm not sure who is laying eggs.
Her comb is a bit dark and seems smaller than usual, much smaller compared to the others too.
I lost one of my girls about a month ago too, her bowls had come outside her body, and was so servere she had to be put down.. She was fine that night and acted perfectly fine too, except for the blood..so unexpected, I really don't want to loose another!
Any ideas??
Thanks in advance!

It seems like my chicken has the sane thing. Has your chicken nade any improvements?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It seems like my chicken has the sane thing. Has your chicken nade any improvements?

Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry your hen is having issues.
This thread is from 2012, so the Original Poster may not respond.
If you can start your own thread describing symptoms, what you feed, age of hen along with photos you may get more responses.