Swollen vent and abdomen

[ChickDandy]

I have a one-year-old RIR hen who has been hanging out inside the coop for a couple of days. Last night, I picked her up and noticed that her vent was swollen, maybe slightly prolapsed. Her abdomen also appears distended and feels swollen. She has picked feathers from her abdomen (maybe from discomfort or to relieve heat--she feels warm.)

I bathed her in lukewarm water and felt inside her vent area as far as I could to determine if something was lodged in there. Nothing. Her poops appear normal, although I can tell she's uncomfortable. She waddles and squats. She didn't complain when I prodded around on her belly, and appears to be eating.

Any thoughts about how I can figure out what's going on and help her out? Thanks!

 

[TipsyDog]

I don't know what it is, but I'm bumping it up for you.

 

[valentinebaby]

Take a look at an old page I've copied onto My Page - shows show to work with an egg-bound chick, if that's your problem.

 

[Judy]

She could be eggbound or an internal layer, unfortunately.

 

[ChickDandy]

She has always been a great layer, but I AM worried she might be eggbound. I massaged her abdomen for about 15 minutes. (She loved it and took a nice nap during her spa treatment.) However, I didn't feel anything that was hard. I'm going to give her another sitz bath later today to see if I can get things moving along.

In the meantime, I'm checking the BYC page mentioned for treatment.

Thanks to all!

 

[ChickDandy]

Good news!

This morning I gave my hen another sitz bath and had an oil-filled syringe ready for use. When I checked her with my finger, I could feel the egg--it had moved into a position where I felt pretty confident she could lay it by herself, or I could help if necessary.

I put her in the sitz bath again for a couple of minutes and then she high-tailed it to the nesting box as fast as she could go. Voila! Big egg.

She appears much relieved, but now is definitely prolapsed. I used some honey on her vent and held it in place for a few minutes. Now, she's inside a separate cage in the coop and hopefully she'll heal up in a couple of days to get back to hangin' with the gang.

Thanks for all the support!

 

[Judy]

Great news!

Good thing she likes those sitz baths -- you may have to repeat --

Good luck!