(UPDATED PIC LOOK)Hen with hard very large abdomen and bugs on vent Please look and any advice is ne

[ldutch123]

I have searched and searched for the past 2 days on the internet trying to find my answer and what I should do. Yesterday I noticed she looked egg bound. Very hard abdomen. Well when I went to soak her she had tons of light brown colored bugs on her vent. There was also many what appeared to be little sacks on the base of the feathers. I wonder of they are eggs. Well I treated her with dust for mites and fleas and I think that may have relieved her some but we still have the very hard abdomen to deal with. If she was egg bound there would have to be more than one in there because it's that big. She seems a bit labored in breathing but eating and drinking well. And the weirdest thing is she doesn't go to the nest boxes or act like she wants to lay. She waddles and lays around a lot but still is alert. Please any suggestions would be helpful. I don't want her to suffer. Also she is a white leghorn about 2 years old.




THIS IS WHAT WE FOUND UPON NECROPSY. IT IS ALL LIKE A HARDBOILED EGG BUT TONS OF THEM. THERE WAS NO BROKEN EGG COMING OUT OF THE VENT. I IMAGINE THIS IS INTERNAL LAYING AS OPPOSED TO EGG BINDING

 

[CMV]

The lice are going to need to be dealt with. The whole flock and house are going to need to be treated...twice...to kill them all.

If she is very hard and swollen then she may have EYP, which is a pretty nasty infection. Unfortunately hens with EYP don't have a good prognosis. There is usually an underlying health issue that contributes to this problem, and that issue is fatal.

Tell us about her laying history.

 

[ldutch123]

I have 36 girls that free range and lay in the same boxes. I have 3 white leghorns and when they lay the eggs are huge! I don't know if any have been hers because they could be any of the 3 leghorns. Before this I have never noticed a problem with any of the girls. I'm going to try and post a pic. I did treat the house and boxes and even some bathing spots on the property. Also treated a few other hens who had the fleas but not as bad. So would that infection make the abdomen very hard?

 

[CMV]

Yes. Fluid starts to build up inside in response to the infection. Before we jump the gun, though, have you checked her for egg binding?

 

[ldutch123]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/image/view/id/5007321/album/6120847

 

[CMV]

That is a pic of a normal chicken butt.

 

[ldutch123]

I'm trying to post the pics that are in my default folder. They won't show up though. I thought maybe binding but I would say her abdomen is about the size of a baseball maybe a bit bigger. I didn't think if it was binding it would be so large. And if it is binding there has to be more than one egg in there.

Also I'm pretty new to chickens. Only had them for a year now.

 

[CMV]

That is what a normal chicken butt looks like. Who knew that under all those fluffy feathers they had a baseball-looking butt? Ugly, eh? I think you are looking at nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[ldutch123]

That is a pic of a normal chicken butt.

Do you see how stretched it is? It's very hard also. The other girls bottoms are soft this feels like there is a large solid mass in it. The pics aren't very good. It's darn hard to take pics of a chickens bottom. There are three pics there

 

[CMV]

She could have an egg in production. That is what a normal butt looks like. Unfortunately, because of a feather picking issue in my flock last year I got well acquainted with what chicken butts look like under all the feathers.

Is she waddling like a penguin with her tail pointed downward? Is her abdomen (which is the space between her legs and forward) hard and distended? Is she listless, losing weight (you can feel along her keel to see if she is losing weight), but still as round as a drum across her middle? Those are all signs of reproductive problems.