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

[ldutch123]

I compared her to the 2 others like her. Their butts are softer hers is very large. The space where you would feel her breast bone down to her bottom is very large hard and looks stretched. She waddles bad like a penguin. She is VERY heavy also. Her tail is up sometimes and down others. She is shaking her tail a lot and also having a time getting into the coop. Seems like its hard for her to jump and carry the large mass.

I even went so far as to see what it feels like when a Ben is ready to lay to compare this too. I found a girl in the box and she was ready and I could feel the soft area around the vent up into the abdome softly and I could feel where the egg was coming down. It was so different than this poor girl. When I feel her abdomen it feels hot and you can actually see her veins bulging. It's so awful. If it is reproductive issues what should I do and is the any signs of these things before it gets bad like this is? Should I try the baths for egg binding? Also in your opinion does a severe infection cause it is be very hard. Opposed to squishy? I rally do appreciate your help.

 

[ldutch123]

I'm attempting a bath and she has had clear liquid come out of her vent??? And some poop still very enlarged

 

[CMV]

You can try some warm baths and see if she lays, but if she has EYP then there is not much to do other than get her in to a vet. A vet can prescribe some powerful antibiotics to treat this particular episode. As I mentioned before though, the long-term prognosis for hens that have this issue is not good. This is a not uncommon issue in production layers. It is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in the 2 y.o. age range.

Honestly, if you think she has an infection brewing and you think it is related to her reproductive system, the kindest thing you can do for her is to euthanize her. She could go a while with palliative care, but that means routine abdominal drainings, antibiotics as needed...basically constant vigilance and much attention. I would not recommend this course lightly which is why I wanted to be very sure you were sure that she has something very real and serious going on. If she is laying internally or has EYP then it is going to kill her. It is just a matter of time. The question is...how much time and resources do you have to devote to a hen that is likely to die regardless of what you do?

 

[ldutch123]

I gave her a bath now she is drying in a very warm area. I will give her til tomorrow evening. I refuse to have her suffer and from the looks of this it doesn't seem to be an egg binding.

 

[1muttsfan]

I would agree that if her abdomen feels swollen and hard that it it's more likely to be more serious than egg bound. If she stops eating you may not want to wait any longer. Sorry this has come up!

 

[ldutch123]

See updated pics

 

[speckledhen]

I don't believe she is egg bound. Unfortunately, I've been there with many hens. She has egg yolk peritionitis and is laying internally, IMO. I've opened up many hens and found masses of cheesy gunk, which is a combination of egg gunk and solid infection in the oviducts and abdomen. No prevention, no cure, very common in high production hatchery hens.

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

 

[ldutch123]

These hens I received were maybe 2 years old at the time. I'm not really sure. The lady had serious overcrowding and I bought 12 birds from her. This girl we put down today and found the above pics. I just don't want to think my bird is suffering. The bright side of this is......this bird got to come live at my chicken paradise. My girls have a detached garage for a coop equipped with a ceiling fan and tons of roosting space! During the day they run 5 fenced acres with a pond and tons of flower beds to dig through and a chicken mom (me) who feeds them fresh ttreats daily lol. So she got to spend her last 8 months of life in a chicken paradise.

But, I'm worried. Because I have 26, 7 month old girls who have just started laying and they r from a hatchery. Will I be dealing with mass deaths due to this problem. It's very stressful to think that we are getting chickens who won't live very long when we order from a hatchery.

 

[speckledhen]

It really depends on the breeds sometimes, I think. I have two Brahmas from the same hatchery as all the others who died from internal laying. Brahmas are not the first breed you think of for production, so perhaps their genetics are better. My two are over 5 years old and just now, one is showing signs of what I believe is ovarian cancer, not necessarily internal laying, just the way it presented (had one RIR die at a later age of ovarian carcinoma-we know this because we opened her up when she passed on-she almost made it to six years old).

The worst for this malfunction are the sex links and the production reds, followed by the most common hatchery breeds that the farm stores seem to get, like the RIRs, Buff Orps, Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks. This is based on my experience, except for the sexlinks, which comes from experience of others on BYC, as I do not have sex links, just never wanted any.

If you get your birds from good breeders, not just propagators who started with hatchery stock themselves, you may see this much less than with the hatchery stock, but they are by no means completely immune. Even the progeny of my hatchery hens are showing no issues, so if you get away from that first generation hatchery stock, I feel you are slightly stacking odds in your favor. And if you give them the best of care, a good clean environment and good nutrition to build healthy immune systems, all the better. JMHO.

 

[CMV]

I am sorry for your loss.