One of my chickens has water belly. She was so, so miserable and lost the ability to walk because her belly was so huge. I was able to drain her and she's back to seeming perfectly happy. That was about 2 weeks ago.
I know this is just a measure to extend her life and remove discomfort. Reading the internet it seems like she'll likely need to be drained again in 2 to 3 months assuming she is still alive. Here's my problem. In 2 weeks time I'm going away for 6 weeks. There will be a Housesitter living here to take care of the chickens but I can't ask them to go doing operations if she starts to swell up again (these are just Housesitters I found on the internet, they love animals but have no experience at all with chickens).
I'm wondering if I should stick a needle in her again before I leave and try to drain out any fluid that has accumulated, even if there's no outward sign of swelling. Would that be likely to give more time before the next draining was needed? Or is it a bad idea? I'm just worried that she'll swell up while I'm away and spend days in absolute misery before dying.
I know this is just a measure to extend her life and remove discomfort. Reading the internet it seems like she'll likely need to be drained again in 2 to 3 months assuming she is still alive. Here's my problem. In 2 weeks time I'm going away for 6 weeks. There will be a Housesitter living here to take care of the chickens but I can't ask them to go doing operations if she starts to swell up again (these are just Housesitters I found on the internet, they love animals but have no experience at all with chickens).
I'm wondering if I should stick a needle in her again before I leave and try to drain out any fluid that has accumulated, even if there's no outward sign of swelling. Would that be likely to give more time before the next draining was needed? Or is it a bad idea? I'm just worried that she'll swell up while I'm away and spend days in absolute misery before dying.
