Water belly?

[Wonderling]

My australorp hen (Poppy) has a swollen abdomen and it acting rather lethargic. She doesn't appear to be having any trouble breathing but her poo matches the chicken that had ovarian cancer that had spread to other organs from this: https://the-chicken-chick.com/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive/
But WebMD seems to think I have cancer whenever I get a paper cut or stub my toe so...?

She has been rather stressed by the rooster lately but didn't seem as bothered before since she would just avoid him and do her own thing. It seems like maybe because she isn't feeling well she hides in the coop or just finds a small hole in the bushes to hide in where he can't reach her. She stopped laying about a month ago when we got rid of 2 of our 3 roosters and she wasn't really a fan of the one we kept, or any really. Then she laid 1 soft shell egg about a week ago and that was it.

I got her as a chick from the feed store in Spring 2018 along with my buff orpington (Marigold) who sadly passed away roughly 2 weeks ago from what appeared to be some kind of breathing issues and possibly organ issues though I'm not sure exactly, but it was only her having issues. Poppy now has something that appears to be completely different and again the other hens seem fine. She's only 2 years old, that seems fairly young. Could it be that as laying hens they have shorter lives from laying so much and such large eggs? We let them stop laying in winter so it's less hard on them. Anyone have any insight on this?

My current plan is to keep her comfortable until she passes since we're on lockdown at home, though we do have CO2 and could euthanize her if needed in a quick and rather painless way. She will be buried next to Marigold when the time comes.

 

[grnidone]

Age two is very young. And, it’s spring after winter. I think something else is up.

I’d do the following:

1. Check to ensure she isn’t egg bound.

2. Give her calcium. (Softshell eggs usually mean she needs calcium.)

3. Water belly is a a sloshy like belly. Does she have that? It’s fairly easy to determine.

4. I’d also give her an epsom salt warm bath. Juuuust to see.

 

[Wonderling]

Age two is very young. And, it’s spring after winter. I think something else is up.

I’d do the following:

1. Check to ensure she isn’t egg bound.

2. Give her calcium. (Softshell eggs usually mean she needs calcium.)

3. Water belly is a a sloshy like belly. Does she have that? It’s fairly easy to determine.

4. I’d also give her an epsom salt warm bath. Juuuust to see.

Thanks, I tried to feel for if there was an egg but as far as I could feel she's just full of fluid.
She eats a layer pellet that has calcium in it and has a Oyster Shell available and some mixed in with her pellet feed as well. I'll try to figure out a way to ensure she's getting some.
Her abdomen feels full and firm but squishy like a water balloon, not sloshy though?
I gave her a warm bath to wash the chalky poo off her which she'd got all down her bum, I'll see if I can find the epsome salt for another bath tomorrow.

 

[Wonderling]

I again washed as much of the poo off of her bum feathers as I could for now and while the feathers are wet I can more easily show what I'm looking at here. The whole lower backend is swollen and firm yet squishy, appearing to be full of fluid. I've used a rubber glove with some lube to check in her vent and I didn't feel any kind of egg so as far as I can tell she doesn't seem to be egg bound in that sense, which I figured she would be in worse shape and possibly dead already if that were the case since she seems to have been accumulating fluid over the past week, though I didn't realize at first that's what was happening. I've been watching videos on youtube for how to drain off some of the fluid so she'll be more comfortable and we'll likely try to do that sometime this weekend since it seems like we have little hope for her to have much longer with us either way. The color of the fluid we get out of her will hopefully give us a better idea of what's building up in there.

 

[Suedan]

How are things going for your girl?

 

[Wonderling]

How are things going for your girl?

Not well I'm afraid, I pulled some fluid from her and is appears to be egg yolk peritonitis (EYP) from what I've found and read online but it seems she likely already had an internal infection before she was showing any signs we were aware off. She hasn't really been willing to eat more than a nibble here and there so she has also lost a great deal of weight and has become quite weak. We're going to see about putting her down but with the stay home order and the vets being emergency only we'll probably have to do it at home. We do have a canister of CO2 so we could use that but she's sleeping almost constantly and I was hoping she'd simply pass in her sleep during the night. Though she does appear very tired and weak she doesn't seem to be in pain and only a mildly uncomfortable, I think removing some of the fluid has helped her be a bit more comfortable but sadly is seems there is nothing else we can do for her.

It's heartbreaking to see her like this when just 2 years ago she was just a little chick I brought home from the feed store, even more so that that the Buff Orpington we got with her died in my arms less than a month ago. My husband strongly suggested we not have chickens anymore because we both find it incredibly depressing when they pass away. I'm thinking over if we'll continue keeping chickens or not, we enjoy them but the stress of having to keep tending to sick chickens, along with having to say goodbye to them so soon has made it a bit too much to bare.

 

[Suedan]

I am so very sorry. I truly understand how emotionally devastating the illnesses and loss are. I lost three of my girls in a 12 week time span. After the first loss I was devastated and an emotional disaster. Then I went through it two more times, each time thinking how is it that most people don't go through this, why does this keep happening. It is hard when we can't control the loss and our efforts aren't successful. I really love chickens and I push myself to keep going. BYC has been such a tremendous support to me. Lean on all of us, knowing that we will experience loss but even if only having some of our friends for a short time, it was well worth knowing them for the short time you had. You can keep going, it is sometimes really hard, but the good times in between make up for it.

 

[Wonderling]

I am so very sorry. I truly understand how emotionally devastating the illnesses and loss are. I lost three of my girls in a 12 week time span. After the first loss I was devastated and an emotional disaster. Then I went through it two more times, each time thinking how is it that most people don't go through this, why does this keep happening. It is hard when we can't control the loss and our efforts aren't successful. I really love chickens and I push myself to keep going. BYC has been such a tremendous support to me. Lean on all of us, knowing that we will experience loss but even if only having some of our friends for a short time, it was well worth knowing them for the short time you had. You can keep going, it is sometimes really hard, but the good times in between make up for it.

Thank you, I also get very attached to my pets. As much as it sounds practical to simply cull any sick ones and only have the strong survivors around, I know I could never bring myself to do it. The 3 I have still are nice birds but I think re-homing them sometime in the next couple months will be good. Then I'll take my time to build a coop I really love and checks all the boxes. After that I'll decide when I'm ready and pick up some local free range eggs for hatching and start over. Might be a year or two, we'll see how things go. I'll probably be around BYC for coop ideas and it's always fun to lurk in some of the hatch-along threads.

 

[Fluffyflufffluff]

My australorp hen (Poppy) has a swollen abdomen and it acting rather lethargic. She doesn't appear to be having any trouble breathing but her poo matches the chicken that had ovarian cancer that had spread to other organs from this: https://the-chicken-chick.com/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive/
But WebMD seems to think I have cancer whenever I get a paper cut or stub my toe so...?

She has been rather stressed by the rooster lately but didn't seem as bothered before since she would just avoid him and do her own thing. It seems like maybe because she isn't feeling well she hides in the coop or just finds a small hole in the bushes to hide in where he can't reach her. She stopped laying about a month ago when we got rid of 2 of our 3 roosters and she wasn't really a fan of the one we kept, or any really. Then she laid 1 soft shell egg about a week ago and that was it.

I got her as a chick from the feed store in Spring 2018 along with my buff orpington (Marigold) who sadly passed away roughly 2 weeks ago from what appeared to be some kind of breathing issues and possibly organ issues though I'm not sure exactly, but it was only her having issues. Poppy now has something that appears to be completely different and again the other hens seem fine. She's only 2 years old, that seems fairly young. Could it be that as laying hens they have shorter lives from laying so much and such large eggs? We let them stop laying in winter so it's less hard on them. Anyone have any insight on this?

My current plan is to keep her comfortable until she passes since we're on lockdown at home, though we do have CO2 and could euthanize her if needed in a quick and rather painless way. She will be buried next to Marigold when the time comes.

I hope it's not gonna make it complicated because of the lockdown, I mean, She might need a VET or whatnot. I hope not.

 

[Wonderling]

I hope it's not gonna make it complicated because of the lockdown, I mean, She might need a VET or whatnot. I hope not.

Thanks for the reply, sadly she passed away. Based on the fluid I was able to drain from her, she'd been retaining egg yokes and likely had an internal infection before she showed any signs that we noticed so she went downhill from there. She was a sweet, happy bird but unfortunately it was her time.