Water Belly

[Z_Mom]

I have a 3 year old Rainbow Dixie, she's pretty large. She recently started walking like a penguin, I checked, she is not egg bound. She does not lay often at all. I was thinking water belly since she looks heavy on the bottom end. I tried to drain this morning, I went to the right of the vent and a little lower.
I only got what looked like yellow thick jello. I stopped trying to drain anything. What could that be??? She's eating and drinking but walking like she's squatting with her tail down. Any advice would be great.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Have all of her eggs been normal and hard shelled or has she been having trouble expelling eggs or laying soft shelled eggs?

Drawing out thick yellow material that's the consistency of jello doesn't sound very promising. She may be suffering from Peritonitis or has internally laid, it's hard to know.

You can try giving extra calcium for a few days to see if that helps her expel anything that's in the oviduct, but if she's got material/fluid in the abdomen, then there's likely not a lot you can do.

 

[Ma_37]

I have a 3 year old Rainbow Dixie, she's pretty large. She recently started walking like a penguin, I checked, she is not egg bound. She does not lay often at all. I was thinking water belly since she looks heavy on the bottom end. I tried to drain this morning, I went to the right of the vent and a little lower.
I only got what looked like yellow thick jello. I stopped trying to drain anything. What could that be??? She's eating and drinking but walking like she's squatting with her tail down. Any advice would be great.

I have the same issue with my laying hens. I lost 2 or 3 recently. We made a necropsy on the second one that died because we were curious if it was egg binding. But it is not. The abdomen was thick of yellow layer of fat it looks like.
So when this last one hen had the same issue, I researched again and thought it was water belly and tried to extract the water but like yours, it was like thick jello and unfortunately, she didn't survive either
I will attach some photos and hopefully somebody can help determine what it really is.

 

[Bella the Chicken Lover]

I have the same issue with my laying hens. I lost 2 or 3 recently. We made a necropsy on the second one that died because we were curious if it was egg binding. But it is not. The abdomen was thick of yellow layer of fat it looks like.
So when this last one hen had the same issue, I researched again and thought it was water belly and tried to extract the water but like yours, it was like thick jello and unfortunately, she didn't survive either
I will attach some photos and hopefully somebody can help determine what it really is.

You are very brave to that, I would never be able to

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have the same issue with my laying hens. I lost 2 or 3 recently. We made a necropsy on the second one that died because we were curious if it was egg binding. But it is not. The abdomen was thick of yellow layer of fat it looks like.
So when this last one hen had the same issue, I researched again and thought it was water belly and tried to extract the water but like yours, it was like thick jello and unfortunately, she didn't survive either
I will attach some photos and hopefully somebody can help determine what it really is.

I'm sorry for your loss.

The thick fluid looks like egg yolk or possibly exudes. So I would say Egg Yolk Peritonitis.
Most of the follicles look o.k. but a few are shriveled, so possibly some cancer there.

Hard to see, but was there blood in the cavity when you opened it or perhaps you knicked a vein. Usually there's not much blood at all. I see what may be a blood clot. Did you happen to look at the liver and heart or get photos of those organs?

There is quite a bit of fat too. Look into Fatty Liver disease as well.

I'll tag in @coach723 and @Eggcessive to see if what their thoughts may be as well.

 

[Ma_37]

You are very brave to that, I would never be able to

I didn't cut her myself. I asked my husband to do it and took a deep breath to get courage to check what's really wrong with her. We buried her in the back of our farm. These chickens need decent burials. And it helps with the ecosystem, I guess?

 

[Ma_37]

I'm sorry for your loss.

The thick fluid looks like egg yolk or possibly exudes. So I would say Egg Yolk Peritonitis.
Most of the follicles look o.k. but a few are shriveled, so possibly some cancer there.

Hard to see, but was there blood in the cavity when you opened it or perhaps you knicked a vein. Usually there's not much blood at all. I see what may be a blood clot. Did you happen to look at the liver and heart or get photos of those organs?

There is quite a bit of fat too. Look into Fatty Liver disease as well.

I'll tag in @coach723 and @Eggcessive to see if what their thoughts may be as well.

Thank you for your kind reply. I wasn't able to take photos of the heart and liver but it seems like her liver was bigger than the ordinary. The heart size is okay if I remembered it right.

My husband is the one who cut her because I can't do it myself. These chickens are like pets to me but I need to take the courage to check because I need to know what's causing the swollen abdomens. The jello like fluid was what I extracted from the other hen that died a couple of days ago and this necropsy done was from the previous hen.

Before these two that passed away, there's another hen with the same symptoms. I researched and thought it was egg bound. Did the warm bath with epsom salt and checked on youtube videos on how to check for eggbound eggs inside the vent but no eggs were inside. Checked the swollen abdomen if there's some hardness like eggs before I checked the vents and there are parts that's hard and squishy. The hen died, too
And the same thing happened to this hen that we dissected

After a few weeks, here comes another one. So I went further to research and found the water belly studies. Same symptoms, so I tried to extract but that was when I got the first 2 photos that is like yellow jello. The hen seemed okay after the extraction so I did another extraction after a day or two and the same yellow jello was extracted. She has been on antibiotics and was separated from the flock and it seems like she was doing better until one day, there were flies going after her vent so I went to wash and disinfect the swollen part. It was red and looks like it would pop anytime. She's still looking good. She eats, she drinks electrolytes and loves the live mealworms I give her for treats. That was the last time I saw her alive. The next day, I just found her without life in her cage. And that's the reason why I kept on researching for answers so I would know what to do if this thing happened again.

I might be doing something wrong, I guess.

 

[coach723]

The liquid looks a lot like yolk, so maybe egg peritonitis. The thick layer of fat is an issue. Fat birds are more prone to all kinds of health problems, fatty liver disease, cancers, reproductive problems. While some birds can be genetically prone to building fat deposits, diet is often a contributor. A lot of fat can often look like ascites, the feel is a little different, a fat layer generally feels a bit softer and squishier than ascites, but it can be pretty similar. The penguin stance often indicates a reproductive problem. Look at what you are feeding, and if treats (anything other than feed) is common for them, then I would cut back on that or stop. Scratch grains, corn, sunflower seeds, etc, which they all love, can all contribute to fat deposits. Try to limit those to only occasionally, and in small amounts. An unhealthy liver can look enlarged, pale, spotted, mottled, or harder/firmer/brittler than it should be. Fatty liver disease can cause them to hemorrhage inside and die. If you do a search for fatty liver disease in chickens and look for images, you will find pictures that you can compare with what you saw. Reproductive problems, unfortunately, are not uncommon in birds over the age of two, particularly breeds bred for heavy egg production. I'm very sorry for your losses, it's good that you took a look to try to find out what's going on.

 

[Bella the Chicken Lover]

I didn't cut her myself. I asked my husband to do it and took a deep breath to get courage to check what's really wrong with her. We buried her in the back of our farm. These chickens need decent burials. And it helps with the ecosystem, I guess?

So sorry

 

[Ma_37]

So sorry

Thank you