Year old hen with swollen abdomen-what is wrong?

[1 hen and 1 roo]

Just discovered one of our hens (just turned a year old) has a swollen abdomen. It is awfully large. She is kind of panting part of the time. Just put her in some warm water.

She laid an extremely tiny egg (more like the size of a wild bird) several weeks ago. Has laid at least 1 or 2 eggs since then. Seemed fine.

She is kind of looks like she is hovering the ground. She broke her toe nail last night on the roost. I guess she had a hard time getting up on the roost. I did not pick her up last night. Probably would of felt it if I had.

Anyone know what might be wrong.

The abdomen feels like a water balloon with a little give when you push a little on it.

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

IMO it sounds more like an impacted crop. Something is stopping it up and what feels like a water balloon is water in her crop. A gentle massage and a little vegetable oil might help it pass.

 

[Gargoyle]

Agreed, it sounds like impacted crop is the first thing to check out- do a search here, lots of discussion, but basically the consensus is what ibeier2000 said- vegetable oil or olive oil, make sure it doesn't go down the breathing part inside the beak or she could aspirate, (you could use an eye dropper, or soak her favorite treat), then gently massage, starting at the throat and slowly working down.

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

It is her abdomen (underneath her vent opening). I can't see how it would have to do with her crop (throat).

 

[Gargoyle]

in that case she could be egg bound- that can get bad quickly. Read up on it here, I'd rub some olive oil around her vent and perhaps very delicately inside (with a rubber glove, but make sure you don't break the egg!!!). And feeding her some olive oil will still help.

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

Been gone all day to the Poultry show in Rison. Awesome Day.
Her abdomen is larger and firmer. My husband took the olive oil and gently placed it inside the vent area using a glove and did not feel an egg. A good bit of poop came out with his finger. I massaged on the outside and did not feel the shape of an egg either.
She began to walk around and tried to either lay or poop. Nothing came out. She did push again and got a tiny bit of poop out.
Not sure exactly what is wrong at this point.

 

[speckledhen]

It's not her crop, of course. She probably has egg yolk peritonitis and has fluid and infection in her abdomen.


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

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

Thanks, I remember reading through all the pages from your posting a while back. I think it made me cry when I read through it all and I stayed up late going from page to page to page. I kept reading and reading to see if all your efforts paid off or not. I am sorry that you have went through this so much with your birds. I sure hope this is not the beginnings for us.
My husband is looking up egg yolk peritontis on the internet right now. He said he read that it may be because of infective bronchitis. The chickens that we took to the State Fair in Oct of 2011 ended up with a cool weather cold of some sort when they returned but did not have the symtoms of infective bronchitis. We gave all the flock a round of antibiotics. Everyone recovered just fine.
She is not a hatchery bird but the original bloodline did come from a hatchery. Not sure how many generations back. We got her as an egg from Univ of AR.
The antibiotic that we have is expired. Will need to get a fresh one tomorrow. We have her in the house. She is walking tonight and wanted out of the cage. We gave her apple cider vinegar water on Friday night for her to drink. I put her beak in it and she drank it several times. Apple Cider Vinegar has many healing properties. Saturday night my husband put olive oil in the vent and then she pooped a little. I massaged the outside of the abdomen. This morning my husband gave her some romaine lettuce to eat. She ate it well. Tonight when she wanted out of the cage (she is not making the normal coo sounds that Sumatras make), she took a few bites of the lettuce I offered her then began to walk around on the tile (tile is hard for chickens to walk on). She then pooped a good size amount out. She did a couple of other smaller spots of poop as well. I noticed that she had not pooped in the cage she was in. She walked around all over the kitchen and dining room. She looked like she was waddling, but it could be the tile. Her abdomen is still swollen and hard to the touch. We are soaking some stuff that we were told to do along with some other stuff we'll be adding to it tomorrow for her to eat. Someone at the poultry show told us to make this for her to eat. We'll try it. Nothing to lose at this point. I think she is still walking around in the house. I better go check.

It's not her crop, of course. She probably has egg yolk peritonitis and has fluid and infection in her abdomen.


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

 

[speckledhen]

It can start after infectious bronchitis, however, most of the time, it just happens aside from any other issues. My flock has never had any contagious respiratory illness, but I've lost almost every one of my hatchery hens to this, in addition to Olivia you probably read about on the threads-her parents were hatchery birds.

Hens are the only animals who develop spontaneous ovarian cancers like human women so they are studied to find a cure for reproductive cancers in women.

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

There was someone at the Poultry show this weekend that had a hen who had the same similar issues. They discovered that the hen had a tumor in the abdomen area. They said her abdomen was hard and you could feel the egg from the outside. We do not feel the egg at all inside or outside. She is outside today by the kitchen alone in a grassy area. She is eating food (mixed with antibiotics) and drinking (antibiotics in the water) as well as foraging. Still swollen but she is getting her poop out. She is moving around well and beginning to talk a little more than she did. She seems happy as can be.

It can start after infectious bronchitis, however, most of the time, it just happens aside from any other issues. My flock has never had any contagious respiratory illness, but I've lost almost every one of my hatchery hens to this, in addition to Olivia you probably read about on the threads-her parents were hatchery birds.

Hens are the only animals who develop spontaneous ovarian cancers like human women so they are studied to find a cure for reproductive cancers in women.