Swollen backend on my BCM hen

thank you Cynthia for posting about vent gleet! I have one just today come down with this, washed her down tonight but now I have a game plan for the morning. Just a note about the baytril reccomendation above... my veterinarian looked up baytril and found that it goes straight to the egg production centre so that if you treat a laying hen with it you can never use her eggs again.

Baytril is a very heavy duty drug and should not be used willy nilly. We tend to use antibotics to much with thinking about the consequences.

Heather

Harrop's Hens, what happened with the hen? Is she recovered and doing well? What do you think it really was. Have a most wonderful day, CynthiaM.

She is doing very well, thanks for asking Cynthia. All the swelling is gone and some of her feathers are starting to regrow. It is a complete mystery! I think it might have been an infection of some kind that ran it's course and disappeared. She still isn't laying eggs but then again half of my hens are on strike right now too!

Sorry it took so long to return. I just started a full-time job filling in for a friend and life has turned completely upside down!

I have had a hen do the same.. I thought it was egg bound but am pretty sure it wasn't.. I gave her a butt bath, but it didn't seem to help.. I just left her for a few days and it cleared up.. I just had to put an egg bound hen down a few days ago though.. .. Sometimes they recover and sometimes not.. Life and death.. the balance on a farm..

Well this girl is growing her feathers back finally and looking really good! I have no idea what she had but I have a couple others with it now too. It seems to come and go.

Hope she starts laying again!!

Hmm, weird, I thought I added to this, but maybe it was a different thread about something similar. Jen, I had a buff orpington gal, one of my three year old ones, who had this kind of thing happen. She cleared up, her feathers grew back, but....this was weird. As time went on, she seemed healthy as could be, but her legs became splayed. Hmmm..hard to describe. She still had a very soft and big belly, but looked good. As time went on her legs became more spread apart, she looked like a duck. She got to the point where this area became larger and larger, soft feeling. She still was not ill, but never laid an egg again. Time came and went and still, getting worse with the splayed leg thing. It was like something was pushing the legs apart. She finally got to the point where she had great difficulty getting into her hen house. I let her go to, what I hope, is a nice place. I could see no other option for her. She is happy now I believe, with no issue of jumping and getting around. When I picked her up on that last day, I was shocked beyond shocked at the weight of her. She was not fat, and we know fat weighs little. She was probably double the weight that a bird of her size should have been. I personally, after having done some research, think she had an ovarian cyst, or many. This would cause the pushing out of her legs as the cysts grew and the gained weight too, me thinks. Not sure, but I think that is what she had. I think that they might even have been the size of a softball or two or three, who knows. If I had the guts or gumption, I would have taken her apart and looked inside, but I don't. Watch for gained weight and legs that get pushed sideways, like there is something in that belly below to push the legs apart. Just something that I saw and have a little experience with. Nice to hear that the hen is doing well. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM. She never laid an egg after the first notice of a very dirty back end, which I had cleaned up very nicely.