Swollen belly; 1 year old maran hen...

I am trying to diagnose the problem with a hen of mine. Swollen rear, beneath vent. Vent itself looks fine, but belly is quite swollen, and area skin is red, indicating infection maybe? She carries on as usual, does not act sick or in pain at all. She has not layed for around one week. I do not feel any eggs in the swollen area.
What else should I look for, or do?

KatuskiFarms wrote:I am trying to diagnose the problem with a hen of mine. Swollen rear, beneath vent. Vent itself looks fine, but belly is quite swollen, and area skin is red, indicating infection maybe? She carries on as usual, does not act sick or in pain at all. She has not layed for around one week. I do not feel any eggs in the swollen area.
What else should I look for, or do?

It's hard to say without a picture of the hen. Last time I had a hen with a swollen rear like you're describing, the vet told me she most likely had a cystic ovary. She acted perfectly fine for about two weeks, just didn't lay any eggs. Then she suddenly went into distress and died the next day. This is what the vet told me to expect, and I was ready to cull her except she died so fast.

Here is a picture of the hen I had this happen to.

Oh sigh. I had a hen that I dispatched a couple of weeks ago. A three year old buff orpington, one of the last of my hatchery stock I had from my beginnings in my adventure of raising heritage. Sigh. She was a sweetie pie, laid the biggest eggs in her day. She had a poopy rear end some time ago, I cleaned her up really nice and she looked good. She eventually regressed and got that swollen back end, lost the feathers. So many things that it could have been, but I didn't do much, just a little lazy I guess. Her feathers eventually grew back and she looked kind of normal. Well, the feathered look was normal, but she got very splayed with the legs. Her legs grew wider and wider apart, until she looked like a duck. THis was over a period of about 2 months. She got to the point where she was still eating, everything in a normal manner (but never laid an egg since the messed up rear end I cleaned up)but was beginning to have trouble to even get into her hen house. Not good, she was having difficulty getting over things. That time came. I had read many things, and the thing that mostly stuck out in my mind was that she had an ovarian cyst or two or three, or whatever. That is why her legs became more and more spread apart. I did the deed, cried that big cry of course, and broke her neck. Instant death. She was heavy, I was shocked so heavy, so I think that for sure she had some massive cysts in there that weighed so much. No wonder that poor hen could barely get over things. Picture a mid sized hen packing around two grapefruits stuck inside the bottom of her belly. Well, I never did the autopsy, but I can bet my bottom dollar that is what it was and that is why it became more worse and worse as the time went on. I think your hen has an ovarian cyst. I am going to try and find a post that was made by Harrop'shens that may have some other information for you to find out about. Hold on. Gonna go and see if I can find it. This is it, there is a lot of information about things that are going on “downthere” with the chooks. Hope you find resolution and with that have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Yes, I was jogging my memory and this hen of mine also had a whitish, poopy rear. I must have cleaned her up a month ago and she has looked good since as far as that goes, just like you were saying Cynthia. Oh man!
I was reading last night that a few diseases can cause yolk peritonitis, and this has similar symptoms. I will watch closely next few days before I figure out what the next step should be. I have her seperated from the rest incase it is enteritis or something!

Hmm...thought I put the post in that Harrop's hens had some time ago, April, but here it is, read up, there is some good information on what things could be going on, have that great day, CynthiaM

https://wcps.canadian-forum.com/t3729p15-swollen-backend-on-my-bcm-hen#33442