Hi all!
After getting a few more hens 14 days ago, one of the new un's has been odd. Saggy dirty bum and getting listless and VERY heavy. The lady who gave them to me said she had done this before and recovered in her own time and was brewing another 'episode' so to speak when we took them. (The lady could no longer keep them so rehomed them with us.)
THe chicken in question was a bluebelle and did indeed always have a mucky bum. I thought it was something sinister but as she was still eating and scratching about gave her a chance for a while.
Today she wouldn't range and just sat in the same spot in the sun. She would still eat, but nothing else.
I got my friend (I am still a wuss) to dispatch her for me and out of morbid curiosity opened her up for a look
OH. MY. GODS!
Thank goodness we did let her go. I must have drained about a pint of amberish clear liquid from her abdominal cavity!
The following pics show what else I discovered.
The first is what appeared to be lots off shell-less, yolk-less eggs. These bubble eggs could be snipped away and remain intact without leaking. Some were large egg size and some were marble size and everything in between. There were DOZENS of the things
The second pic shows a sack, the size of an orange that contained what can only be described as looking like boiled egg yolk, masses of the stuff.
Neither bubbles nor yolky stuff had any particular odour.
Can anyone tell me if this is indeed an internal layer, or what it is?
Is there anyway I could have saved her? I am assuming that it would have killed her eventually?
What would have caused this?
Any info at all would be most gratefully received