chicken question

midwest30 · #1 05/19/10, 10:55 AM

We raise backyard chickens and let them free range the yard and pastures by day; they come back to roost by night in their hen house and yard where we close them up. We take a count to be sure every one is home so we notice almost daily if every thing is alright with them. There is one leghorn of six who is having a problem. She is no longer walking around in her normal hen posture but has the posture of a pheasant maybe where her behind is lower to the ground and her back is not parallel to the ground but slopes up. She walks around like this along with the others and eats normally and doesn't seem to be getting sicker. This happened a year ago to another one of the leghorns (or maybe it was this same hen) and after a while, she straightened up to normal posture. This current one has been doing it for almost two weeks now. Any one familiar with what I'm trying to explain? And does anyone know the cause of it?
Thanks,
Bobbi/Wisconsin

Jay27 · #2 05/19/10, 11:21 AM

Check out this thread... Weird thing going on with my hens

Does the hen look like that?

Sadly, no one had an answer.

midwest30 · #3 05/19/10, 07:29 PM

Yes, this link shows it exactly. Sounds like many people have seen this but with various outcomes. If anyone has an answer to this, I sure am curious. Thanks for this link.

silentcrow · #4 05/20/10, 07:14 AM

I just put one down like that 2 days ago. Feel the abdomen, see if it is tight/swollen. Occasionally, a yolk misses the oviduct and will drop into the abdominal cavity. If it's not constant, the body will re-absorb it. If it's constant, there will be a build-up that will cause a continued decline. I'm sure there are other causes, as well.

After putting mine down, I carefully cut her open. She was FULL of yellowish fluid, there were a couple "remnant" yolks in the cavity, and her intestines were covered in small growths/tumors. I don't know if it was cancer, parasites or other disease. Liver and heart looked ok. Keel was crooked, but I don't know if it was genetic or not. The hen was from 2-4 years old.

Not really an answer, but a place to start looking, I suppose. I'm still trying to find intestine pics to see what my hen had going on with the growths.

Cyngbaeld · #5 05/20/10, 09:33 PM

Sorry, I've been offline several days. I just answered on the other thread.

Silentcrow, Lymphoid Leukosis, http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../bc/203603.htm