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Hi Everyone,
My hen is feeling very sorry for herself! Her tummy seems quite bloated but she seems quite happy to eat. She does not seem to be egg bound as she is not straining and no prolapse but I did give her some olive oil in her feed yesterday.
Any ideas I would be very grateful for!!
Thanks
Jane

Sounds like she might be crop bound, especially if she is off her food.
It quite often happens when they eat a lot of hay or grass and get the chicken equivalent of a hair ball.
Giving her olive oil is the right thing to do, plus gentle massage of her crop to get it moving again.
Good luck.

ThanksTony. Her crop feels ok and the bloat seems to be further down between her legs. She is not standing up straight and looks like she is sitting down even when walking. She is eating ok, just looks sad!

Hi tessybear,

One of our girls was exactly the way you describe.
She was bloated and walking like john wayne yet still eating well. Later on though, she started to produce unusual poops and her comb and wattles started to go pale.
We believe she had sterile peritonitis, which basically means she's producing eggs (yolks) that are dropping into her abdomen. They do eventually get absorbed but she'll keep producing them.
There are a few things that can be done - the fluid can be removed by inserting a syringe into her abdomen or she can be spayed, but both these options have a risk of infection and/or complications with the anasthetic.
Or you could try keeping her in the dark for most of the day and limiting the amount of protein she eats, (no layers pellets!) this might help her stop laying.
We a lot of read other peoples experiences with this, some hens can go on for years like this with no problems. Unfortunately our girl didn't last very long

What are your hen's poops like? There's a good guide here - http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0 to assess whether there are problems.

Hope your hen will be ok :)

Thanks everyone for your help. Sadly, she died yesterday:(