Disclaimer: I am not a professional. I’m not a vet. I just do research and try to do the best for my chickens. If ever in doubt, take your chickens or livestock to a professional vet.

What is water belly in chickens? Water belly is known as ascites which is an accumulation of fluid in the abdomen/butt area. After doing research I see that there can be a few different reasons for the accumulation of fluid: problems with reproductive, organs and the heart (which is an organ too but can cause it just by itself). These are no longer working properly.

As the fluid accumulates, the poor chickens’ organs get smushed together. I’m not sure on how long a chicken can live with it. Obviously with mine, she lived 2 months when I first noticed it (she is still alive as I’m typing this). In research it looks like a chicken can live with it for months.

One good thing about water belly is that it’s not contagious, other chickens will not catch it.

A couple of months ago I thought our chicken was headed to being egg bound because she was waddling a little. I increased calcium with oyster shell, I gave crushed up tums here and there. Nothing happened with the chicken but her butt kept getting bigger🍑 . Chickens that are egg bound have a huge butt, waddle, and soon look like a literal penguin. 🐧 Their butt is down, their chest is out just like a penguin.

One day I opened the door to the pen, the chicken came waddling out and laid a massive poop in front of me. An egg bound chicken will not be able to poop. My research in water belly became more aggressive, helping me to come up with a plan.

My plan was to get a syringe and needle, suck the fluid out. Needless to say, off to Tractor Supply we went 😁.

I ended up getting an 18 gauge needle and 12cc syringe. I did think the 12cc was TOO small at first. However, it’s what they had in stock. Below you can see it in my hand.

However it worked out with the 12 cc syringe. About time we filled it, the chicken was moving, so the needle was ready to come out anyways.

Below is a picture of a chicken’s butt. This chicken volunteered (not 😂) to have her butt pictured for all the world to see. I just want to show where the vent is and an estimation of where we inserted the shot.

The circle is where you would wipe down with alcohol and insert the needle there

Before we poked the chicken with the needle. We wiped the area on her butt with alcohol. The area is about 3 inches below the vent and about 1 inch to the right. The chicken’s butt will be huge so when you poke it and pull the syringe, you will get fluid quickly.

Once the syringe was full, we emptied it, did another poke and got more fluid out. After the second poke, sucking out fluid, and then pulling the needle out, the chicken was draining on her own which is what you want. Ideally I would have sprayed with with vetericyn spray but I forgot it. So we gave the chicken some food and water, letting her go but I think afterwards she felt insulted.

That night when roosting, I sprayed her with the vetericyn spray.

By the next day her butt looked a little smaller. By the end of that night, her butt looked even smaller and she was able to roost on her own.

During my research, it seems like you will have to do this for the rest of your chickens’ life. I can concur this! It also seems like it’s can be hereditary. We had two sister hens get it. After the first one got it, a second one got it about a year later. It doesn’t matter on breed or age, it’s just something that can happen. For us it was our plymouth barred rocks that were a few years old! The remaining plymouth barred rock hens haven’t had it, hopefully they won’t.

I hope this post helps! Thanks for reading!