What is ascites in chickens

This puts a normal heart and lungs under stress to deliver enough oxygen. Add in a fast growing bird with higher oxygen demands and the incidence of water belly rises. Respiratory diseases can cause ascites in birds. A respiratory disease will decrease the effectiveness of the lungs. They will cause the lungs to struggle to get ample oxygen to the organs. A prolonged bout of respiratory disease can easily turn into a respiratory disease and a case of water belly in chickens.

Ascites may also be caused by poor nutrition or genetics. Some birds may be genetically predisposed to develop water belly. They may have hearts and lungs that are not as strong and struggle to deliver oxygen.

Some studies show that certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies can lead to water belly in chickens. Water belly in chickens is easier to prevent than it is to treat. If you live where the oxygen is thin, you may have issues with water belly developing in your chickens. The coop or barn where the chickens are should be well ventilated. Clean, fresh air will help reduce the amount of bacteria or viruses that will cause respiratory disease. Use a flaked bedding, not a fine bedding.

Always make sure that your chickens have access to clean food and water at all times. Remove stagnant water. Moldy feed can cause illness. Ensure that your chickens are getting a properly balanced diet that is intended for chickens. One of the reasons that meat chickens develop water belly is due to their rapid growth.

You can slow the growth to reduce ascites. Even a slight reduction in growth will decrease the incidents of water belly in your flock. You can reduce the amount of growth by either providing a feed with a smaller amount of energy or by reducing the amount of feed. Chickens that are provided with a constant supply of feed may develop ascites. If your flock is developing water belly, you can reduce the total amount of feed that they are given.

Unfortunately, ascites is hard to treat. There is not a permanent solution that is approved to treat water belly. However, there are some methods that have promising results that are being researched that you could try.

If you have a bird that develops ascites, you may want to try some of these natural cures for water belly. When you call your veterinarian about water belly in chickens, they are likely to tell you that they can drain the fluid from the swollen abdomen in chickens with water belly. They can use a needle and syringe to remove the build up of fluid from the liver. Keep in mind that while this will make the bird more comfortable, it is not a permanent solution. It must also be repeated as the fluid will continue to build up.

However, there are some natural treatments that are being researched that are showing promise. If you find yourself with a bird that has water belly, you may want to try one or some of these treatments and cure it. Oregano may be a treatment for ascites. Oregano essential oil may be a treatment for ascites in birds. It may be a good idea to feed birds that could develop ascites oregano as a precaution. Vitamin C has been shown to reduce the incidents of water belly.

It may be another possible treatment for ascites in chickens. This study using broiler birds indicates that supplementation of Vitamin C greatly reduced both the cases of ascites and the number of deaths from ascites. Ascites Overview from MyPetChicken. Ascites Syndrome in Poultry. Feeding to Reduce Ascites in Poultry. A few chickens that are caught early can have the ascites remedied. Birds with fairly advanced ascites may not truly recover. Some that are treated by having the fluid removed can live up to several months but generally in a deteriorating condition.

Ascites is not a disease or infection, so the meat is safe to eat. Monitor birds with rapid growth rates, such as Cornish crosses or other meat type chickens. Reduce feedings if necessary. Make sure the birds always have access to fresh water and feed. Remove old feed or feed that is wet.

Good ventilation will help keep respiratory disease at bay. Pine flakes are a good option. I believe my girls were all genetically predisposed to ascites. I have my last Leghorn that has gone down with it. I will drain her in the next day or two.

None have survived this awful condition. I would mention it to the store that you bought them from. They may want to mention it to their chick supplier. Ascites is no fun at all. Let me know if the last one pulls through! I have a five year old black sex link named Melissa.

She currently is having her fourth bout of water belly. I am treating it by using a syringe and withdrawing fluid. Mostly the fluid is pale yellow but while I was gone for three weeks, it was reported it had gone green. This chicken is a champ. She is out right now with the flock, being active, tail high and acting the boss. But she has swollen again and in need of another withdrawal of fluids. The withdrawal has sent her into respiratory distress before and in general, respiratory is one of the signs that she is also not feeling well.

The purple comb, and some wheezing or gasping. However, since she is so dedicated to joyful living we have to help her! How much is a safe amount? Nine hundred day-old Cobb male broiler chicks were divided into three groups.

The birds were fed a corn-soybean meal diet. The negative control group diet contained no feed additives while the diet of the positive control group was supplemented with an antibiotic growth promoter AGP. The duration of the trial was 46 days. The weight of the birds was recorded on days 14, 35, 42 and Mortality and observations of the birds for abnormalities diarrhea, depression, immobility were carried out daily.

The trial was conducted on a commercial broiler farm 2, metres above sea level in Bolivia. The birds were vaccinated against Newcastle, infectious bronchitis and infectious bursal disease.

Ascites incidence was characterized by clinical signs and mortality rates. The incidence of ascites was confirmed by post-mortem examination. For the initial 42 days, the broilers did not show any obvious clinical signs of ascites, even though on day 35 mortality rates were recorded in the negative control, positive control and acidifier groups as 2.

On day 42, an outbreak of ascites was observed on the broiler farm with typical ascitic symptoms such as gasping, cyanotic combs and wattles, depression, extended abdomens. Mortality rates increased up to 7. In the acidifier group, the mortality rate increased Necropsy of the dead birds revealed the characteristic lesions of ascites.

Amber or clear fluid lymph was found in the abdominal cavity, hearts were enlarged with fluid in the pericardium the sac surrounding the heart , livers were swollen and congested and sometimes with fibrin adhered to their surface, and lungs were pale or grayish.

By the end of week seven, the mortality in the negative control and positive control groups reached This trial result demonstrated that diet supplementation with this acidifier represents a solution to alleviate the effect of ascites. In this study, ascites could be attributed to a microbial cause, most probably Salmonella sp.

The genetic cause of ascites herein might be excluded, since the growth of the broilers was much lower compared with the standard growth performance of Cobb Because Ascites is basically a disease of right ventricle failure and hypertension, the chicken or duck will become listless, and look unwell.

As the heart failure progresses, the liver begins to malfunction and release protein filled fluid into the abdomen. For more in depth details about the pathogenesis and epidemiology of ascites in chickens and duck, refer to the Merck Veterinary Manual. The general signs of illness in poultry may be present, pale comb and wattles, dull eyes, unsteady gait, or sitting and walking in an unusual manner.

Ascites in chickens and ducks there is no risk of contagion as there is in other deadly poultry diseases. If the bird is happy and content in the coop, you do not need to isolate while treating.

Once the bird is suffering from heart failure, reversing the damage is next to impossible. However, it is possible to keep the chicken or duck comfortable and happy. Please note that I am not a veterinarian. The procedure I have used on chickens in my flock has resulted in successfully keeping the birds alive and happy for a long time.

My latest case of ascites is in a Brahma hen. She exhibited classic symptoms of water belly in the fall. I drained off fluid three times over a six week period. After that, she had a good winter with no return of fluid until early spring.

At that time, fluid had accumulated to the point that she was unable to roost with the other chickens. I noticed her trying to bed down on the floor of the coop, and sure enough, her belly was tight and she had lost some weight. The following first aid kit items are needed for draining fluid from the lower abdomen.

Have all the materials ready and close at hand. The faster you can work, the less stress the bird will endure. Identify the area for the needle to enter. This should be the right side of the belly, down and to the right of the vent. Try to let gravity work with you. The lower you can drain, the more fluid will naturally continue to slowly drain after the procedure.

Tuck the duck or chicken under your arm and swab the lower belly area with the alcohol wipe. It was very helpful for me to watch a video before beginning. Teresa Johnson has a good video published on YouTube showing exactly how this procedure is done. Other videos can be viewed on Common Sense Home with information provided on how they are dealing with the issue in one of their runner ducks.