guinea hen with big swollen abdomen after predator attack

[SuiladMellon]

Hey guys, I am currently dealing with the aftermath of a coyote attack that took 10 of my guinea flock, and one of my surviving hens has suddenly developed a very swollen abdomen over the last couple of days. When it first started I thought maybe she whacked her body on a branch or something during her escape and it was the tissue swelling up & wanted to give her a few days of r&r to see if it would go down on its own, but now that I've been able to properly observe her and feel around it seems more like its a bunch of fluid buildup... its grown quite a bit bigger from when I first noticed it, and it almost drags on the ground when she walks. She is eating and drinking like normal, and pooping, but the poop is really watery and her butt feathers are a bit crusty as a result. Behavior-wise she seems perky as ever, and it doesn't seem to be causing her pain, aside from causing her to waddle a bit because of the awkward size and position of the swelling, but I am really concerned... I found a pile of egg yolk in the nest she shares with the other hens last night with no eggshell to go with it, so I'm wondering if maybe she broke an egg inside during the chaos?

I'm checking around for any vets in our area that will take poultry, but in the meantime I was wondering if there is anything I can do myself to help her? I've been giving her & the rest of the hens some extra calcium, and I took out the food from the coop tonight so I can make sure her crop is actually emptying properly overnight, but is there more I can be doing?

 

[nuthatched]

It could be an airsack leak

 

[SuiladMellon]

It could be an airsack leak

Hmm, that's a possibility I hadn't considered. It feels a lot more like fluid than air though...

She's still doing fine as of this morning, besides a bit of diarrhea, crop's emptying properly, eating & drinking well, energetic, etc... haven't seen her actively lay an egg but its impossible to tell what eggs belong to what guinea hen in the nest, so she may well have while I wasn't there... still looking for a vet that will take poultry.

 

[SuiladMellon]

Well, if anyone's curious about how this worked out, since I realize I never posted any updates... after a lot of searching and calling around I was able to find a vet about an hour away who took poultry, and it turned out the swelling was in fact a severe hernia. We ended up putting her down in the end unfortunately, as it was so large & in such a bad spot, & combined with the kind of bird she is, the risk of her tearing it open on something was very high. We discussed surgery as an option, but it was iffy if that would even fix it, or just cause more problems down the line, so we decided it was best to just send her off. Not the outcome I wanted, but I definitely didn't want her to suffer, or have a poor quality of life because of it, which it was looking like would be the case