Problem: Infected and Dirty Chicken Butt *GRAPHIC PHOTOS*

Hello Everyone,

I received two Malay Pullets in the mail a couple of weeks ago.  They've begun to lay.

I was out of town for their first week here - however, one of them came down with a really dirty and pasty butt.  Upon further inspection the anus and whole area seems to have abscess.

I bathed the bird in [tub 1]Castile Soap (Murphy's Vegetable Oil Soap) w/ 20 Mule Team Borax; [tub 2]water and bleach, and finished with [tub 3] a vinegar and water bath.

I trimmed all the feathers in the vent area.  And this is the picture after the bath.  Anyone encounter anything like this before?  It looks horrible.  She defecated as I was towel-drying her and the feces appears normal and solid, however it had some whitish discharge thereafter.  Also, they are both laying and I suspect this one has been laying soft/no shell eggs (just membranes - this leads me to believe she is a first-time layer?).

Their diets have been consistent, Purina layer pellets, oyster shells, and black oil sunflower seeds.  I've sporadically fed them turkey polt crumble as well.  

I think it was too wet and muddy their first week here and they had no place to dust bathe.  I've since changed out all their bedding to dry shavings and have given them piles of sandbox-quality sand to dust bathe.  She is the only pullet exhibiting these problems.  The other Malay definitely looks more full and plump and she lays normal looking eggs.

Thank you all in advance for your help.

-Chad

Wow!  Thanks guys!  I'll follow the instructions on the article.  They seem simple enough.  She has been laying all those weird eggs w/ no shells and freakishly extra-large ones too - all symptoms of prolapse.  Chickens get hemorrhoids too and the treatment is the same; go figure.

-CHAD

Hello Everyone!

IT WORKED!  But let me tell you it was a LOOOOOONG and MISERABLE DRAWN OUT process for both the pullet and me!!  It took me three weeks to get the PROLAPSED vent back in place and stay in place.

The word CULL was ever present in all the literature I've read, but after paying over $400 for 2 Malay hens sent from FL to CA, I wasn't going to consider this option for my pullet who has just begun to lay!!  Her sister has started laying as well, some oddly shaped egg here and there, but she's had no problems with her vent.

I got down and dirty with my bare hands and trimmed all the feathers below the tail and vent area.  I cleaned the prolapse multiple times a day, and stuck my finger deep into it's vent with honey during the day and preperation H in the evenings.  There are times when her vent would pop out up to 12 times in a day, and every time I had to clean her up and push it back in.  I did my best to keep the hen seperated and relaxed so as to keep it in.  I read that when chickens are upside down the body emits some euphoric effect - relaxing the hen.  I gently kept her upside down to push the prolapse in (but only when she appeared extremely stress), I'd gently put her back on her feet to keep her calm.  I've noticed they like getting their ears rubbed to keep them calm as well.

NOTE: In the upside down position after the vent has been pushed in, I would use a STRUMMING motion with my four fingers as if to message the WHOLE vent area (between the vent "bones") and just message all the muscles back into their natural place.  Downwards, upwards, sidewards from left to right and right to left.

Some of my complications is that if I don't get to her right away, the prolapse would dry out with all the discharge (and sometimes blood) and would create a hardended shell around the prolpase and vent keeping it out and in place.  I'd keep her the sink runing warm water on it, sometime up to 20minutes or more to soften the "crud" and gently cut pieces of it off.  I made a MISTAKE the first go around and pulled the scabby crud - which makes it worse because it tears the skin and caused more bleeding.  BE GENTLE AND SPEAK SOFTLY !

She wasn't feeling great; then she started having a runny nose.  Mind you it was still late winter and it rained often - so no dust baths and it was cooler than usual.  Her nose got very "cruddy" and her wing where she tucked her head would get cruddy as well... some of the crud got to her eyes and a couple of times dried them shut.  I used a lot of warm water on this chicken, with a damp wet cloth and cleaned her EVERY DAY, multiple times a day.

After two weeks and being at my wits end her vent slowly started to go back in; the amount of times it popped out decreased significantly after that, but I remained vigilant and continued my regimen of cleaning, honey and prep-H.  By the end of week three it stopped popping out and she got better.  Now she's running with the rest of the flock and laying normal eggs.  Her butt is still bare but I'm sure the feathers will start growing back as the weather gets warmer.

We're about 5/6 weeks after this ordeal and she's now allowing, Bowie, my Bearded Silver-laced Rooster to top her.  In a couple of weeks I'll put some of her eggs in the incubator and see what I get, should be interesting.  Please standby for some updated pics of her butt!

Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions - I hope this will help others who come across this.

-Chad