White Silkie chicken with irritated and bloody anus.

Cynthia 085 said:

Hi Chooks4life
I am not sure.
Her vent is full of poo.

Oh thanks for the information "It's a vent, also called a cloaca, a multipurpose orifice"
What should I research? I am sorry I really am new to chickens and have no clue. Thank you for your patience with me.

Ah, fair enough. I just meant doing some general looking up on chickens and their health problems, in my experience you learn more usually from random searches than you do from directly asking anyone. Mostly, anyway, definitely not always!

For example, I'd look up terms like: constipation in chickens, digestive tract disorders in chickens, eliminatory tracts in Silkies, hereditary defects of the cloaca, bacterial intestinal problems"... Any combination of those sorts of words will bring you to all sorts of important information.

There are so many potential causes for every problem that it can be effectively impossible for someone to guess the right one long distance, especially when so many have such similar or even identical symptoms.

She could have a weakened bowel from damage done while very dehydrated, i.e. one day she went thirsty for a bit, even as a tiny chick this could have happened, and the body reabsorbed fluids from her feces, until she was left with hard, dry stuff she couldn't easily eliminate, which caused her to over-strain, potentially doing permanent damage. But really with some help she should recover fine... Depending on what's causing this of course. If it's some serious bowel defect, not such a good chance.

I personally think part of her problem is being a Silkie; I've seen Silkies before with this issue caused by their feathers holding poop against their vents, until it built up to the point where they could not eliminate any longer.

I would cut all feathers away from her vent so you no longer have any obstructions to the poop going straight to the ground.

I'd put her on a mildly laxative diet for about a week, so, perhaps give her raw fresh apple, just smash them on the ground for her and let her peck at them... (Apple actually stops diarrhea, but the fiber will help her bowels become 'fitter' and the pectin will help detox any heavy metals she's been exposed to as it's one of the few things to cross the blood-brain barrier, and the fiber will also directly feed beneficial microbiota in her gut that will also help everything else)...

I'd be giving her something like wholemeal bread with generous amounts of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil on it, every day, and raspberry leaf tea or just raspberry leaf added to her food. The berries will do as well but it's generally easier to obtain dried leaf. This will tone her entire digestive system and remedy anemia, but also tone her reproductive tract, lessening the likelihood of her prolapsing in future due to her constipation-weakened pelvic muscles and ligaments, and it's potently antiseptic as well.

The olive oil, if it's cold pressed, will restore lubrication and flexibility to all her mucosal surfaces, from her nostrils and eyes to her vent and everything inbetween, as well as act like a very gentle laxative.

Also, some chooks don't move their rump feathers to poop; it may be due to nerve damage. Some have deformed cloacas so can't eliminate cleanly. If this is a common problem in her family line, that may be the cause.

Constipation, whatever caused it in the first place, is almost always followed by diarrhea due to both weakened bowels and overload of pathogenic or harmful bacteria that flourished while the bowel was unhealthy due to being unable to clear out as regularly as normal. It's a life-saving thing to have diarrhea under some circumstances. If you correct this, expect some loose stools and don't worry about it unless it goes on in very watery state for more than 24 hours. A bit of a loose stool for up to a week, depending on the health issue behind it, can be a good thing. Many human infants and untold amounts of animals have died from people fretting about diarrhea and stopping it as soon as it starts. As long as the patient is drinking regularly, or on a drip if necessary, they will almost certainly be fine.

Long-term constipation weakens the body until you get things like diseases of over-acid conditions caused by anaerobic environments breeding hostile bacteria; bulging gut walls, like hernias, that retain waste product until it putrefies and poisons the bloodstream thereby harming the liver and kidneys especially, but also the brain. I would also give her freshly minced raw garlic, at least one clove per day, maybe mixed with greek yoghurt if she doesn't like the taste, to cleanse her gut of harmful bacterial overpopulations... It will also help detox her liver, and if she has cocci to any degree (apparently they carry that anyway, only an overload is dangerous) then the garlic will take care of that.

Lead poisoning is extremely common in all areas humans live, often with no obvious symptoms, but it causes loss of peristalsis, so no muscular contractions that push food through the body, or less of those contractions anyway.

Some bacterias and viruses can also cause stasis of the digestive tract, from the beak to the crop to the stomach to the bowels to the sphincter of the cloaca. The whole body is full of sphincters and they rely on a decent level of health to open and close as they should.

"straining a bit" You mean she can't poo?
Are you sure she doesn't have coccidiosis? No I am sure. The poo is not bloody it is her vent that gets irritated from me cleaning her all the time.

I'd stop cleaning her then, scabbing could make her problems even worse and raise the risk of septicemia. Once you remove those pooped-on feathers and maybe give her a wash every now and then, as well as putting her on a treatment diet, the problem should resolve.

What is chooks?

'Chooks' is a slang term meaning 'chickens'.


Thank you for your reply Eggcessive
I am not sure. Maybe you can help me.
Here are some pics

Somewhat cleaned (I don't want her to bleed anymore):





Thanks

Looks to me like she has feathers growing out of the very rim of the cloaca itself. That's not normal and could be why she's having this problem. Normally the cloaca 'lips' are perfectly feather-free. It's likely hereditary, so if you choose to breed her, you should probably try to steer away from that trait if it shows in any offspring.

Best wishes.

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Cynthia 085 said:

Hello
Thanks for the reply. I have been researching like crazy and started giving her some of the foods you mentioned.

Today I cleaned her again.

She was having a hard time pooping. It sounds like a "fart" when she poops and then her stringy poop follows. I know she is hurting every time she poops. She starts to make noises (uncomfortable). She puffs up and is not eating too much just enough.

I inspected the poop. It is normal. Not runny anymore, but not too firm either.

I found "over grown tissue" over her cloaca. It is like a rock of "skin" covering her vent. She is straining because the poop can't come out. She has a very small hole in her vent where the poo comes out from. The bottom side of her vent is blocked off by that excess skin.

Strange, almost like diptheria on the vent. :/ I would think it's just a deformity though, not a disease.

Maybe it is her intestines coming out I am not sure; she does try to clean herself and this might be doing more damage than helping. The excess skin is beige color. It is like a rock/ball covering her vent. If it was her insides coming out would she not be able to process food? She eats and drinks. More importantly would she still be alive?

Part of the bowel can die and not prevent the animal from processing food, in that case it would be the infection that kills the animal, not starvation. In the case of prolapse in a chicken there's various tissues that can prolapse without affecting ability to process food at all. But it sounds like a deformity, probably.

She has no room for the poo to go out from. I cleaned her up and shaved her butt off completely. She smells horrible.
I don't think it is a prolapsed vent going off by the pictures I found on google, but will order the ointment online anyway and try it.

I think you're right, with a prolapse she would be dead by now.

Please help me. I had her since she was a few days old. She has come this far and I don't want her to die.
She is close to laying and that would be chaos if she started laying during this situation.

If she actually has tissue over the vent, you will almost certainly need to remove that, whether you study up and do it yourself or get a vet to do it... Sounds like going into lay would be extremely dangerous for her.

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Cynthia 085 said:

HI
Just an update.
I found what she has...nothing too bad I think she will be just fine. I am glad I found out before something really bad happened.

She has an infection. Vent Gleet is what they call it.

She has more than 4 symptoms described.
Foul smell
Yellowish poop discharge
Lethargy
Not wanting to eat as much as before

Vent gleet has the same symptoms as many things, for example blackhead, but at no point does it include having a membrane or piece of tissue growing over the vent, or partially occluding it.

She may also have vent gleet, but the tissue is not related. In fact the deformity or whatever it is could have assisted in developing vent gleet, or similar health issues.

I am sure that this is it.

Thanks for encouraging me to study and learn more about chickens "butts".
Cynthia

Always plenty to learn, even for those who have already learned plenty.

If I were you, I would be ready to cut or get a vet, personally, for when she goes into lay. It does not sound like she will be able to lay without help. Maybe if her first few eggs are only tiny 'wind eggs', she should cope with that, but once she starts laying bigger eggs... I expect you may need an emergency vet trip at this rate. Best to be prepared. If you're new to chicken anatomy best not to do any surgery yourself, the damage could be permanent or fatal.

Best wishes.

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