Bald butt and swollen below vent.

[beaglex3]

i caught michelle and soaked her bottom and massaged her with bag balm. she allowed me to do it but it seemed to stress her out badly. she did the gasping for air thing with her beak and when i put her in the dog crate i had ready, she just flopped over and lay there.i worried i had killed her but after about 20 minutes she stood up. she still had gaping beak for most of the evening, which made it easy getting the water mixed with tetracycline hydrochloride soluble powder (the only poultry antibiotic farm king had) into her beak with a syringe. i was worried she'd be dead this morning but was still alive and as perky as she has been for the last couple weeks. i left her crated while i was at work, but let her out when i got home. she waddled around the garage eating the cracked corn and watermelon treats i had for her. her butt is as red and as swollen as it has been, maybe even worse today. i don't think i'll try the soaking and massaging anymore since it stressed her so badly and really didn't seem to help.

she hasn't been drinking much water so gave her some thru a syringe again (still mixed with the antibiotics). at bedtime she went into the crate with no problems. i plan to keep her separate and on the antibiotics for a week. i'll put her back with her gal pals after that time whether she's better or not. she has not laid an egg so it's possible she hasn't laid any for a long time. i guess she could be egg bound, but i am really not sure how to tell. or she could be laying internally as i have seen posts on. from what i have read, there's nothing to do about that. i will make her as comfortable as i can for as long as she seems to be doing relatively ok. if she seems to be in a lot of pain or gets so she can't walk, we'll have to do something final. i can't bear the thought of her suffering. :'-(

if anyone has any more suggestions, please share them.

 

[cafarmgirl]

If she is very red and swollen she most likely has peritonitis so her belly will be very tender, making massage very uncomfortable for her. And it won't help with the problem anyway. Unfortunately there is just not much one can do for these birds. I've dealt with quite a few and it's so sad and frustrating. If you want to keep treating her and if you can get your hands on some Baytril it might work better in this situation. You can get Baytril 10% on-line. I think www.allbirdproducts.com is one that has it. My vet had me dosing at 0.25 ml once a day for a standard size bird about 5 lb's.

 

[gratzalk]

How does one get peritonitis and is it curable? I lost my hen recently with the swollen red butt, however, she wasn't eating anything either. And definitely not perky. Maybe it was something else.

 

[beaglex3]

thank you for the reply. she is still in isolation, but isn't eating now, unless i hand feed her treats like strawberries or watermelon. she hasn't had any chicken food for 2 days. she drinks a little but i still am having to encourage her to drink with the syringe.

yesterday she had 1 poop that looked like white wash. it was just a watery splash of very loose white with a little bit of yellow mush in the middle. this morning the poop where she sat all night was green and watery.

would she be better, and happier, if i just put her back with her coop mates and just keep an eye on her for things to get worse? could part of her refusal to eat or drink could be because she's away from her lady friends. she seems very lonely and sad being on her own......or should i give in and have my husband do the merciful thing? i don't want her to suffer, and it's hard to tell with a chicken.

 

[GuineaFowling]

I need your help. So my two hens had Vent gleet and I am currently treating them for it. The hens are both 3 years old, ones a white leghorn and the other is a buff orpington. I put Apple cider vinegar with the 'Mother' in the plastic water dishes and in the galvanized one I put garlic. I am feeding them yogurt as well. I noticed the two hens also have swollen red bums below the vent. They are both the size of a tennis ball. Whats different from all of your hens is that It isn't bald, there are still feathers on the butts but I clipped them so they dont get dirty because of the vent gleet. The hens seem other wise fine, I mean they have the symptoms of vent gleet but are getting better. My question is can I medicate them with the Wazine wormer and continue treating them for Vent gleet. By that I mean can I put the wormer in the watering dish and also have a separate watering dish with the vinegar and a third with the garlic. Would it harm the hens if they drank the wormer and the vinegar at the same time? Also I will be rubbing coconut oil on the swollen butts to ease irritation and also to see if the bump is squishy. I will report back after doing that.

Thank you to all who reply.

 

[scrabbleaims]

I have quite a few white rocks that are not of laying age and several have this issue. They are only 7 or 8 weeks old. They are eating now 50% cracked corn and 50% grower pellets. I've only started giving them apple cider vinegar in their water. Not sure what causes this...Any insights apreciated!

 

[ChookCluck]

Not really sure if anyone's still following this, but it have a similar problem with one of mine.

It's a long story really, but she seems to have had a swollen abdomen for a long time now. A while back she had something sticking from her vent which resembled brown sacks of air, as well as a fleshy lump. We didn't know what to do, but removed the sacks and left the lump, which stayed protruding out of the vent for several days but eventually fell off. (We helped her any way we could and she seemed fine apart from this). She already had a swollen abdomen at this point, so I guessed that maybe whatever was causing the swelling had pushed these things out? Either way, it has continued to swell, albeit quite slowly.

She still lives happily, though sometimes has done difficulty running around. She's never layed an egg since the incident, but before she layed massive eggs.

I'm not sure if there's anything we can do. I see there's hernias, tumours, internal laying and other things discussed in this thread, and I'm not sure which I'm dealing with or what to do, but I thought I'd share my story.

 

[DesertDweller]

ChookCluck - We just lost a hen to similar symptoms of the swollen abdomen. I've read that congestive heart failure and fatty liver can look like symptoms of egg peritonitis with the swollen lower body. However, the chicken wouldn't live very long if it were egg peritonitis. If they are acting otherwise normal besides not laying I'd rule out an infection.
It may be a cystic oviduct if you saw a sack? All I do know it there is no cure for ascites and is always a secondary sign of something else going on.
Unfortunately, when I noticed our hen swollen it was a matter of hours that we had to decide to put her down. Her entire face comb and all turned really red almost purplish and she kept tucking her face between her shoulder blades. We have also been dealing with a bad case of worms, so that is something to look into as well if you haven't wormed.

 

[degarmo2911]

Hello,
I'm looking for some information for my 4-month-old Buff Orpington chicken. We noticed today when we allowed them to free-range that one of our hens wasn't acting right. She was sort of squatted down and her comb was strangely droopy. We happened to look at her behind and found an angry-red swollen mass beneath her lovely tail feathers. It almost looked like a sac or a cyct and was interfering with her walking. She also would just sort of sit there with her eyes closed and act like she wanted to fall asleep. She has not started laying yet and has been very healthy up until this point. What could it be? And if we have to put her down, would she be safe to eat? Any assistance would be wonderful. Thank you.

Jess

 

[Tripp and Nikki]

I am going to have to put my chicken down today. I have been searching for the cause of this rear end swelling/baldness, lethargy and weird posture. I am so sad that reading through these posts I did not find the answer until too late. I did try to administer antibiotics about 5 days in but at this point she is so lethargic she is not drinking or eating much.

I believe at least for my chicken these symptoms are the symptoms of egg yolk peritonitis with sepsis. So if your chicken has this get her antibiotics immediately! Even with antibiotics the prognosis is not always good the body may be able to deal with the egg yolk it is the bacterial infection that kills them. Apparently you would use Duramyacin 10 also called Tetracycaline HCL that you can buy at the feed store. Since my chicken won't drink it I may try to squirt it down her throat before giving up, but she is probably too far gone at this point.

I first noticed a strange posture/waddle and then saw the very swollen bald rear end/ Here are photos of other chickens that look very similar to her condition (I did not want to disturb her by taking photos).