bleeding from vent

[JerseyHen]

I have a 3 yr old faverolle hen who I recently noticed has a very nasty backside. She has been eating and drinking and otherwise acting normal. I finally had a chance to check her over tonight. She has a chunk of dried poop stuck to her vent and is bleeding from the vent as well. I cannot tell (even with the flash light on her) if the bleeding is coming from the area where the poop is attached or from inside. She had no mites or lice and I didn't see any worms (although i know they are not seen until it is very bad). She had no other symptoms. I am planning on bringing her in and bathing her tomorrow to see if i can get a better look at what is going on.

In the mean time, any ideas on what causes the nasty backside? How about bleeding vent? I don't think she is laying yet this season.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

You will probably find out a lot more once you have her cleaned up. I've had to clean off a ball of dried poop from one of mine before and boy does that smell gross! I would check carefully to make sure there are no maggots. Don't know if you even have flies this time of year, but because they are attracted to the poop and there may be a wound, you'll want to be extra careful.

Good luck!

 

[JerseyHen]

Thank goodness, no flies yet. That would be so much more disgusting. She its a real mess. I am not looking forward to it, but she is one of my best broodies and a favorite hen (she is so sweet), so i will do it for her.

 

[jonalisa]

I'm just learning and would be interested in an update when you have one. Hope all is well!
Thanks

 

[ten chicks]

check her for a prolapse.

 

[JerseyHen]

What does a prolapse look like? I am going to do some feather trimmimg to get the worst off her and then the bath. Probably in an hour or so.

 

[Diane8]

One of my birds has a very obvious red featherless butt. I read on this site to check for parasites (ie lice, mites, ticks) and/or feather picking. I'm not 100% sure yet what my birds have. There is one bird so far that doesn't seem to be effected. She was fighting with the worst effected bird. She could be the feather picking offender. Also, while I was checking all the birds I noticed a tiny black bug on my wrist. It looks like a mite or a tick. I think they have both problems so far. I hope they can last until it gets warmer so I can clean out the coop. It's a huge area.

 

[JerseyHen]

This hen does not have any apparent parasites and she has all her feathers.Her backside is covered in poop. I am heading out to deal with it now (tough day for it since i am working and using my lunchbreak to bathe a chicken, I must be out of my mind)

 

[JerseyHen]

OK, so i finally trimmed this hen and gave her a nice bath. Let me just say that I am still gagging. I have never smelled anything so disgusting in all my life. It was like broody poop times a thousand. So here is what I found: the stuff that was stuck to her was a base of some substance that looked a lot like rubbery scrambled egg covered by a rather thick layer of cemented and hardened poop. Really hard, like a rock. I have no idea what made that center substance. It took forever to get off of her and not all of it came off. She had no parasites that could be located. Her vent did look a little protruding after the bath was over, but I think that may just be from the irritation that has been there for so long. There didn't seem to be inversion of the vent duct. Could it be an old prolapse and I just missed it when it happened? Could it be internal egg laying and the egg clocked it up in her duct? I just read a bunch on internal layers and they all seem to describe this "cooked egg" substance.

I came across this thread, the pics (pose #9) look very similar to what this hen has going on.

 

[Fox]

I have a similar issue right now. My chicken is also bleeding from the vent. She is older, about 7 or 8 years old and is a Silkie Comet cross. She appears fine otherwise. She is very active and doesn't look in any other way sick. At first I thought she was hurt because the blood looked somewhat coagulated... almost like it wasn't blood and I thought this must be some internal bit or something. I washed it though and it washed away. She looked fine after that. She had some poop on her feathers that I trimmed and washed, but she looked ok... no continued bleeding. I thought it was coccidiosis and treated the whole flock with Corid powder in their water. Everyone drank well and so I knew they got a good and proper dose. I saw no more blood, so after completing the regimen of the Corid, and even giving it a few more days on the maintenance dose, I stopped. I thought I saw a streak of dried blood on the top of the nest box, but wasn't sure. Then yesterday, I saw a little pool of blood on the ground and some drips and looked and it was Uno, bleeding again just like before! She doesn't bleed all the time. It is like it happens in intervals. I don't know if it is the same as what is going on with your chicken, but I am still trying to figure out what to do, so I'll be monitoring your thread and hopefully we can both find help. I wish you the best and a full recovery for your hen!