Amelise
Songster
I have four hens, three that are 1 1/2 yrs and one that’s almost four.
Two of them, the old one and a young one, are really prone to getting this vent gleet that is just white and crusty and compacts to become very hard to remove. It stuck around a bit throughout the winter but ever since the weather started to warm up it’s getting worse. The poop that causes this gleet is liquid, clear with urates, and very sticky. These girls have normal poops too, but these liquid ones happen very often.
Yesterday I was able to trim some of the fluff directly under the cloaca, but it’s as if they often ignore the urge to lower their fluff and squat when they have these liquids because I’ll see them just preen their butt feathers and the liquid will drip down between their feathers as they preen.
I just find it strange because the other two have perfectly clean cloacas with just a little bit of poop on the tip of their fluff feathers occasionally. Its like the other two are just messy poopers.
I feed my flock purina flock raiser (20% protein) with optional calcium and grit on the side since they’re at different levels of production. They’re also foraging more now that it’s spring. I limit their scraps/treats to only a bit once a day.
Would switching them to a feed with less protein for the summer help with these white crusty vents? Thanks for any advice.
Two of them, the old one and a young one, are really prone to getting this vent gleet that is just white and crusty and compacts to become very hard to remove. It stuck around a bit throughout the winter but ever since the weather started to warm up it’s getting worse. The poop that causes this gleet is liquid, clear with urates, and very sticky. These girls have normal poops too, but these liquid ones happen very often.
Yesterday I was able to trim some of the fluff directly under the cloaca, but it’s as if they often ignore the urge to lower their fluff and squat when they have these liquids because I’ll see them just preen their butt feathers and the liquid will drip down between their feathers as they preen.
I just find it strange because the other two have perfectly clean cloacas with just a little bit of poop on the tip of their fluff feathers occasionally. Its like the other two are just messy poopers.
I feed my flock purina flock raiser (20% protein) with optional calcium and grit on the side since they’re at different levels of production. They’re also foraging more now that it’s spring. I limit their scraps/treats to only a bit once a day.
Would switching them to a feed with less protein for the summer help with these white crusty vents? Thanks for any advice.
