1 year old laying hens that have puslike/pasty vents

[haes]

We have a small (35 birds) flock of red sussex and sex-sal link laying hens that have been free ranging since April when the grass came in. Currently they also get a feed ration of chopped oats and rye. In the last few weeks we have noticed a few of the hens having some diarrhea, or poo that sticks to their feathers anyway, and then upon close inspections their vents appear to be pussy or oozy, the colour is a light tan. Any ideas about what this might be?! Should we worried about all the birds?

 

[greyfields]

I thinik you mean "puslike" and not that word you put int he subject line. :|

 

[arlee453]

Whew - I'm sure glad you changed that word in the post title... You know I was clicking like lightening to see if there was a picture of THAT vent...

It may just be a change in diet that has made their poos a bit looser. I'll leave it to others to comment on other possiblitites.

 

[redhen]

LOL...

....but i would be interested to also hear what you guys think it may be...Wendy

 

[sammi]

I would put them back on layer feed and see if this helps clear up the problem.

offer some plain active culture yogurt to help restore the system.

could be a fungal infection..possible treatment is Nystatin.

could be Vent Gleet.

 

[dlhunicorn]

chickens lack sufficent specific enzymes to deal with some of the fiber in grains (which is why this is added into commercial mixes) called anti-nutritional factors (google this...there is lots of info on it)...stop the oatmeal and rye and only mix enough COOKED human oatmeal through their age appropriate commercial feed to make it clump together. Have you ever wormed your birds? If not this might be a good time to think on htat.