Advice for monitoring chicken with possible vent gleet

[boppyadil]

Hey everyone! I'm new so please let me know if this post is in the wrong place or anything.

We had a pretty disturbing incident on Friday where we discovered one of our hens with what seemed to be late-stage vent gleet (bulging amorphous painful-looking) and on top of it, fly strike. (Didn't even know that existed until that moment. It was horrifying.) We decided to put her down and are now trying our damndest to keep the others healthy.

We've checked all ten of the ladies, cleaning up any poopy feathers and spraying them with vetericyn. They all seemed alright except for one, who had a very red & inflamed area around her vent, and some sort of lump that was a bit flaky. We cleaned her up as best we could with tweezers and some vetericyn & antifungal spray.

Now I'm just wondering if anyone has advice for monitoring her. She broke her leg many years ago and recovered but has always had a limp & difficulty moving around. The past few days she has been staying in the coop more often, but it's hard to tell if it's because she's hurting, because it's hot, or maybe even because she is sad about the chicken we lost, who she was spending a lot of time with. Anyway, she seems to have an appetite & is drinking water. We are giving her probiotics in the water and I was thinking of giving her yogurt, too. Anyone have tips about what to watch for or what else we can do for her??

Thank you!

 

[doublecrossranch]

I am looking for a similar answer. Hopefully this will bump your post

 

[boppyadil]

Thank you! Hoping to hear from someone. As of today she is still seeming pretty rough. How's yours?

 

[doublecrossranch]

@Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have a picture? It is possible that they are pecking each other, and that is what the lumpy red area is from. Vent gleet is not that common, but messy vents are. In warm weather flies are attracted to the droppings on the bent area, and may lay maggot eggs on there. If it is around the vent or a scrape or cut, flystrike is a real danger. Take a look at vents often, and doing it at night by taking them off the roost is easy and quick. Keep the droppings cleaned off with soap and water. Trim excess fluff that keeps getting droppings on it. If you see a continuous running of white urates or drippy poops, and it smell worse than normal, and the skin is irritated with white patches, then you probably have vent gleet (cloacitis.) That is a fungal infection that requires probiotics, an antifungal such as Medistatin (nystatin) found online or Monistat creams/suppositories given orally. Nustock cream applied to the irrtated area is antifungal and anti-pecking.

 

[boppyadil]

Thanks for the reply! I just went and got her and took this picture. It looks generally better than yesterday (we did clean up the poop & spray vetericyn), but the bluish tint is new. Doesn't smell bad and she is still laying... Any thoughts?

(A few of the others have poopy feathers so I will clean them up tonight, and we are giving them probiotics in one of the water containers.)

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks like pecking. The green skin is from bruising. Vent pecking and feather picking is sometimes a result of too little room, boredom from not getting outside to roam, not enough protein in feed—16% is minimum, and 20% can be better, and sometimes too much light inside the coop. There are various anti-pick creams avaialable, such as Nustock, pinetar, bag balm, and sometimes just vaseline. BluKote an antiseptic blue dye to cover red areas can sometimes be good to use.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have a picture? It is possible that they are pecking each other, and that is what the lumpy red area is from. Vent gleet is not that common, but messy vents are. In warm weather flies are attracted to the droppings on the bent area, and may lay maggot eggs on there. If it is around the vent or a scrape or cut, flystrike is a real danger. Take a look at vents often, and doing it at night by taking them off the roost is easy and quick. Keep the droppings cleaned off with soap and water. Trim excess fluff that keeps getting droppings on it. If you see a continuous running of white urates or drippy poops, and it smell worse than normal, and the skin is irritated with white patches, then you probably have vent gleet (cloacitis.) That is a fungal infection that requires probiotics, an antifungal such as Medistatin (nystatin) found online or Monistat creams/suppositories given orally. Nustock cream applied to the irrtated area is antifungal and anti-pecking.

It looks like pecking. The green skin is from bruising. Vent pecking and feather picking is sometimes a result of too little room, boredom from not getting outside to roam, not enough protein in feed—16% is minimum, and 20% can be better, and sometimes too much light inside the coop. There are various anti-pick creams avaialable, such as Nustock, pinetar, bag balm, and sometimes just vaseline. BluKote an antiseptic blue dye to cover red areas can sometimes be good to use.

Good info and explanation!

 

[boppyadil]

It looks like pecking. The green skin is from bruising. Vent pecking and feather picking is sometimes a result of too little room, boredom from not getting outside to roam, not enough protein in feed—16% is minimum, and 20% can be better, and sometimes too much light inside the coop. There are various anti-pick creams avaialable, such as Nustock, pinetar, bag balm, and sometimes just vaseline. BluKote an antiseptic blue dye to cover red areas can sometimes be good to use.

Wow, thank you!! Huge relief. This poor lady has trouble getting around anyway, so I'll work on that and double check her protein intake. Is there one of those creams that you would recommend more than the others?