Bad vent prolapse AND vent gleet. Great update! (contains even more graphically icky photos!)

[GoldenPeep]

Our favorite chickie, a 2 yr old golden buff named Goldie, has a vent prolapse combined with vent gleet. I noticed the icky rear end from the gleet, but didn't get around to bringing her in for a bath for a couple days. Kicking myself for this now, of course. After I washed off a big layer of crud, I saw the prolapse, which appears to have been picked at, and possibly frostbitten, and is nasty and scabby looking. This is her third day in the house and the scabby part seems to be drying out, but she laid an egg yesterday and had some bleeding afterwards and since then she has been leaking clear fluid from her vent.

Treatment so far: honey and blue-kote on the vent. I hesitate to use antibiotics because I've read gleet is a type of yeast infection, and antibiotics would make it worse. Also slightly limited food and keeping her in dark more to discourage more egg laying. Today she started pecking at her own vent too and I wrapped her in an ace bandage with a thick, non-stick gauze over her vent, but I don't want to leave that on for long because I don't want the poop contained in there.

Help! What else should I be doing? This is by nine-year old son's most beloved pet, and short of spending money on a vet (which we just can't afford, and I don't know any chicken vets in my city anyhow), I'd like to do what I can to save her

This photo is from yesterday morning, before I started using the blue-kote. (She's lying on her back on a towel, in case this is disorienting.

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[casportpony]

Gleet is not always a fungal infection, sometimes it is a bacterial infection. What antibiotics do you have and has she ever been wormed with Safeguard or Valbazen?

-Kathy

 

[kayakfish]

I had one like that before and was told to use plain yogurt to help with any bacteria, and rub Hemorrhoid medicine on the vent, it worked like a charm in about 3 days, it was all cleared up and she has been laying eggs ever since.

 

[GoldenPeep]

casportpony- Only antibiotic I have on hand is topical, triple cream. I haven't wormed her.

kayakfish- I've been giving her yogurt too. She was not all that enthusiastic about it. The vent is not very swollen anymore, just nasty and necrotic looking.

 

[threelittlepigs]

I had a similar issue, minus the fleet. I used honey on vent to push back in, as well as preparation H. Worked like a charm!! Good luck

 

[GoldenPeep]

I was worried she wouldn't make it through the night, but she's still with us and seems perkier this morning. She singing to us and eating her special breakfast. I made this for her this morning:
http://luckyhensrescuenorthwest.weebly.com/sick-chook-diet.html

But she's still leaking lots of clear fluid, like almost a steady drip, mixed with occ. tiny formed poops.. What's that all about?

 

[threelittlepigs]

It sounds like periontitis. Do you have access to any antibiotics? I gave me hen some amoxicillin that I had from one of my kids being sick. Seemed to work

 

[GoldenPeep]

Thanks for the reply TLP. Here's the update: She seems to be getting better! She's pretty perky and is eating enthusiastically. Her poops are starting to look more normal, not totally there yet, but only dripping a tiny bit now and the poops are closer to normal size. The injured area of her vent is drying into a scab. Some of it has fallen off and it looks like the rest will within a few days. Once the scab is off, I can try to push the vent back in. The nasty gleet stuff is diminishing too. We're not out of the woods yet, but I'm feeling fairly optimistic now.

 

[threelittlepigs]

How is your chook?

 

[GoldenPeep]

Sorry for the late reply. She's doing very well and after two weeks in the house, is back in the coop with her pals as of two days ago.

Here are the finally three photos, in progression.
First is the vent scabbed over with the scab drying and starting to peel off.
Second one is after the scab fell off and the last one was taken five minutes later when I pushed the vent back in. (She looks particularly bad in those because this was right after I bather her and she was all wet) It stayed in and I started increasing her feed and light exposure so she would start laying again. She laid two days later and there was a tiny bit of blood on the shell, but the vent stayed in. I kept her inside one more day and then booted her back to the cold, cold coop, where she seems to be doing just fine.

The gleet gradually cleared up along the way. I gave her yogurt and powdered probiotics in her feed and put cider vinegar in her water the whole time she was in, plus spayed around the vent with blue-kote. She still has purple butt feathers.