Bald butt and swollen below vent.

[UrbanChickeroo]

Ergh! I can't believe how frustrating this is! Where is James Herriot when you need him?

I'm currently working the "mites" angle on our red-butted-otherwise-healthy-RIR hen, but have tried soaking, separating, etc. It just seems that the infection suggestions would make more sense if the chickens always passed away quickly, or displayed more signs of distress....

I don't know. Praying someone figures it out because I feel guilty keeping her alive if she is in pain and would feel guilt culling her if it turned out to be no big deal.

 

[Bellurd]

I don't know if we're talking about the same thing. I have an EE hen whose butt area fills up with fluid. At first I thought it was an infection and was just very swollen and inflamed. It also looked like she was losing feathers, but the skin was pulled so taunt that it spaced the feathers out more, giving it a more bald appearance. It feels like a very full water balloon. She also acted totally normal except for walking funny. After doing research I found out about the fluid and thought it wouldn't hurt to try and drain her. We bought a wide gauged syringe and started draining this yellowish, clear liquid. There was so much pressure built up that she continued to drain for a few hours after. There was probably about 3 cups of fluid in her. I've had to drain her 3 times since then. I never use antibiotics, just squirt the area with a little which hazel before draining and throw her outside after it dries. She's always been just fine.

I hope you find a solution!

 

[HeyItsDebV]

From what I am reading, there are two different sicknesses here...Poppy Butt and Droopy Butt! My sick hen has had both for a week.

Dawg53's advice has pulled my sick hen thru so far..

It was last week at this time that i discovered one very sick hen with a poppy butt and not walking very well...

I read this forum and brought the hen in and washed it's poppy butt in warm soap water...it didnt mind, in fact it seemed to like it. I noticed at this time that it seemed to have a swollen vent area that seemed red and swollen. I kenneled it it my garage with a heat source.
Monday I bought Wazine 17 and have kept it in it's water this week. I then treated all 10 hens with IVERMECTIN paste 1.87, giving a BB sized drop of paste on a cube of bread to each hen, one at a time. I plant to follow-up with a redose after this with Safe-guard (Fenbendazole) in the same way...
Dawg53, isn't this what you have suggested?
Two more of my hens have messy butt's but show no other signs of sickness.
I hope treating them all for worms, fixes all of this...
Last week I had noticed my egg count was low all of a sudden. Now, I am seeing broken, soft-shelled eggs in the nesting boxes. I am getting 5-6 eggs a day from 10 hens. (But, I know to throw away the eggs for 14 days after worming. )
Last weekend, sick, RIR , two yr old hen, had very poppy butt and red swollen vent area. Her tail was and still is pointed down, vs. up!

She has a blackened comb! ? And her poop is solid again but bright green!?
After I bathed her butt area in a warm bath, I noticed her vent area felt like a water balloon... it kinda looks like raw chicken meat.

No feathers and red. I held her wrapped in a towel in front of a heater. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing with her beak open. I didn't think she would make it thru the weekend.
A day after giving her wormer, sick hen began to make hen happy clucks again and look for treats. I began with Yogurt and cat food and then bread and pasta.
When I let sick hen out with the free-ranging flock, they began to bully-peck her!!! My hens have never pecked each other. So, I have kept sick hen in my garage still and she had a young cat have become friends.

How do we know that this poppy butt and swollen vents isn't the bird flu?

Read this:
How to Recognise Avian Influenza

What to look for

• Ruffled feathers
• Soft-shelled eggs
• Depression and droopiness
• Sudden drop in egg production
• Loss of appetite
• Cyanosis (purplish-blue coloring) of wattles and comb
• Edema and swelling of head, eyelids, comb, wattles, and hocks
• Green diarrhoea
• Blood-tinged discharge from nostrils
• Incoordination, including loss of ability to walk and stand
• Pin-point hemorrhages (most easily seen on the feet and shanks)
• Respiratory distress
• Increased death losses in a flock
• Sudden death
• Nasal discharges

 

[TheEasterBunny]

Just finished reading all the posts (yes it took a while) and drew a few conclusions. I have a small flock and two of the birds have this. One was getting pecked in that area as well and was bleeding so I isolated her and treated the wounds. She will be reintroduced in a few days. Today I noticed that another bird has lost her feathers in that same region, but does not yet have the swelling. For good measure, the first bird was a Red Star and the second was a Black sex-linked. Be interesting to see what happens. My conclusions from all of these posts and my experience is that there is probably not one answer to any of these problems and in fact, a lot of the same diseases/problems have the same signs/symptoms and mimic one another. Peritonitis, lymphotic leukemia, mites, molting, egg bound, hernia, bird flu, chronic pecking ... i believe these are all of the ideas people have listed. I can rule out the congenital virus for mine (as they are not the same breed), there are no mites in the flock, probably not bird flu as only two have it and it isn't eradicating the flock, they are both still laying so not a bound egg... I'm leaning towards the hernia for the Red Star and the Black sex-linked I'm thinking is an early molting issue as she is just bald butted and not swollen (yet). But like the rest of you, who the hell knows. I'll keep you guys informed, but hopefully the girls don't progress to the stomach rupture scenario.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Cut back on their feed. Mine that has whichever of these two likely conditions was really bad at one point - like, butt dragging on the ground and walking completely erect as a result. I got lazy and started feeding them only in the morning as opposed to my usual twice a day (in addition to free-ranging on the days that the snow melts enough). Within a few days I noticed the bad hen was getting back to normal and now, a couple weeks later, I can't tell her apart from the others anymore! I'm now back to feeding twice a day and I'm going to watch and see if she gets worse again. But I think the reduced food intake forced her body to absorb whatever it was that was building up inside.

 

[Swim Skinny]

I have 23 hens and 2-3 have this condition. I have notice that the 2 most affected also have feathers rubbed off on the saddle from breeding. Could this be from my rooster favoring these chickens. Note that I have 2 Buff Orp and both are raw...the rooster and 17 of the hens are RIR...gues I just thought he was riding them too hard.

 

[amybmc]

Okay - I've been reading most of this thread - my girl has just started the swollen butt but has had a wheeze (audible honk when breathing in) for quite a few weeks. I came across this:

Cystic Right Oviduct

"Fluid accumulation in the vestigial right oviduct is a common finding in hens. The abdominal cyst is filled with clear fluid and is attached to the right side of the cloacal wall. The cyst may vary in size from barely perceptible to 15–20 cm in diameter. An increased incidence has been observed in flocks after infectious bronchitis virus outbreaks. Oviductal cysts are a necropsy finding that rarely, if ever, affect flock performance."

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/pou...e_system/cystic_right_oviduct_in_poultry.html

Could this be it? She's acting completely normal, eating, active, not sick at all. But maybe this is related to the bronchitis. (that did come first, though none of the others seemed to get it.
If so, maybe the outcome is good for her and the others on this thread - like the ones that have been living with it for some time.

The peritonitis seems much more serious.

Hope this gives you all some hope.

 

[Our Roost]

I'm glad I'm not nuts! I have 2 birds with plump rumps that look abnormal. Swollen and bare from molt and pecking. The key here to one of the posted articles is bronchitis. I had several birds with respiratory problems this past winter. Basically, a few of them had severe colds or bronchitis as we humans call it. I have noticed a slight improvement with the warming weather and some butt feathers are starting to appear. Hoping the summer sun is going to help bring these birds back to normal again. They are eating good and showing no signs of stress now like they did this winter. I really want to blame it on the deep litter method I used this year. I think it built up too much moisture and dampness within the coop. Never again! Just my opinion.

 

[cute chicks here]

my chicken had a messy butt but it is not bald. She was acting all droopy so I did try soaking her butt in warm water and cleaning her and thats when I noticed the swelling. She continues to be droopy today, stands in one place and will only eat blueberries,Won't even look at her chicken food. I seperated her from the other chickens and gave her her own food and water and shelter but I am also very worried. I love my little Percy as a pet. I am worried she will die. I hope your chicken is getting better.

 

[howdycow]

After looking all over the internet, I am so excited to find this post! This is exactly what has happened to some of my chickens. I saw many posts about chickens that lay shellless eggs, are lethargic, don't eat, and are in pain, or don't lay eggs. None of this was the case with my chickens, and I did not understand why no one else had the same problem. Did you ever figure out what it was? One chicken in particular just got bloated about 5 or 6 days ago, and she is eating, happy and layed an egg yesterday. When I touch the bloated part, she doesn't act in pain at all. I would really like to find out what I can do to help them out.