Bloody Eggs that are getting worse

[Little Lady]

I wanted to update those of you that replied to my email. I examined my girls vent and it is not a prolapsed cloaca. (judging by the pictures I've seen) She has a torn vent it looks like to me. It has this hard crust like scab all around her vent and the feathers all around her vent area is a terrible mess. (I'll take a picture tomorrow and post it) I soaked it this morning in warm water and tried to peel it off. One area started bleeding so I stopped. I have her isolated in my basement with SDM Solution I got from the Vet. This is day 3 in the basement. I thought I had limited her food, but she laid an egg yesterday. I let her roost with the other girls and put her back in the basement early in the morning. I am so frustrated! There are very few feathers above her vent on her chest. You can't see the bare skin if she is walking around. But when I turn her over I see skin. I've never looked at any of my other chickens so maybe this is normal. I'm not very good at this chicken farming, and I feel like I'm losing this battle. If anyone has any more suggestions, I would appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[iheartnh]

Did she bleed when she laid the egg?

Don't beat yourself up - there's not much you could have done to prevent a torn vent, and you're doing the best you can to fix it. I don't know about losing the feathers - maybe a moult? I would start a new thread for that issue. Good luck!

 

[Little Lady]

The egg she laid yesterday had a small amount of blood on it. Nothing like it was the time before this one. I'm hoping the antibiotic will work it's magic and she will heal and be normal again. I may give her antibiotics for 5 days as the prescription says, then give her a rest. Then give her antibiotics again for 5 days. I don't think it will hurt her and it may help her!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sounds like she is at least progressing in the right direction. Have you been able to clean the rest of the mess off of her vent area to get a good look at what is going on? It sounds like the lack of feathers may have been due to whatever is going on around her vent. Does she have diarrhea? What antibiotic do you have her on?

 

[Little Lady]

 

[Little Lady]

I'm trying to add a photo we took this morning. I hope maybe you can see the mess that is going on here. I could not clean it up very good yesterday. The places I did clean up started bleeding like I was removing a scab from a wound so I stopped. This is day 4 in the basement. The RX that my vet gave me is Sulfadimethoxine. I have put honey on her vent for 3 days. I think it actually looked better today if you can believe it or not from this picture. I have let her roost each evening with the other girls and I think maybe this is a mistake. I've limited her food during the day and she chows down when I put her back in the coop for the night. I'll do different

next time. I hope we are making progress but I just wonder if she can be fixed. Thanks for your interest!

 

[Kelsie2290]

I'd try trimming the feathers away from the vent and around it as best you can to better clean it up and see what the rest of the skin looks like. Can you try soaking her for awhile to soften and clean up the scabs up before putting honey or neosporin etc on again? It doesn't look like vent gleet to me, unless it is an old case and mostly cleaned up now? You have checked her carefully for mites etc? Keeping her mostly in the dark should stop or slow down her egg laying in a couple of days. As long as she is still eating and acting good, I would keep trying with her if nothing else seems wrong with her.

 

[Little Lady]

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I soaked her this morning and cleaned her up the best I could. I also trimmed her feathers around her vent. I'm not sure if her vent looks normal because I've not looked at any of my other chickens. I guess I should do that. I found another bloody egg in the coop this morning. This is day 5 on the antibiotic and keeping her in the basement out if the daylight. I don't think I'm helping her at all. Very frustrating. I checked her for lice and mites and found nothing. I just wonder if she had a defect that can't be fixed. She eats good and seems to appear normal. I just don't want the other girls to pick on her. Any more suggestions please jump in. Thanks!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Give her some time to heal by herself / keep her by herself away from the other hens, especially if you think they are picking on her. Think about how long it takes to heal a cut or burn up completely, that is pretty much what you are dealing with here, and she keeps laying eggs. It actually looks a lot better under there than I was expecting. If she doesn't have some sort of vent gleet infection or growth or something I wonder if you were dealing with vent picking that started the cut to begin with. If you like the hen, I would keep the area trimmed up to clean up the scabs easier and so there aren't any feathers to catch poop and keep treating it for another week before making a decision.

 

[russellfarm1]

Take the chicken out as soon as possible and put it in a secret pen for a few days. The put it back in with grease on the area with no pin feathers it work same problem and they don't peck at it any more.