Causes wound inside cloaca? (not prolapse)

[FeatherCrest]

My 2-yo hen has a wound approx. 1.5 cm inside her cloaca, and I would like to know if anyone has ideas on how this could have happened.

Backstory: over a week ago we noticed that she was bleeding from her vent, and took her to the vet. They prescribed antibiotics, in case the wound went into her abdomen, and the hen seemed to recover fine, the bleeding stopped after a day. Unfortunately, after one week, it happened again. And a few days later again. With her poop comes a large blob of clotted blood, and then sometimes clear red drops from her cloaca. She kept laying eggs just fine, and in general very lively/normal behaviour, no weight loss.

We are in regular contact with the vet, but they have no idea what may have caused this. Hopefully anyone here has any experiences or ideas, that could perhaps help us prevent this from happening again. I don't expect it to be worms, we give them vet-prescribed meds 4 times a year as a precaution. It is highly unlikely that another chicken pecked her. What else could it be?

 

[LaFleche]

Do you have ducks running with the chickens or ducks especially drakes in the neighbourhood?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-please-blood.1438804/post-23838555

 

[LaFleche]

There could be other reasons:

Did you or any neighbour put out some rat/mice poison lately?

She might be suffering from some kind of tumor/angioma of the oviduct, that getting too big, starts bleeding as the eggs pass by.

 

[FeatherCrest]

Thanks for the suggestions! No ducks around, and poison is unlikely as they do not free-range near our neighbours yard. Some of my chickens catch mice (that could have been poisoned), but I have never seen her do it.

I have indeed thought of a tumor. But since she has not lost weight, I hoped it would not be the case. There is probably no way to tell if there is a tumor while she is still alive, right?

Many eggs are clean, and she is not necessarily bleeding on those days that she lays eggs. It would make sense, I agree, but I do not see a correlation. I do wish she would stop laying for a bit though, but apparently she is not too bothered herself.

 

[LaFleche]

My chickens do catch mice, voles etc. and devour them, so therefore no poison on our premises either.

There might be ways to tell using CAT scan or MRT, but would this be reasonable?

She might even have ingested some pointy/sharp object that got caught and occasionally pinches/cuts into the oviduct. This might be seen/detected by x-ray though, which would usually not be so costly.

Some people have a Suprelorin chip implanted for their hens to allow some healing time for issues of the reproductive tract. You might want to discuss this option and the costs (~35 Euro) with your vet.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=supre...-26&sk=&cvid=BD805375D8EE4516A71812755CC9DFAA

https://poultrykeeper.com/reproductive-system-problems/suprelorin-implant-for-chickens/

 

[FeatherCrest]

Thanks! An implant might be an option, will discuss it with the vet! Scans etc are not available in my area, unfortunately.

 

[LaFleche]

I hope all goes well!