My black Australorpe, among others developed a fiery red swollen vent with feather loss after an atypical rainy spring. I was battling muddy runs for eight weeks, adding woodchips, straw and sand as needed, and filling water puddles. Several ladies and gentlemen developed messy fannies, bald vents and/or inflamed vent areas. (Poor little guys). Some of the flock also had mites or lice and the combs were going pale, plus they started molting. OMG! First I doused 50 chickens in Dawn for the pests and coated the combs waddles and legs/feet with vegetable oil to smother the nits. Then I mucked and washed the houses and yards (What a chore!). I washed the water dishes every day with dish soap, provided dry organic matter to cover the mud, filled the puddles, provided yogurt and cultured liquid dairy treats two to three times a week for the yeast, served kale, collards and spinach for iron to fight anemia (but not with the dairy so as not to block the calcium), provided black strap molasses in water and also frozen peas to help with GI and feather regrowth, added apple cider vinegar to the water for a disinfectant on days when not serving probiotics. Withheld corn from those suspected of yeast infection. withheld watery melons from those with diarrhea. All but two or three immediately showed marked improvement. I isolated the slow healers and discovered they weren't taking the treatments. Gave Epson salts up to twice to those not responding to commercial and dairy probiotics. And applied athletes foot cream to the vents of the slow healers one to three days in a row depending on response. Every one but Molly got well. She has now ben 8 to 12 weeks with a red swollen bald vent area. I tried 3 more days of cream two to three times a week of cultured liquid treat, two to three times a week black strap molasses. She always seems better the day I do it but then a few days later looks red again. I tried 5 days. waited a week and tried 3 days. Still it persists. Our temps are 105 F these August days. Molly stand in the water dish every day for several hours. I have to change the water twice and also provide a fount for her pen mates. I have seen a recommendation for an antibacterial and antifungal ointment called blue or something like that but I read the can and it says not to apply near mucous membranes and it seems quite likely that the vent area would contain mucous membranes. So I tried triple antibiotic and that did not help at all. We do not have an acceptable avian vet near us. Any Ideas? Please advise.
KatD
