Clogged vent?

[BigBen]

Now I have noticed one of my girls has no feathers back there. just a big red ball, I have no idea if its just that her feathers have fallen off or if she has a problem. today the whole bunch of them ate bugs in the woods all day...you'd never know what a mess they are.

 

[Trishkabob]

Big Ben, you should check out post by Bluedawg about "messy, leaky but" also posted today. I replied to that one as we had a similar issue I described in my reply to that post. When we dipped our SLW's butt into a bowl of tepid water she was ok with it. I was holding her firmly but gently and we had been wiping it with wet papertowel first. Her vent feathers had been caked for awhile and lately it seemed she was biting back there more but today I saw that she had pulled feathers out around the caked area and it was red and sore looking like diaper rash. Then we saw it was worse than we thought. After we softened it up we used our dog's brush (wire bristles) VERY gently to pull out the gunk. It didn't smell bad so she doesn't have an infection but it must have been bothering her for awhile.
We dried it a bit with cloth but then blowdried it on cool so she wouldn't get all muddy back there (it is rainy here now). She sort of liked that! This is not something we would choose to do on a lazy sat. afternoon as a rule...but glad to see others do it too. guess we aren't complete wackos after all (or if we are we have company). we will trim that powderpuff of feathers if it happens again.
hope this helps.

 

[Nan04781]

One of our chickens had a poopy butt and was starting to act different also ,we soaked her butt, in a plastic like storage container ,washed her butt with baby shampoo and blow dried her she just sat right through it all ,very calmly ,I think it felt good you would be surprised at how they like it even the blow dryer lol

 

[briann107]

My white leghorn hen loves the blowdryer

 

[Mordigen]

My friends hen is having some sort of vent issue. It is clogged with a large yellow mass. I have been helping her soak the hen and we got all the feces off and some o fteh yellow out but it is still an issue. These are picture after the last attempt to dislodge the clog. Any ideas?

 

[Lyndssxo08]

My friends hen is having some sort of vent issue. It is clogged with a large yellow mass. I have been helping her soak the hen and we got all the feces off and some o fteh yellow out but it is still an issue. These are picture after the last attempt to dislodge the clog. Any ideas?

Hi - I know this has been a while since this was posted, but I'm having the same issue - I found 2 large yellow masses different days . Seems like my hen is clogged up and not sure what to keep doing.. I'm having to clear her vent like every day.

 

[Eggcessive]

Hi - I know this has been a while since this was posted, but I'm having the same issue - I found 2 large yellow masses different days . Seems like my hen is clogged up and not sure what to keep doing.. I'm having to clear her vent like every day.

It sounds like it could be large lash eggs from salpingitis, an infection of the oviduct. Sometimes, those lash egg material may also be found in the abdomen. There usually is no cure for salpingitis, and many times we don’t know it is going on until a chicken is butchered or a necropsy performed. Here is some reading about lash material:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/134/salpingitis/

https://the-chicken-chick.com/salpingitis-lash-eggs-in-backyard/

 

[rebrascora]

PS. She will need to be thoroughly dried after her spa clean up. A towel and then hair drier work well and hens usually enjoy it.

 

[Lyndssxo08]

PS. She will need to be thoroughly dried after her spa clean up. A towel and then hair drier work well and hens usually enjoy it.

The mass was about the size of a quarter, pretty hard, and had some of the greens I fed her that day mixed it.