Could this be vent gleet or prolapse vent-See pic below

[mjm073]

YourLinkGoesHere I have been trying to figure out what could be wrong with my chickens and someone suggested it could be mites. Here is a description of what my chickens are showing: swollen vent, feathers missing around vent, yellow mucus like material coming out of vent, struggling to use bathroom. Does anyone think that this could be the problem? Advice is greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: Later today she started to act like she was pushing and a red bulge would come out and go back in Now I'm starting to think it could be a prolapse vent.

 

[welasharon]

Are you sure that is not an egg bound issue? The stuff coming out is it like egg yolks or cheesy kinda? Does it smell sickly sweet? In the meantime you can give her (is it a her?) a warm water soak to clean the stuff off and to (if it is an egg issue) help move the egg stuff along. How many are having this problem?
sharon

 

[flowerhippie]

To check for mites hold your chicken to keep from struggling and look into the neck feathers and under wings there it will be hard to see, the mites can be pretty small. Have you introduced your flock to a new chicken ? If the whole flock is ill or most, I would treat with electrolytes. Just to be safe. you can treat with medicated chick starter. This will help to combat whatever this is, there are so many reasons our flock becomes ill. Some things are easy to solve, one time my grain got damp and it had a trace of mold and a few of my girls became ill. If you have mites you will be able to find a powder to treat it. although if you have mites you will need to clean your whole chicken house with a hose and some bleach. This is quite a battle sometimes, it's is like a human having a louse. Everything needs to be disinfected and destroyed, you would want to put all nesting material and litter absorbents into garbage bags and hall it away as soon as possible treat this like crazy, Good luck with this hope all is well.

 

[mjm073]

It has a very bad odor, but nothing like an egg smell. I had one die a few days ago that had the same issues. I have two right now showing the signs. We thought it was egg bound at first but it doesn't look like an egg is in there. We have soaked them in a warm bath, and they seemed to be better at first, but are getting worse again. I wish I could show pics on here, but since I am a new poster it won't let me yet. If someone could email me I can send them a picture to help. [email protected]

 

[welasharon]

If it has a sickly sweet smell then you need to look up vent gleet. It is basically yeast infection for chickens. It is a cheesy discharged that smells icky sweet yucky (if you can imagine that) and it will kill them. I just had one die of it. I tried the yogurt and food remedies before getting nystatin. I just happen to mention the chicken to a girl with a newborn baby and she had a prescription she hadn't used but it was too late. I only got one dose in her. I don't have any of the links on my computer here but you can google or do a search on BYC for vent gleet and see if that is what you think it is.
sharon
ETA:http://ultimatefowl.atwiki.com/page/Vent Gleet
this link has most all the info I could find compiled into one. I wish I had gone with nystatin sooner.

 

[welasharon]

I'm gonna post this pic for mjm so others can see if they think it is vent gleet. I am thinking it is. It would help if I could smell it (being chickeny sounds gross sometimes).

Maybe someone else can tell.

 

[mjm073]

Thanks for posting that for me welasharon. One thing that she started to do different later in the day was when she would push to use the bathroom a red bulge would come out...maybe intestines or something? I thought maybe it could be a prolapse vent now. Not too sure though. I put some honey on there after I washed with with antibacterial soap so I guess we'll have to see how she does until the morning. I'm hoping she makes it through.