Dirty vent

[georgias3chickens]

Hi everyone. My 1 year old light Sussex has quite a dirty vent and has done for a few weeks now. It hasn’t got any worse but I’m just wondering if it could be early signs of vent gleet? I have added a few pictures but she’s quite skittish so I can’t get very good ones

 

[azygous]

No, it's not from vent gleet, unless you noticed at some point that she's been nibbling at rotten fruit or veggies or drinking from a scummy puddle.

Large hens can have an issue with "lazy pooping". Often, they accumulate a fat "shelf" under their vent that collects poop that fails to shoot out and clear the vent fluff. I have a few of these "plus-size" girls. They get frequent butt baths.

I back the hen up to a basin of warm water, splash enough to soften the poop, maybe use a little baby shampoo or body wash, and then rinse. They adore being blow-dried, or just let them air dry on a nice day.

 

[thecatumbrella]

My floofy Australorps could be messy poopers. When it was too cold for a butt bath, I'd just give them a hair cut... kind of like an inverse mohawk down the bum. It's definitely a two person job, and be sure not to trim too close to the vent (or too short). They'd still get a little messy, but it made cleaning a lot more manageable.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Do they have a nice dry dust bath? I always have one that gets dirty but like you, I don't jump into action until it's been a while, because often a good ole dust bath solves the problem. I have a Barnevelder with exactly what Azygous has described. You can see that her lower feathers/shelf get in the way. If dust bath doesn't solve, I wrap her in a towel because she's incredibly shy and gently with water, castile soap and a rag, get it off. yuk.

 

[azygous]

One of my big girls has such deep butt fluff it conceals quite a lot of poop. It amazes me she can carry around such a load, and it may not be all my imagination when she's liberated from the heavy mess that she experiences considerable relief.

There's another good reason to keep butt poop buildup cleaned off. In summer, if flies are numerous, poopy butts can attract flies to lay their eggs in the poopy buildup. In just hours, maggots (called fly strike) can begin burrowing into the tissue around the vent. If this isn't noticed right away, the maggots can burrow deep and cause serious tissue damage and infection. Maggots can even burrow all the way into internal organs and kill the chicken.

So, washing your chicken's butt isn't as crazy as it may sound.