Dying chicken with bloody vent

[Stayc]

Here is a homemade rat/ mouse/ squirrel trap that would prevent your chickens from accessing it. I copied it a while back from a post on here.

 

[Jspenc02]

Ok. So found another dead one today. I did my own necropsy (without watching videos). I took lots of pics and will post them on the other thread. She had a bloody vent but not tearing of the skin and did not look like she was bit by anything. She also had an egg she wasn’t able to lay. The liver and heart seemed fine to me (my background: paramedic for 15 years. Lots of human training and a few insitu cadavers). There was this large organ the was below the liver and above the vent. It was hard like a stone. I cut it in half and found what appears to be an impacted crop. At least that’s all I could think of. I will post pics in the necropsy thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ntains-graphic-necropsy-photos.823961/page-36

 

[Eggcessive]

I would suspect that they are somehow getting poisoned by the rat bait or by eating rodents affected by the baits. It contains coumadin a blood thinner, and causes hemorrhage and dehydration.
If it is not that, then I would suspect vent pecking which can lead to cannibalism. Vent pecking happens with some more agressive breeds, and may be caused by boredom, too little room in the coop, or too little protein in the diet. What type of feed do you use?

 

[bobbi-j]

It's hard to see the damage to the chicken in the photos, but my first guess was vent pecking. How many chickens do you have in your coop, and how big is it in feet by feet? Do they go out in a run at all? And as Eggcessive asked, what type of feed do you use?

 

[Jspenc02]

They cannot get to the rat poison. It is in plastic boxes outside of the coop. Also, I have not actually seen a rat, but there are some suspicious holes/burrows near the coops. I usually feed either TSC dumar crumbles 16%, runnings brand crumbles 16% or country max brand crumbles 16%. Sometimes pellets if they are out of crumbles. The coop started off with 10 chickens now it has 6. The pen size is about 15’x12’, guessing.

 

[sfgwife]

That hard rock like thing you are thinkin is an impacted crop is the gizzard. If you had cut it open and turned it inside out the stuff inside it is the way they digest their food and you would have seen gritty things along with some food most likely. It has a yellowy ribbed liner that if pulled off leaves a nice beautirul gizzard to cook and eat. .

The crop.... it is in front of the breast in a lil pouch all of its own. If the bird had recently eaten it may be the size of a golfball or a bit bigger... if it was empty looks like a deflated baloon.

And be very careful of rat poison... we wont use it.... we have seen our birds runnin amok happy as clams chasin each other with frogs tryin see who gets the treat lol! What i am tryin say is that chickens can and will snarf down a small rat or possibly pick apart a larger one... then your birds will be essentially eatin the poison you put out to kill rats. No. They may not be able to get directly to the poison but by eatin the rat they are still getting in it.

 

[rebrascora]

Having looked at your photos of the necropsy, the two things that stand out are the large amount of yellow fat both in the abdominal area but also encasing the organs and the colour of the liver. The fat is probably at least partly caused by an imbalanced diet (breed and insufficient exercise can play a part too particularly at this time of year when weather restricts foraging) and may have lead to Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome which is sadly becoming more common in backyard flocks as people are tempted to give their birds more treats than is healthy for them. The thick fatty deposits restrict the cloaca and make it progressively more difficult for the birds to lay their egg and the straining may lead to liver rupture, because the structure of the liver is already compromised.
As I mentioned in the necropsy thread, I would cut the scratch from their diet altogether and consider changing their regular feed to a pellet or crumble if you currently feed a grain mix.

Below is a link to another thread where a similar problem is being experienced...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/update-necropsy-results.1216150/

 

[joshcaerter]

Hi, I am at a loss with what is causing my chickens to die. They are RI reds from TSC which were hatched in August. They have grown well and all appear to be healthy with good weight/size. They started laying in late November/ early December. I live in Western NY and it has been an unusually cold winter. I leave a light on in the coop near the floor for heat if they get chilled. Recently I have been collecting average size eggs that have bright red blood on them. More than enough that it concerned me. I do not have a way to identify which hen is laying the bloody eggs, but I have recently lost 3 hens. The first I thought nothing about, chickens die, right? The next one was found in the afternoon on the same day. I examined her postierior and found she had bloody feathers, raw skin. Yesterday no one died but I had a bloody egg. This afternoon I have a dead hen. Same thing l, her rear is raw, bloody and it even appears her skin has separated or something. I am thinking prolapse but I am not a vet and have only been raising chickens for a couple of years. I also have a dozen or so leg horns and 1 RI Red in another pen. They are 2 and 3 years old respectively. They all seem fine other than some have alittle frost bite on their combs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Differential diagnosis’:
1. Prolapsed vent
2. Genetic abnormality
3. Viral/bacterial
4. Worms
5. Cocci (whatever that is)
6. Predator (no break ins or feathers plucked out though)

Saw your post. this is happening to my chickens right now (3/15/26). Did you ever figure out what the cause was? thanks
josh

 

[casportpony]

Saw your post. this is happening to my chickens right now (3/15/26). Did you ever figure out what the cause was? thanks
josh

Josh, welcome to BYC. The member who started this thread hasn't been online since 2018. May I suggest that you start a new thread and include pictures of your chicken?