Graphic Pic Alert!!*UPDATE* Back under the knife!!11/10/09

[HennyPennies2007]

I have 24 week old pullet...she eats layer rations, veggies etc. Today she would not get off the roost....(Yesterday she was fine) I was cleaning the dropping board under her and smelled dead/decomp smell. I was wondering what it was and sniffed around and it was the HEN! This is a picture of her vent. There is a a large abscess..on the top right of the picture you can see where it melds into healthy tissue... I cleaned it and tried to open it up...I used a scalpel, and as I cut away I realized it was like granular tissue...proud flesh. I stopped cutting then. The vent itself appears fine, I can feel no egg in the body at all. I gave her a big dose of penicillin in the breast muscle and put her in a cage with a lamp. Last time I went out she was up and clucking a bit (I would be too!!). She has picked at food and drank some...stool was fine when I started, but is now mostly urine and it's yellowish. Maybe from not eating....I was going to do iodine tea. The tissue I cut into had blood vessels in it...I never saw any pus....cottage cheese or otherwise... just that grainy white tissue...any thoughts? I could remove it all, but that would be a lot of tissue...Was going to cull, but she seems healthy enough...bright eyes and not listless...but she won't move either (OW!!) She has been wormed and has no mites...

 

[silkiechicken]

My best guess is a partial prolapse. I would try and keep it clean for a few days and decide from there. The hard part is going to be getting off any stuck junk. A bath might be useful just to get a better view of the area.

 

[HennyPennies2007]

This is after the bath....!! I scrubbed her good....!! My first thought when I saw her was that she was eggbound...squatting down and not moving...But she is defiantely infected...It stinks!!! That lump is thick and solid as well...

 

[jjthink]

Poor girl. Hope she'll be okay.
She may benefit from a bit of pain relief till the antibiotic kicks in (if there isn't active bleeding going on). 1 baby aspirin crushed in one cup of water (rough equivalent of five 325mg aspirins per gallon of water).
JJ

 

[aimeeinwv]

I read somewhere yesterday to separate her from the flock to prevent pecking and try Preparation H - maybe you can google that and get more info? Hope your girl gets better real soon!

 

[sonew123]

Has she laid an egg yet? Maybe she laid one and it broke internally and cut her up pretty good and got infected?? I know you said no puss but does it look like scar tissue-the picture is a tad fuzzy but clear enough for me to see something painful. How long was she in the bath for??

 

[HennyPennies2007]

Had her in there about an hour total...left her sitzing while I went to town to buy supplies...then she got her butt washed with Hybiclenz...and plus I cut a ton of that funky stuff off....

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

That looks odd for sure. Do you have any iodine or peroxide handy? I may want to disinfect it with one of those. Hopefully she'll recover easily.

ETA: Could this be vent gleet????

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
When you saw the vessel was it thin or thick? I mean IMO-and this is only me thinking outloud to you. I am a poker proder and I would cut as much out as I could avoiding the vessels or have something on hand to pinch off the bleeder vessels-I would totally stop if it really starts to bleed but I would see how far I could get...thats just me-

 

[HennyPennies2007]

yeah I was just reading another post about infections... and it said to remove all the proud flesh!!!

Now I gotta go cut more...Jeez... poor hen...I have the shakes....I mean, I thought I was pretty tough....I just don't want to hurt her anymore....