HELP! Co Works hens has wet rear end and red swollen vent.

[yoursecret_1]

A co worker of mine has a hen that is still eating and drinking and seams to be very good.But her back end is wet and is dripping like water her vent is red and looks swollen.The back ends has a like milky watery stuff on the feathers.She is 24wks old .

 

[threehorses]

We really need more information. can you have your co-worker email me? I can post the conversation on here.

Stuff we need is in the second sticky post of this section. We need those questions answered.

I'd especially ask these things:

Is the bird on laying feed and has she been for about 2 weeks? If not, she should be, please. Preferably 20% as she's young.
Does she have access to oyster shell? If not, she should be.
Has she ever laid an egg?
Can he give an injection if necessary?

I suspect given her age that she's come into laying and is having a difficult time of the first one, or possibly has vent gleet or a bacterial infection.

At the least he needs to make sure she's on nearly straight laying pellets - not a lot of grain, less than 10% of her diet in grain in fact.
That she has free choice access to oyster shell (not egg shells, please) for calcium. If she hasn't been, I'd crush a 1/2 tums tablet and give this to her once today in a quickly eaten mash of her crumbles, water, yogurt, and the tums.
Give her yogurt daily for a week and then taper off for another week.
All of the birds can and should receive the above (minus the tums) if they're her age and pullets. If she's having an issue, they all might be.

He needs to feel her delicately about the vent/abdomen area for an egg. He could also lubricate his finger with olive or vegetable oil (gloved) and insert it gently into the upper part of her vent - against its upper wall. Have someone hold her gently while doing this. Use his other hand to feel her abdoment and see if there's an egg, or the debris of an egg, there.

I suspect what's going on is she's about to lay and might have had one tha tdidn't come out. If there is residue or an egg breaks in the bird, then you must remove all you can gently, and then flush the vent with either cool clean water, or cool water with a little bit of a very mild antiseptic like nolvasan. The egg bits and yolk must be flushed out to prevent infection.

If there's a very large egg that won't come out if she's placed in a warm water bath (and dried after to prevent chilling), then you can pierce the egg's end, crush it, and remove every bit of it but you MUST flush with the cool water and antiseptic like nolvasan. This is only in the case of extremely large eggs that aren't being passed in a day's time. It can be harmful so if you skip the flush, you might kill the bird.

If the egg is smaller and won't pass, you can gently just guide it out by putting some olive oil at the vent, using the finger to lube the egg, and using the finger and gentle abdomen pressure guiding the egg out. Flushing a little with cool water will help any inflammation if the egg comes out intact.

In the mean time, I think making sure her calcium in her diet is optimum is the most important thing.

If she gets at all lethargic, shots with penicillin might be necessary if she has gotten an infection from something remaining up in her system.

I would really like to know the answers to the questions above so that I can adjust my advice, if you don't mind - if it's possible?

Thank you for trying to help your friend.

 

[yoursecret_1]

She is on laying feed and has she been for about 3 weeks
Has access to oyster shelland grits
Not sure if she has ever laid an egg
Can give an injection if necessary
Feeds yogurt and rice every couple of days for a treat.

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
Sounds like he's doing a good job.

in that case I'd check her and the others out for mites a few times this week - but at night. Mites can also cause these symptoms. They're very tricky to find, nearly microscopic. So he would really have to look carefully - using a flashlight helps. (Of course, turn the coop lights on.) They don't always feed on the bird so you have to keep checking.

-or-

Treat symptomatically for mites/lice with permethrin dust ("poultry dust" or "mite dust", definitely not Sevin dust any more.) Also treat the coop and the wood one weekend for it. Using the spray permethrin 10% or goat lice liquid permethrin treatment on the wood gets into the cracks, eyes, and joints to kill mites that hide there when off the bird. That's also where they lay eggs so you'll kill emerging hatchlings. Sometimes you just have to treat and see if that helps as mites are so very tricky to catch.

I'd continue the yogurt but give that and the rice treats daily for at least a week, then weekly during the whole time of laying.

It might be the change of diet also caused a bit of bacterial imbalance if the food was switched quickly. Tell him to monitor her weight in case she's not eating the new feed. Sometimes that happens.

We'll wait for more information that he gets from home -like her weight, etc - and what his views are on this advice.

Thanks again!

 

[yoursecret_1]

Thank-you so much for you time and help.
He changes the litter and the nesting boxes litter and uses DE earth every week.
He just clean and hosed the coop out 4 weeks ago.
I don't think it is a mite problem myself.I had them in the spring and I use De Earth now and dust my bird so as not to have then ever again.I'm sure he does too cause he knows what a time I had to get rid of them.
He says that she is alway at the food eating.but will weight her also to keep an eye on her.
He is going to check her in the morning to see if she is egg bound.
thanks again for your time and help.
Sorry my friend has no pc.

 

[threehorses]

Well actually DE won't work against mites as they don't live on the bird usually. They live in the cracks of wood. But I'm glad it worked somehow for you.

And yeah they are really horrible to get rid of aren't they?

I'm glad to try to help.