I have an Americauna that is 5 1/2 months old, raised as a day old chick.
She has always been aloof, not really close with the other girls. She is one of my original 5 chickens (a few adult hens, and some new chicks were added a few months later).
She doesn't like to be held or pet, and won't come running over to you when you walk out back like the other chickens.
A few weeks ago I saw her spitting, and I thought that was odd. Now in retrospect I am thinking she might have been throwing up?
About 2 weeks ago we noticed she had poop hanging off her tail end (thinking diarhea). When we went to wash her off, we noticed that her vent was a real light flesh colored (our other's are more pinkish) and it is turned sideways! I don't know if this is genetics, possibly an injury for a hatchery sexing, I don't know. But we guessed this was why she was getting poop everywhere. It is getting worse because we cleaned her again a few days ago and it was a mess today. We ended up having to cut some of her bottom feathers because they were matted with poo, and washing her off. (This photo was snapped real quick while doing it, that's why there's poo, she is clean now).
There are a lot of signs that point to her being sick: she's very lethargic, stays by the coop, the "spitting", etc. it just took us awhile to really put this together as something dangerous because she has always been an aloof type of chicken. Also, if you notice in the pic down below her vent the skin is really red.
She is eating and drinking some. She pretty much just lays around (though most my chickens like to spend the day laying out in the sun). I'm very concerned about her. We have only been keeping chickens for about 6 months, and this is our first illness.
PLEASE HELP!
Photo 1: Hard to see (and don't mind the poop all over her, we washed it off). The vent is towards the top, very light and sideways (opens to the side not at the bottom).
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