Is this vent gleet or just a poopy butt? (Gross pics warning)

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

"Raisin" eating carrot soup like a good girl.

Yeah Raisin !

eat the blues away !

 

[LaFleche]

They ate most of the carrot soup today! One of the other hens also made this poop.

I'm assuming it's a yellowish brown because of the carrot soup, but is that a couple of tiny white worm eggs I see in the poop? The objects I am referring to are kind of in the middle/right of the more solid part.

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Bonus picture of the Welsummer (I have named her "Raisin") eating carrot soup like a good girl. That dish was full yesterday!
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This poop looks like a worm poop to me and I would definitely recommend to deworm them all.

There is no harm in deworming them, if done correctly. But there is a lot of harm caused by worm infestations.

 

[LaFleche]

For a faecal float test collect several poops from different chickens for three consecutive days and have them analysed.

But: Worms will release their eggs in intervals (mostly 1-3 weeks) depending on the species. This means you can have an "all clear" result from the vet, but the chickens are still infested and discard worms the followings days.

 

[KaseySnow]

Just like that without any further investigating the cause? No necropsy done?

And what about the de-worming?

Unfortunately that tends to be how it goes with this gig. I have never met the vet that works with the park.

I think she's an avian/exotic vet, but I don't know for sure. I've never been present while she's done the evaluations.

I don't know if the program coordinator asked her about the deworming again or the fecals. The coordinator is a new hire and has only been in the position for a few weeks, so she may not have known to ask about a necropsy.

 

[KaseySnow]

Thanks so much!

The only other possible diarrhea source I can think of is that we have some chick feed we are trying to use up, so it's been mixed in with the layer feed we are giving them. Could eating that be causing these issues? I thought chick feed was more or less the same except less calcium, and they do have access to lots of oyster shells to counteract this, but correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[KaseySnow]

The supplement should contain Vitamin B complex, A, D3+K and E. Others are optional and some also provide electrolytes etc.

I have some Country Life liquid vitamins with all natural vitamin sources (plants, fruits, etc). Will this help in the meantime until I can get other vitamins to put in their water? I was thinking I could mix it in with the Moro's carrot soup. Or is this vitamin liquid bad for chickens? The only vitamin on your list that it doesn't appear to have is vitamin K.

It was warmish and sunny with no wind this afternoon, so I went ahead and soaked her bum as soon as I got off work. Hung out for a while and she seemed okay, got most of it off except for a few tiny bits in the feathers and a very small lump near the vent that seemed quite attached to the skin, but it should not obstruct any future poop.

Still following up on the de-wormer to see when they were last treated for worms. The museum who owns this flock is in the middle of a changing of hands for the park these girls live in. The new person in charge doesn't know how recently they were de-wormed, but is looking into it.

I know they have at least one annual vet visit with the flock and am hoping de-wormer is administered during that time, but I will find out. Dunno how often chickens should be treated for worms.

 

[KaseySnow]

Thank you for the input, eggcessive! I'm glad to hear you don't think it's early stages of vent gleet. At the time of posting I wasn't sure if poop having close contact to skin could cause vent gleet down the road.

After cleaning her off yesterday and seeing that her skin looks fine, maybe a little red, but nothing that looks like an open wound or infection, I'm feeling better about it not being gleet. Now just trying to figure out why she is having runny poop.

Here is a picture of her this morning.

Doesn't look like she preened her feathers yesterday after I washed her off. Not as much poop as before, but definitely runny. I'm making the carrot soup for her now and probably gonna feed her some vitamins and high probiotic yogurt later.

She was moving kind of sluggishly this morning and was keeping her head tucked most of the time. Hopefully she'll perk up in a few days after the extra nutrients.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

in 2018 our polish went broody and one of the volunteers told the staff that they thought she was sick. The staff person went and looked at her, then sent an e-mail talking about euthanizing her if she didn't get better. Well intentioned, but I definitely spoke up quickly to explain about broody behavior, haha.

OH! poor dear... motherhood is dangerous in your coop! Poor dear... she just wants to keep the babies warm, how wonderful is that? nothing nicer any creature ever does than to forgo some good worm hunting hours for warming up the eggs. Go give her a treat, lovely momma.

I give wet mash in the morning in the run and if there is a hen in the coop laying or brooding, I give her a little bowl so she doesn't get left out of the breakfast loop. I don't know why the wet mash is SO much better than the regular food, but it an easy treat that makes them happy, so I think the broody girls deserve a share.

 

[KaseySnow]

This poop looks like a worm poop to me and I would definitely recommend to deworm them all.

There is no harm in deworming them, if done correctly. But there is a lot of harm caused by worm infestations.

Thanks for the input! I've been staring at loads of chicken poop pictures since yesterday trying to figure out if it's a normal cecal poop, or a worm poop.

 

[KaseySnow]

Sad news. Raisin was really thin when I picked her up on Thursday. I could feel her keel bone very clearly with no padding around it. The vet came by the coop this weekend to look at her and recommended euthanasia, so she was put down.

Kinda bummed that we never got to figure out what was wrong with her, but so far no one else is showing any signs like hers. I am wondering if it was possibly kidney failure, which I've read can also cause poop that looks like hers. I am going to still see whether we can do some kind of fecal lab work to gauge whether or not the rest of the flock has worms.

Thanks everyone for all of your help and input while I've been trying to figure this out.