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Hi. First time poster and a new chicken owner. We got our mixed flock of 12 chicks in April. These are the first birds we've owned and have no prior experience.
- Flock of 12 birds
- Fully insulated and vented raised coop with white wood shavings for deep litter method bedding
- Covered run with part dirt (for dust bath and natural grit) and part twice chipped wood chips
- free access food and water in the run-water cleaned as needed (sometimes several times a day)
- diet of no corn 16% protein egg layer crumbles with treats from the garden, scratch, mealworms
- free access to grit and crushed oyster shells
The 1 bird that we're having a problem with is a ColorPack Egg Layer. We first noticed an egg with blood on it but didn't find anything abnormal when we checked the birds. Then on the 3rd day of having a bloody egg (blood on the shell), we noticed the other birds picking on her. That's when we saw her extended vent with what looked to be thick white puss on it. We immediately removed her from the flock and placed her in a large wire dog kennel in the garage with water, food, bedding, and a roost. We put probiotics and vitamins in her water. We then gave her a bath with Epson Salts and realized that what we thought was thick white puss was actually hard and stuck to her vent. There was also some thick white/yellow discharge that cleaned off relatively easily. Her defecating was not very frequent at first and was smaller than normal. It has now begun to increase in both frequency and size. She has continued to lay eggs as normal.
We've given Epson Salt baths for 3 days and have just finished our 2nd night of baths with Dawn. We've followed each bath with an application of a generic version of Monistat cream. I've been able to get several large pieces of the "crust" off, but there is still a bunch left stuck to her. I'm concerned about getting too aggressive with trying to get it off and causing damage to her. Her vent is still protruding, and I haven't tried to get it back into place due to the white substance. I've looked online for pictures of vent gleet, and the pictures I've found have been mostly just messy feathers and she didn't have that until after cleaning her up last night, when I went back to check on her, her feathers looked like those I found online and cleaned up easily. We moved to ACV in her water after 2 days of probiotics and we also give her some yogurt each day.
My questions are, does this look like vent gleet, or do I have something else going on? Do you have any other ideas for treatment I should try? I'm starting to get anxious because it's been 5 days of "treatment" so far and it looks like we're a long way from getting her over it. She's behaving normally and seems to be alert, and she's eating and drinking. I've let her outside in the yard the last 2 days while the other birds were in the confined to the run and she's doing her normal chicken stuff.
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
Hi. First time poster and a new chicken owner. We got our mixed flock of 12 chicks in April. These are the first birds we've owned and have no prior experience.
- Flock of 12 birds
- Fully insulated and vented raised coop with white wood shavings for deep litter method bedding
- Covered run with part dirt (for dust bath and natural grit) and part twice chipped wood chips
- free access food and water in the run-water cleaned as needed (sometimes several times a day)
- diet of no corn 16% protein egg layer crumbles with treats from the garden, scratch, mealworms
- free access to grit and crushed oyster shells
The 1 bird that we're having a problem with is a ColorPack Egg Layer. We first noticed an egg with blood on it but didn't find anything abnormal when we checked the birds. Then on the 3rd day of having a bloody egg (blood on the shell), we noticed the other birds picking on her. That's when we saw her extended vent with what looked to be thick white puss on it. We immediately removed her from the flock and placed her in a large wire dog kennel in the garage with water, food, bedding, and a roost. We put probiotics and vitamins in her water. We then gave her a bath with Epson Salts and realized that what we thought was thick white puss was actually hard and stuck to her vent. There was also some thick white/yellow discharge that cleaned off relatively easily. Her defecating was not very frequent at first and was smaller than normal. It has now begun to increase in both frequency and size. She has continued to lay eggs as normal.
We've given Epson Salt baths for 3 days and have just finished our 2nd night of baths with Dawn. We've followed each bath with an application of a generic version of Monistat cream. I've been able to get several large pieces of the "crust" off, but there is still a bunch left stuck to her. I'm concerned about getting too aggressive with trying to get it off and causing damage to her. Her vent is still protruding, and I haven't tried to get it back into place due to the white substance. I've looked online for pictures of vent gleet, and the pictures I've found have been mostly just messy feathers and she didn't have that until after cleaning her up last night, when I went back to check on her, her feathers looked like those I found online and cleaned up easily. We moved to ACV in her water after 2 days of probiotics and we also give her some yogurt each day.
My questions are, does this look like vent gleet, or do I have something else going on? Do you have any other ideas for treatment I should try? I'm starting to get anxious because it's been 5 days of "treatment" so far and it looks like we're a long way from getting her over it. She's behaving normally and seems to be alert, and she's eating and drinking. I've let her outside in the yard the last 2 days while the other birds were in the confined to the run and she's doing her normal chicken stuff.
Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.
