My hens vent is extremely impacted!

[mymilliefleur]

How is she doing?

 

[RubyNala97]

How is she doing?

Thank you for asking. I was actually wanting to post tonight because I need advice!! She is doing good but her vent is not improving. She's eating, drinking, being as sweet as ever, talkative, and letting me give her the antibiotic. She is on clavamox 125mg 2xday, metacam for inflammation and vetericyn spray 2xday. She is pooping good too. The written diagnosis by the vet is: "A firm growth/thickening of the bottom lip of her vent, that is secondarily necrotic and infected". The vent still looks very bad and is hard as a rock. It has a huge scab over it. The vet tried to remove the scab but said it was causing to much bleeding so she left it. My biggest concern is how is this girl going to pass an egg through that hole with something in the way that is as hard as a rock?? Will her body know to not make eggs? It's a hard growth that is bulging out from inside the bottom half of her vent. I soaked her in warm salt water today for 10 mins. She actually seemed to enjoy it. I just don't know what to do long term. Thank you for any advice. Here's a pic from today: (the second picture is to try and show how it protrudes out).

 

[mymilliefleur]

If she is acting normal, perky, eating, etc, than she will probably be fine. It has only been a few days since you discovered her, so she probably needs some more time to heal. I had a barred rock hen a few years ago that had a similar injury as your hen has. The wound smelled terrible and was full of maggots. I took her inside cleaned her up and put her back with the flock. It probably took at least three weeks but the wound healed just fine.
Do you know if she is laying currently? She has had this wound for a while, so she is either not laying, or has been able to lay with out issues. It sounds like you are doing a good job with her, I think she will be fine.

 

[MrsBrooke]

The only way to know is to wait and see. It's possible she could become egg bound. If she does, include Epsom salts in your warm bath to relax her muscles.

If the blockage won't let the egg pass, she's got about 48 hours max... You can aspirate an egg, which involves sucking out the contents of the egg with a syringe/needle and gently collapsing the egg shell to remove it.

Give her time to heal herself. You're doing a great job!

MrsB

 

[RubyNala97]

If she is acting normal, perky, eating, etc, than she will probably be fine. It has only been a few days since you discovered her, so she probably needs some more time to heal. I had a barred rock hen a few years ago that had a similar injury as your hen has. The wound smelled terrible and was full of maggots. I took her inside cleaned her up and put her back with the flock. It probably took at least three weeks but the wound healed just fine.
Do you know if she is laying currently? She has had this wound for a while, so she is either not laying, or has been able to lay with out issues. It sounds like you are doing a good job with her, I think she will be fine.

The only way to know is to wait and see. It's possible she could become egg bound. If she does, include Epsom salts in your warm bath to relax her muscles.

If the blockage won't let the egg pass, she's got about 48 hours max... You can aspirate an egg, which involves sucking out the contents of the egg with a syringe/needle and gently collapsing the egg shell to remove it.

Give her time to heal herself. You're doing a great job!

MrsB

Thank you, both. She is acting great but I am very worried that this hard growth will block an egg. She is approximately 6 months, and she may have started laying, I don't know for sure. I have a bunch of girls her age and have been finding pullet eggs all over for the last month. There is a drug called "Lupron" and it stops the hen from producing eggs. Anyone ever heard of it? Should I try to obtain it and give it to her?? I could take her to the vet to get it. I don't know if I could get in there to aspirate an egg out. The bottom lip is literally a big, rock hard ball. The size of a ping pong ball. Thanks again for all the help and support!

 

[MrsBrooke]

If she's endured some kind of trauma, it's possible that her body is redirecting the nutrients from making eggs to healing her body. Making an egg may not be top priority for her.

As for the stuff to prevent her from producing eggs, that is up to you! If you feel she is a pet, I invite you to exhaust everything you can do to make her as happy and comfortable as possible.

On the other hand, it can get quite expensive, and an honest appraisal of the return on investment of utility animal should be considered.

At the end of the day, we all do the best we can for our birds, and I can tell you have a lot of love in your heart for your chicken babies.

Just watch her for any lethargy, going off food and water, or passing unusual poops.

MrsB

 

[RubyNala97]

If she's endured some kind of trauma, it's possible that her body is redirecting the nutrients from making eggs to healing her body. Making an egg may not be top priority for her.

As for the stuff to prevent her from producing eggs, that is up to you! If you feel she is a pet, I invite you to exhaust everything you can do to make her as happy and comfortable as possible.

On the other hand, it can get quite expensive, and an honest appraisal of the return on investment of utility animal should be considered.

At the end of the day, we all do the best we can for our birds, and I can tell you have a lot of love in your heart for your chicken babies.

Just watch her for any lethargy, going off food and water, or passing unusual poops.

MrsB

Thank you. She is a pet, I guess. My flock is made up of silkie that I breed. But I don't name them or anything. Ugh. I grew up with my mom who is a wildlife rehabilitator and goes to great lengths to save animals and then release them back to the wild. It's sorta ingrained in me to save an animal at all costs. But you are so right. I know my vet will want to do this and that and it ends up costing 100's of dollars. I think I'm going to give her some time and see what happens. Tonight while I was giving her meds and wiping her bottom I noticed that the scab is starting to come off in pieces. Underneath it is raw fleshy, bumpy stuff. It only bled a tiny bit. Looks like a small blister in one spot, possibly where a feather may have been growing from? And I see white. I'm wondering if there's puss. Tomorrow I will soak her for awhile in warm salt water and see what happens. I'm here. This is tonight's pic after I sprayed the vetericyn spray on it.

 

[RubyNala97]

My pretty girl passed away last night.
The crazy thing is that she started doing extremely better. For the past two days the growth on her vent had gotten smaller. I'm wondering if it perhaps traveled inside of her. Before it started looking better I had removed the scab and saw that underneath was all kinds of crazy colors and textures. Looked cancerous. Then it just started going down. She was in the corner of her cage for a few hours, not eating or drinking and then had white chalky streaks coming out the vent. she may have been egg bound. I did not think there was anyway for her to pass an egg through that mass. Thank you everyone for all of the help. It was a learning experience.

 

[mymilliefleur]

My pretty girl passed away last night.

The crazy thing is that she started doing extremely better. For the past two days the growth on her vent had gotten smaller. I'm wondering if it perhaps traveled inside of her. Before it started looking better I had removed the scab and saw that underneath was all kinds of crazy colors and textures. Looked cancerous. Then it just started going down. She was in the corner of her cage for a few hours, not eating or drinking and then had white chalky streaks coming out the vent. she may have been egg bound. I did not think there was anyway for her to pass an egg through that mass. Thank you everyone for all of the help. It was a learning experience.

Oh no! Sorry for your loss! I wonder is she could have had some cancer like thing? I really don't know. It's possible that the infection was a lot worse than you thought. Can you do an autopsy on her?

 

[RubyNala97]

Oh no! Sorry for your loss! I wonder is she could have had some cancer like thing? I really don't know. It's possible that the infection was a lot worse than you thought. Can you do an autopsy on her?

Thank you. I thought about it, should I?? Can you give me some basic pointers on doing a necropsy?