Need Help, i think my pullet is sick! *pic*

[Diamante]

I got my serama pullet almost a month ago and she has had missing butt feathers since. She has white stuff on her vent that always looks wet. The breeder has never seen her birds look like this. I started her on chick feed since its medicated. I also have Sulmet that i could give her. Her sisters are laying and she hasnt started yet, could she be having problems? What should I do? Thanks for any help, Lisa

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

It's possible that the stuff around her vent is just poop that stuck to her. It may be that some of the feathers around the vent were pulled out because of this, too, or the others could be trying to clean her off and are pulling feathers out with the poop.
In any case, you should probably give her vent and abdomin a really good wash and wait to see if it comes back.

Also, if she's laying age, then she will need layer feed for the calcium, etc . . . that's in it. At this point, I'm not sure that the medication in the chick feed will do anything; I think it may be more of a preventative than an active medication. You could suppliment with the chick feed while giving her mainly layer. Serama's don't lay as much as other breeds, though; it could be that she is just a late bloomer.

Hope she's OK!

 

[Diamante]

thanks,
shes in a cage in the house with no other chickens so nobody is pulling feathers out. I havent seen any signs that shes pulling them either.

 

[yomama]

I have a hen that is having a very similiar problem. Does the area stink? My girl's does.

. I posted about mine under "I think my hens vent is infected" you can check that pic out to see if it looks the same to you. If it does stink, other than poo, there is most likely an infection of some sort. In my thread, I never really got a response as to what it is, just some speculation, but I am definitely leaning towards Vent Gleet. At this point, I have her isolated in the house, cleaned her vent area up, trimmed up the feathers, so nothing touches the vent, making sure to keep the area very clean and dry. My understanding is that Vent Gleet is a fungal infection, so it is important to get probiotics in your hen, if this is what she has. A couple of TBS of regular, not artificially sweetened, yogurt helps alot. It was also suggested to me to try people's vaginal yeast infection meds to the area. Not sure if this will work, as there are different strains of yeast infections, but I guess it is worth a try. Good luck!

 

[Diamante]

Yomama,
I read your post and also think she may have vent gleet. I dont think hers is as bad as your hens yet. I read a post and was going to put it on your thread but i had to leave earlier. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1986213 This person says meds may irratate the infection to only give the probiotics. I got some yogurt and fed her some. I dont think ill feed her as much because she is only an 8oz serama lol. I hope both of our hens get better.
Lisa

 

[yomama]

Quote:
Thanks for the link. I actually came across that and copied it to my documents already.

This is the advice/protocal I decided to go by, and, it seems to coincide with what my vet told me to do, until (unless) I need to bring her in. I hope both our hens get better too. Best of luck to you and your hen!

 

[yomama]

computer issues

 

[superbly happy hen]

Another thing to think about is worms. I offer this because the guy I get my chickens from told me that poopy ick sticking to the vent area-really gooey and all- often means the chicken has worms, in his experience anyway. He said you can get worming meds from seed stores specifically for poultry. My pullet has some other problem, but this came up in my discussions when I called him recently. It turns out that my chicken does not have anything going on in the vent area. I thought she was smelling badly, and told the seller this, but I was wrong-what I was smelling was actually a new pair of leather boots I was wearing that were wet from rain, and they smelled terrible! Anyway, Good luck.