Ongoing vent gleet

[Tseeburger]

I need help.. first time dealing with vent gleet.. Rhode Island red hen.. I've been treating for probably a month now with some improvement then back to worse again. Symptoms are sporadic laying.. white discharge from vent.. red vent..loss of feathers below vent. Poop seems mostly normal. Appetite seems normal. She is in the basement now due to cold weather where we live and I didn't want to keep her in the cold while treating. Treatment has included..soaking and cleaning every other day, greek yogurt, monistat placed inside vent and outside, ACV in water every other day, probiotics on off days, also tried the Epsom salt in water treatment for one day. I'm at my wits end with this and i feel awful for her at this point. Please help!

 

[LaylaJane]

I'd try stand alone probiotic in her water to treat here and now, the yogurt is a good start, but she may need a little boost to it. Hope she gets better soon!

 

[Lillith37]

Something I’ve tried for sour crop which may help to clear her whole system is a vaginal thrush pessary. Where I live I can get a course of 6x 100mg clotrimazole pessaries and I give one to the affected bird orally once in the morning and a night until things resolve. It has always worked for me for sour crop. One of my hens once looked to have a yeasty discharge from her vent and I gave her an epsom salt bath, cleaned her up, blow dried with the hair dryer and gave her one of the pessaries and it worked for that too. Something else I’ve found very useful as a preventative and cure for mild cases is fennel tea. Fresh fronds or dried seeds boiled in water til fragrant, then cooled and given to the bird via dropper.

 

[Lillith37]

Make sure her crop is emptying properly every night and make sure she isn’t getting into any kind of mouldy food, like compost bin etc.

 

[Tseeburger]

Something I’ve tried for sour crop which may help to clear her whole system is a vaginal thrush pessary. Where I live I can get a course of 6x 100mg clotrimazole pessaries and I give one to the affected bird orally once in the morning and a night until things resolve. It has always worked for me for sour crop. One of my hens once looked to have a yeasty discharge from her vent and I gave her an epsom salt bath, cleaned her up, blow dried with the hair dryer and gave her one of the pessaries and it worked for that too. Something else I’ve found very useful as a preventative and cure for mild cases is fennel tea. Fresh fronds or dried seeds boiled in water til fragrant, then cooled and given to the bird via dropper.

Is a pessary like the vaginal inserts? Sorry haven't heard that term.. you give orally? A whole one? 2 times per day?

 

[Lillith37]

Yeah so where I live in Australia, you can get treatments for simple vaginal thrush at the chemist. One of those treatments is a 6 day course of tablets that you insert into the vagina usually at night. It’s often referred to as a pessary. So the six day course contains six tablets of 100mg clotrimazole which is an anti-fungal medication. They also do a larger single dose of 500mg but obviously for birds the lower dose/multiple tablets is easier (and also cheaper, weirdly). So if I have a bird with persistent sour crop or if they look like they are developing vent gleet, I give them one whole tablet orally in the morning and night until their symptoms resolve. It has never taken longer than a couple of days to resolve. The tablets are big so I break them into halves or thirds.

The best natural cure/prevention I have found for yeast related issues is fennel tea as I mentioned above.

The reason I say make sure her crop is emptying overnight/functioning normally is because I’ve read that vent gleet can arise from bigger internal systemic yeast issues so if it’s persistent in your case it may be starting or be present higher up the bird’s digestive tract, i.e. the crop.

I would also advise the use of coconut oil in and around her vent after you wash & dry her. It may not cure a fully expressed yeast infection but it will help — it has antifungal properties — and it feels very very soothing.

 

[Lillith37]

One last point which is that the 100mg clotrimazole tablet twice a day is also just an estimate dose for my adult birds, most of whom sit around 2kg in weight.

 

[Tseeburger]

Yeah so where I live in Australia, you can get treatments for simple vaginal thrush at the chemist. One of those treatments is a 6 day course of tablets that you insert into the vagina usually at night. It’s often referred to as a pessary. So the six day course contains six tablets of 100mg clotrimazole which is an anti-fungal medication. They also do a larger single dose of 500mg but obviously for birds the lower dose/multiple tablets is easier (and also cheaper, weirdly). So if I have a bird with persistent sour crop or if they look like they are developing vent gleet, I give them one whole tablet orally in the morning and night until their symptoms resolve. It has never taken longer than a couple of days to resolve. The tablets are big so I break them into halves or thirds.

The best natural cure/prevention I have found for yeast related issues is fennel tea as I mentioned above.

The reason I say make sure her crop is emptying overnight/functioning normally is because I’ve read that vent gleet can arise from bigger internal systemic yeast issues so if it’s persistent in your case it may be starting or be present higher up the bird’s digestive tract, i.e. the crop.

I would also advise the use of coconut oil in and around her vent after you wash & dry her. It may not cure a fully expressed yeast infection but it will help — it has antifungal properties — and it feels very very soothing.

Thank you for all the great info!! I will try all this for sure!