Pasty butt in a year old chicken

[animalfarmer]

Hi I'm new to to the term "pasty butt" ! but think one of our year old chickens may have it. Saw she had diarrhoea today with a dirty butt and on closer inspection, saw she had what looked like a blocked vent full of dried poo.

We washed the area with warm water and have freed the vent up but still lots of crusty bits there as totally stuck to her feathers. The "poo" had yellow bits in so I think she may have been trying to pass an egg and it broke halfway out? Her vent is very inflamed but she seems otherwise ok ie. head up, tail feathers pointing, not looking sad. She may only be 6-9 months old as her legs are yellow compared to the other chickens.

Do I need to be worried or just keep an eye on her to check for any more blockages?

Olive oil/vaseline comes next after a second clean once she has calmed down a bit....

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Haunted55]

Hi I'm new to to the term "pasty butt" ! but think one of our year old chickens may have it. Saw she had diarrhoea today with a dirty butt and on closer inspection, saw she had what looked like a blocked vent full of dried poo.

We washed the area with warm water and have freed the vent up but still lots of crusty bits there as totally stuck to her feathers. The "poo" had yellow bits in so I think she may have been trying to pass an egg and it broke halfway out? Her vent is very inflamed but she seems otherwise ok ie. head up, tail feathers pointing, not looking sad. She may only be 6-9 months old as her legs are yellow compared to the other chickens.

Do I need to be worried or just keep an eye on her to check for any more blockages?

Olive oil/vaseline comes next after a second clean once she has calmed down a bit....

Thanks for any advice.

Use the vaseline, but not the Olive Oil. Too many chances of secondary infections with it's use. Can you do pictures? It helps to 'see'. My first thought is there may be a laying issue going on and you need to make sure she isn't egg bound. Feel her belly up to the vent, gently and see if there are any lumps that you can feel.

 

[animalfarmer]

Ok here are some fairly gross pictures. Taken after bathing a second time. Held her in warm water and gently pulled some of the crusty bits off, but she's pooping foul smelling runny poo now.

Her vent is red and there's a large crusty piece which won't budge (black section to the right).

Checked for being egg bound but can't feel anything.

Have isolated her as if it's an infection, don't want her infecting the others. She seemed brighter after the first bath and was feeding ravenously, so I'm hoping the warm water has helped and the runny poo is what was in her system trying to get out!

SO grateful for your advice. Hey 3 weeks in and I'm already discussing chicken poop!

 

[realsis]

you might consider putting her on a antibiotic to help with the swelling and infection. a general anti infective will do. if she is still drinking well you can use a water soluble antibiotic like Gallimycine . any general anti infective should help if you can't find that. if she were mine I'd try a antibiotic to see if it might help. some of the tissue looks necrotic or dead the black spot concerns me. that area looks like its dead. it might just be the picture.. but I'd try some antibiotics and see if that helps. what is the yellow mass? is it infection? keep us posted on how she's doing. I wish you the very best of luck!

 

[Haunted55]

you might consider putting her on a antibiotic to help with the swelling and infection. a general anti infective will do. if she is still drinking well you can use a water soluble antibiotic like Gallimycine . any general anti infective should help if you can't find that. if she were mine I'd try a antibiotic to see if it might help. some of the tissue looks necrotic or dead the black spot concerns me. that area looks like its dead. it might just be the picture.. but I'd try some antibiotics and see if that helps. what is the yellow mass? is it infection? keep us posted on how she's doing. I wish you the very best of luck!

she doesn't need an antibiotic, that will just make this worse.

 

[Haunted55]

I think your poor girl may be going through a bout of Gleet as well as having a touch of prolapse thrown in for good measure. Are you using ACV in their water? If so you really should stop until you know the PH level of your water. A better choice would be 1 vitamin C tab. 250mg to a gallon of water. this will treat the whole system. I just had to treat my whole flock for Gleet, a month ago, after using ACV in their water. Even the roosters had it. I tried a couple of things, Floragen3, nystatin cream, nystatin liquid, the cream and the probiotic helped the most, but just didn't get rid of it completely. I finally switched to Acidified Copper Sulfate in their water and it's now gone, but for one hen who I now think is chronic. She was the first one to show symptoms and her bottom looked like your hen's. First thing I did was bring her into the house so I could bathe her everyday if needed, it was, apply a vitamin E capsule to the swelling to make it go down. A few hours later I would apply the nystatin cream to her bottom as well as inside as far as I could reach and sprinkle the contents of the Floragen3 capsule on her food. This did get rid of most of the smell, but not all. If you have a nystatin cream at home, use it, if not and you don't want to go to a Vet to get it, just use the Copper Sulfate. The dosing is 1/4 tsp. per gallon, needs to be changed every 24 hours whether they've used it all or not. I would treat the whole flock of your birds. This dosing will not hurt them and may keep anyone else from becoming symptomatic.

http://fowlfacts.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=medshhh&action=display&thread=219

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/vent-gleet-aka-nasty-chicken-butt

If you've ever had a yeast infection, you know how raw they can make your skin. I believe this is what you're seeing in your girl. The vitamin E capsule 400ie, broken open and the oil applied to the skin around and inside her vent will not only protect her skin from further burning, but also shrink the swelling. I never added the ACV with the Copper Sulfate as my water is normally a 5.5PH and no further acidfying is needed for me.

 

[animalfarmer]

Thank you SO much and from a quick reading round - had never heard of gleet or ACV (now I know it's apple cider vinegar and no I hadn't been using it though I had read it can help with worms) I think you're spot on. Don't have any of the remedies you suggested, so I'm off to get some after her next bathing Will keep you posted on how she gets on.

THANK YOU!!!

 

[animalfarmer]

Update. Almost 3 weeks later and no real improvement. She's isolated from the other chickens. We've been bathing her daily, giving yoghurt in feed, spraying iodine on vent after bathing and adding vitamins and probiotics to her feed too. Took to vet 5 days ago and he prescribed antibiotics (terramycin) for 5 days as was sure the diarrahoea was caused by a parasite infection.

She's eating and drinking well and looks otherwise healthy with glossy feathers but can't seem to shift the crusty vent problem. Only real improvement is that the top of her vent is now a rosy pink rather than a disgusting yellow mess, the bottom half of her vent, however, is blocked with the yellow "scrambled egg" crust and she still smells really bad!

Am going to give it another week, but it's starting to look like a hopeless case!

 

[CountryChick5]

I have a hen that has a similar issue, except there isn't any particular smell, and I don't thin I've seen any funny lokking chicken poo, but then again I don't exactly go looking for chicken poo. I will definatly be more on the look out, because today I noticed this(WARNING: IT"S GROSS)

:

SHe is still laying, and seems to be eating and drinking. It's been hot and rainy in GA lately, sometimes one sometimes t'other, sometimes both, so She normally looks either like a drowned rat, or is in the "I'm hot!" pose. Otherwise, she seems fine. Any suggestions? She's an original chicken for us a 1st generation, and our only RIR left. She is still our best layer, hasn't stopped once on her laying one a day, everyday, streak. Except maybe a week in winter. So, she means a lot to me, even though she is afraid of her own shadow.

 

[CountryChick5]

sorry forgot the picture...

anyways, here it is: (no forreal)