Red Butt - Mystery Ailment

[hencam]

Interesting responses! Here are more clues -
The girls have DE in their favorite dust bathing areas and don't have a serious lice infestation (I've been through that so know!)
Eleanor is at the top of the pecking order. Feather loss isn't due to other hens.
No rooster.
She's showing no sign of molting.
She's stopped laying.
Her skin is hot to the touch (any horse people out there? Know how a lame horse feels? That's the same sort of heat) and she feels distended.

My intuitive guess is that there's something internal going on.
However, I have a triple acting skin cream leftover from treating a rabbit with itchy skin, and I'll try that. It has an antibiotic, fungicide and emollient. If there's a skin issue, that should do the trick.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

I hope that works; please let me know and I'll do the same on ours!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

If she has stopped laying...maybe she has become an internal layer. That would cause distension of the rear and a "plump" feel rather than a "softer" one of the normal cushion. Hope you can solve the problem!

 

[hencam]

More symptoms - this morning Eleanor is severely lame - limping on her right leg. Also, she is crooked and one wing is held looser. Still alert, but not eating. I put a vaselined finger up her vent and felt around. No egg. No obvious wound or lumps. But, a horrible putrid smell. Not good.

I'm going to go feel around in Edwina, Eleanor's twin. Teaches me that I should know what a healthy hen's vent feels like so I can compare!

 

[hencam]

UPDATE:
The general consensus was that Eleanor probably had a broken egg inside of her. The advice was the usual - "cull." I do cull, especially when a bird is in obvious pain and at death's door. But Eleanor was still bright-eyed. So, this is what I did:
epsom salt bath
vaseline on and in vent
isolation
water but limited food, then fed high protein dried meal worms
let her out to graze (important - her first big poop was mostly grass)
baytril antibiotic
1 tsp epsom salt mixed in a half cup of pedialyte (childrens' electrolytes) poured down her throat using a syringe
2 tablespoons olive oil poured down her throat.

Eleanor is now eating, pooping and eager to get back to her flock. However, her red skin, although better, is still pink and has feather loss. I don't want her pecked at so she'll remain in isolation. Also, some lameness and sagging on the right side remains. So, I'll continue to give her extra care. I'm optimistic.

 

[Jenski]

Is it possible your hen has had salpingitis or some other internal infection? If it spreads it could theoretically cause the warmth and swelling you mentioned.

I am not in favor of random penicillin dosings, but perhaps it might be worth investigating the types of penicillin that might work on such an internal infection.

?

 

[hencam]

I've posted on my Sept. 1, 2008 blog how Eleanor is doing and everything I did to save her. Hope that helps someone else!

go to www.hencam.com/blog

 

[Emzyyy]

Maybe because they have no feathers maybe they get sunburnt LOL

 

[gumpsgirl]

It sounds like she's doing much better!

 

[beakkeeper]

I'm glad she's perking up!

People who will give up on a bird just because she's not doing to well make me Congrats on doing the right thing!