Serious, distended intestine

[kilby]

Hello,
I am fairly new to chickendom. going on four years. One of my first hybrid layers has a very distended, swollen, red rectum. I think she was the one with blood in her stool and maybe the watery stool too. I was hoping it was undigested worms when I first saw it. This has been around for months now. Then I noticed her pasty butt.
Washing it this morning I found it was worse than that and the smell nearyly made me throw up several times.

Anyone here a good source on chicken rearends? She loves to eat still. Feeding her hot water and honey. Some meal worms and organic grain sprouts. I have antibiotic and electrolyte in water but my sick birds never seem to go for that.
Is she in pain? Probably alot when she defecates. I hope I can get help here.
Do you think it could be a worm thing? Is there something I am not doing I need to do for my chickens to keep this from happening?
I am grateful for your help.
thank you

The local farm institute is something too I will phone for help.

 

[Kelsie2290]

I wonder if she has a prolapse or vent gleet. You might want to post pictures of your girl. Below are links on both conditions with pictures.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/prolapse-vent-causes-treatment-graphic.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/vent-gleet-aka-nasty-chicken-butt
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/a-couple-chicken-problems-and-how-to-fix-them

 

[Wyandottes7]

Could you post a picture? I think that she may have a prolapsed vent.

 

[kilby]

Sure looks the same but mine has it alot worse.
What is the big dark ball at the end that seems part flesh part defecation if it is from the cloaca?
I sure hope it's not a ball of hard blood. Pics as soon as I can get them up.
I am thankful for the links. Started her on the yogurt meals. soaked her today with vinegar water, and poured hydrogen peroxide over the swollen back end. Dark parts wont come out yet. I have been pulling out hardened broken cooked egg out of that hole which is really smelly.
Just did not figure out if it was the vent or the rectum it was coming from. So defecating has been a problem for awhile it seems.

I need some good antibiotics. Soak her in warm salts daily. Douse with hydrogen peroxide or put in bath.

 

[Shabana]

Oh sounds awful your poor hen !!
Sounds like you are doing all the right things, and she will benefit from antibiotics asap.
I sincerely hope she recovers, they really are little fighters and tlc goes a long long way.
Please keep updating and post pics if you can.

Sending you all my best wishes.

 

[Suzie]

If she has a prolapse... you can apply honey to her vent... it has antibacterial properties, she will need an antibiotic to help her through any infection she may have developed through her vent being subjected to infection.

Keep her isolated from the rest of the flock! She should be kept in a darkened area too.

Good luck

 

[Kelsie2290]

If she has prolapsed the tissue will get inflamed and poop etc will stick to it, it can turn necrotic pretty fast. With chickens basically vent = anus/rectum=cloaca, they should only have one opening to the outside.... are you saying there are two openings? If you are pulling out pieces of egg she may also have been egg bound or have a broken egg in there... are you finding pieces of shell? Another possibility is she can have internal laying / peritonitis problems ... http://www.avianweb.com/eggyolkperitonitis.html

 

[kilby]

I think you might be right. My PC is not acknowledging my media reader. Ascites or peritonial inflammation would include liquid and bacteria backing up from the oviduct upward. don't know what to do next. reading further...

 

[kilby]

Finally, got the reader working. here is the only pic for now


Very sore looking. This is after a bath and cleaning everything off. What is left is like a blood ball. Oozing after eating yogurt and layer mash.
Underneath the blood ball is red raw flesh. I should not have tried to ease it off. Is polysporin alright for a wound like that? I have doused it with hydrogen peroxide. The link for peritonitis says to get a culture of what comes out to rule out different diseases. I am going to pick up something for the infection. I don't know yet where to take a sample.
Anyone deal with peritonitis before or do you think this is still just prolapse? She is hunched over, fluffed out, sleepy. Breathing maybe is too shallow I could be wrong.
I just hope I can help her.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hoping somebody else chimes in. It does look like an older prolapse to me. Are you able or wanting to take her to a vet, if you know one that would be willing to take a look? Besides oral or injected antibiotics and neosporin topically, a lot of people swear by raw honey for that sort of thing. What also concerns me is the egg-type stuff you were finding, if she does have peritonitis there really is no cure unless you go the vet surgery route, some of them can live quite a while with it (if you can stave off infection) but eventually you usually wind up euthanizing them. I have had a couple of pet birds live a year or two with it acting normally until near the end. Is she eating? If she isn't eating and you want to continue with her, you might consider tube feeding her.