Sick chicken

amedford · Aug 14, 2014

My Orpington is friendly but for some reason today she came up to me like she was my best friend. I started to love on her (not normal for her to let me) and then I noticed she has a poppy butt. She has now gone into the corner of the fence and it looks like she keeps tightening her butt. The flys are all over her. What do I do????

iwiw60 · Aug 14, 2014

I would definitely give her a warm bath in epsom salts. If you've never done that before here's a page that will help:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/02/how-to-give-chicken-bath.html

If she is a laying hen there's a possibility she might be egg-bound maybe? Just thinkin' ... all the best and keep us updated!

Kelsie2290 · Aug 14, 2014

Hello and Welcome To BYC! iwiw60 gave you a good suggestion, clean your hen up and look her over very carefully, if she has wounds or other vent problems she is at risk for fly strike. If you find anything you probably want to post in the Emergency forum.

Michael OShay · Aug 15, 2014

Welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our flock. X2 on iwiw60's advice. If you feel you need to post on our Emergency section, just click on https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures and I'm sure that our experts there can help you. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. I hope your Orpington will be okay. Good luck.

drumstick diva · Aug 15, 2014

If she has flies all over here in a short while she will have a million maggots going in and out of her body. She needs to have that taken care of immediately. Maggots get inside the body and they can travel everywhere - they don't just destroy decaying flesh, they will go after living tissues also.

Get her inside so she won't have more maggots and get rid of the ones she does have and have her healed up before returning her outside. Poor girl, imagine what that feels like!

TwoCrows · Aug 15, 2014

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

You have been given some great advice from above posters. Does her butt have a sour smell too? If the stuff stuck to her butt smells really bad, she might have Vent Gleet. This is an internal fungal/yeast infection causing some nasty poopy butt. You would want to wash her up really good and even trim some feathers around the vent area so not only to keep the poop from sticking but you can then apply some vaginal cream to her butt and vent. You will also want to get her on probiotics in her water for several weeks to help clean the infection up from the inside out.

And as Drumstick Diva has mentioned, make sure too check for maggots. Flies can destroy your birds, so be very careful not to let flies lay eggs on a chickens butt or vent area.

You should also post this in our emergency section as well. I hope she makes a full recovery.

Mountain Peeps · Aug 15, 2014

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and are here to help.

X2 on Two Crows. She might have vent gleet. But she could also have maggots, lice, or mites. Make sure she can dust bathe. This will help if she has mites or lice. If she has vent gleet you'll need to wash it, trim it and rub some vaginal cream on it.

Hope she heals! Buff orps are such a great breed!

amedford · Aug 15, 2014

Thank you all for the great advise. She is doing better. Thanks again!

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