Sick Hens - dirty vent feathers and pale combs

[MollyPdx]

Seems my flock has fallen ill. We lost one hen suddenly, and on inspection of the remaining 5 birds all have dirty vents and about half have pale combs. We have had some soft shell eggs laid in the last few days and below average laying. Most girls have clear airways, one could maybe has light congestion. Any help or treatment suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This seems pretty sudden as laying and health seemed fine just a few days ago.

 

[azygous]

What country do you live in? If the US, which state? For example, Newcastle disease is raging in California right now and is extremely contagious. It also is prevalent in some south Asian countries.

Other than being aware if a serious avian disease is going around where you live, it's not easy diagnosing with such scant symptoms. It's especially difficult over the internet. Some diseases can only be diagnosed by testing with throat swabs or blood tests.

Since you have several chickens all with symptoms, I would just go ahead and treat them with a broad spectrum antibiotic. My go-to med is amoxicillin 250mg once a day for ten days. It's sold without a prescription, except for California and Oregon in the US as "fish mox" or "aqua-mox" and can be found in stores selling aquarium fish supplies or online.

 

[MollyPdx]

What country do you live in? If the US, which state? For example, Newcastle disease is raging in California right now and is extremely contagious. It also is prevalent in some south Asian countries.

Other than being aware if a serious avian disease is going around where you live, it's not easy diagnosing with such scant symptoms. It's especially difficult over the internet. Some diseases can only be diagnosed by testing with throat swabs or blood tests.

Since you have several chickens all with symptoms, I would just go ahead and treat them with a broad spectrum antibiotic. My go-to med is amoxicillin 250mg once a day for ten days. It's sold without a prescription, except for California and Oregon in the US as "fish mox" or "aqua-mox" and can be found in stores selling aquarium fish supplies or online.

I’m in Oregon, are antibiotics only available via vet in Oregon?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hind end looks a bit like early stage of vent gleet - warm soapy water to clean that up and it usually passes without further complications. If nothing else, warm soapy water won't make anything worse.

I don't know enough (and thankfully have no first hand knowledge) about poultry diseases other than vent gleet to offer anything more useful, and limited experience with gleet.

Antibiotics and acidified water can also be helpful in supporting their care.

 

[MollyPdx]

Seems my flock has fallen ill. We lost one hen suddenly, and on inspection of the remaining 5 birds all have dirty vents and about half have pale combs. We have had some soft shell eggs laid in the last few days and below average laying. Most girls have clear airways, one could maybe has light congestion. Any help or treatment suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This seems pretty sudden as laying and health seemed fine just a few days ago.

 

[MollyPdx]

The girl that is the worst off just laid an egg that looks like this

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yup, I had oddly shaped eggs with weird "wrinkles" for lack of better term from my gleet girl.

Unfortunately, "gleet" is a symptom, as much as a diagnosis - lots of things can cause it. Thankfully, with support, they can often clear it on their own. Like us and the "common cold", which is sometimes viral, sometimes bacterial, generally miserable, generally non-fatal, and generally clears on its own with a little care.

 

[azygous]

You may need to go through a vet to get an antibiotic unless you can find a pet store that sell fish mox. I would call around. The word here on BYC is that online sources will not ship to Oregon and California due to your state laws prohibiting antibiotics.

There are ways to sneak around these laws, (if you have a friend or relative from out of state help) but you didn't hear that from me.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I guess Oregon passed it