thick, bloody, mucous-like discharge around hens vent

[Toffael]

Need urgent advice:

This is a 2-year-old Plymouth Rock hen. She’s a normally healthy, friendly, and reliable layer — and may be the one who occasionally lays soft-shelled eggs (rarely, once every couple of months).

She was fine this morning and at 2pm afternoon freerange.

But when i let flock out for evening 6pm freerange, I noticed she was very lethargic, started straining at the vent, and began passing thick, bloody, mucous-like discharge.

i first tried to clean her up with water and tissue, and noticed the feathers below her vent were also heavily clogged up with the discharge. So I gave her a 20-minute Epsom salt soak at 7pm, during which i gently cleaned those feathers and dried her off.

She walked slowly around the garden afterwards, and ejected more discharge. She would often just stand still, spaced out, eyes half-closing.

During the bath her crop felt full and mushy. Afterward, she refused dried mealworms from my hand, which is very unusual for her.

She’s now isolated from rest of flock and resting in a warm shed in a covered cage with bedding, a towel, and water. It’s about 18°C outside, and warmer inside.

My basic research leads me to believe this could be internal trauma, a broken or stuck egg, or possibly the start of internal laying. But i have zero experience on this.

Please advise on next steps, i’m really worried about her and don’t know what to do.

Photos taken after her epsom salt bath.

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks like her vent was pecked by other chickens, and she was injured. I would separate her inside a wire dog crate with food and water. I would soak her bottom only in warm Epsom salts water once a day for about 15 minutes, and after drying her, apply a coating of Neosporin triple antibiotic ointment twice a day. What are you feeding including treats or scraps? How much room in the coop do they have? Do you let them out to free range?

 

[Toffael]

It looks like her vent was pecked by other chickens, and she was injured. I would separate her inside a wire dog crate with food and water. I would soak her bottom only in warm Epsom salts water once a day for about 15 minutes, and after drying her, apply a coating of Neosporin triple antibiotic ointment twice a day. What are you feeding including treats or scraps? How much room in the coop do they have? Do you let them out to free range?

it’s a flock of 8 living in a 3 m square run with lots of roost bars. they free range for 2 hours a day.

feed is layer pellets mixed with dried corn, dried peas black sunflower and barley, which gets mixed with rice and fresh peas. Same diet for 18 months and no issues. treats are alternating mealworms, bread fruit raw cauliflower to peck

so you think it’s also an injury caused by pecking? yes i noticed my white orpington hen has some red stains on her head feathers.

But what about all the mucous type discharge. and what explains the lethargy?

 

[Eggcessive]

She might be lethargic due to another problem, and may have attracted pecking because she was not active, and sleepy. Is her tail up or down? Has she been laying eggs recently? Have any egg shells in the coop been soft or abnormal? Actually, I think the diet may be lacking. Layer feed has the basic protein and balance, but when you add corn, grains, rice, etc there are a lot of carbs and fat, and the protein is diluted. I would use the layer feed with some egg, or increase the protein by using a flock raiser type feed with 20% protein. Limit any extras.