Vent Gleet and Crust butts

[kitkaticus]

Hello,

I am leaving the country in 3 days and my dad is pet sitting, so naturally, everything is going to sh*t. I have 3 chickens with a situation:

Chicken 1: Bojangles. Chronic poopy butt likely caused by vent gleet. Treated with 7 day monistat for 7 days. Then 7 day monistat for 10 days. I didn't realize I could use the 3 day so I did that internally and externally for 5 days with, isolated her for sour crop (she regurgitated liquid when I pulled her off the roost) where she succesfully laid an egg. The front end seems to be doing better but the back end still is poopy butt. We've also cut her feathers, epsom salt bathed, give everyone probiotic water, and treated for parasites because, why not? Today I grabbed ahtletes foot cream with a different antifungal to see if that combined with internal monistat helps.

Chicken 2: B****h Face. Cemani. Brand new poopy butt, definitely looks like vent gleet. Started her on the more aggressive treatment right off the bat and am hoping that clears this up. I wish I'd known it could be treated more aggressively when I started Boji's treatment :/

Chicken 3: Little Miss C. Cemani. My bottom babe. She has a dry crusty butt. Her feathers seem fine. I noticed it back in Feb and treated with Elector PSP because maybe mites? I don't see them on her or in the coop anywhere and the other chickens don't have this issue. I'm not sure what's going on but she's got dry flaky skin all over her bottom, not just around the vent. It's like severe dandruff or psoriasis. I noticed it had gotten bad again today when I did butt checks. Anyone else have a dandery chicken? Overall, it doesn't seem to impact her in anyway but I have no clue what's going on.

Egg production for both Cemani's has slowed, but they aren't great layers to begin with, they're not in their prime, and it's been very hot out. Neither are easy to catch, they're very suspicious chickens and it's a two person job.

So all that said, my question is- what can my dad do for the 7 days were gone to keep everyone going/alive? This is a lot and he's older- I'm not sure he's up for massaging chicken a**holes with antifungal and I don't think he'd be able to get anything into their mouths. I don't have any friends here that could help, the one friend that would have been willing to do this moved to out of state and I actually inhereted all of three of these from her. I'll take any advice you all have for treatments he can do while he's here.

 

[thecatumbrella]

That's a really tough position to be in. I'm not sure there's much your dad could do, other than make sure their basic needs are met (food/water/hygiene). You said yourself, they're a pain to catch for any treatments. If it were me, I would just hope for the best while I was gone. I'm really sorry you're having so many health issues at once!

 

[kitkaticus]

That's a really tough position to be in. I'm not sure there's much your dad could do, other than make sure their basic needs are met (food/water/hygiene). You said yourself, they're a pain to catch for any treatments. If it were me, I would just hope for the best while I was gone. I'm really sorry you're having so many health issues at once!

Thanks! The cemani with dry skin I did an epsom bath, treated with elector and have been spraying with veterycin. She’s at least looking better.

The other cemani seems to be responding to fungal treatment, I wish I could do it for a few more days, but dad said he’d try to cream her booty or at least lift her tail and spray with antimicrobial. Bless him.

The welsummer probably needs nystatin. I’m hoping I kicked it back enough to last the week and then I can get my hands on some. All three haven’t laid this week (I’m sure the heat isn’t helping). I checked for egg bound but don’t feel anything.

Otherwise they’re not lethargic and they’re eating and drinking so hopefully it all works out!

 

[thecatumbrella]

Welcome to BYC, by the way!

 

[kitkaticus]

Thanks! I’m a long time lurker
Lots of good information here!

 

[dearmeghann]

This makes me wanna do butt checks! We're still new at chicken tending (second summer), so we tend to overlook the bare patches under their butts. We're usually helicopter parents, so it feels silly that we never thought to worry about that.

I would definitely recommend that all treatment is after they're on the roosting bars. Trying to catch a chicken is not easy, even with practice. Provide gloves and cleaning stuff in case the idea of touching butts is gross to your dad.

 

[Eggcessive]

Doe syou have any pictures? Are you cleaning waterers and changing it daily? Is the food fresh and put out daily. Is there any vent pecking going on? What are you feeding them? Some hens have problems with poop not clearing the area below the vent, especially if they have diarrhea. Flystrike with maggot infestation can be a deadly problem in hot weather because of flies and soiled vents and below. A warm soapy butt bath might be in order when one is messy. In hot weather we have to really provide fresh clean water and dry food for them, and try to keep flies at a minimum by cleaning. I would add some probiotics to their feed or water, limit a lot of treats or table scraps, and have them just eat their usual chicken feed which could limit runny poops. If you have not wormed your chickens lately, it might be helpful for the messy girls.

 

[kitkaticus]

They are given fresh water daily, the ducks dirty the cups so it’s pretty much required. The food is away from water so the ducks don’t make a mess of it and is in a port feeder for less mess/flies. They eat heritage poultry feed from the local feed shop, sometimes scraps and buggy treats. I have been putting rooster booster in one of the waterers, but ran out and switched to chicken elixir- mostly because it’s hot. Dad knows to switch back when the new bottle arrives.

The vents on Boji and B***h face are both dirty but I’ve been doing Epsom salt baths every few days and wiping dirty butts with a wet rag every day. Fly strike is my biggest worry, and Bojangles has the worst booty. We’ve even cut some feathers away around her vent. She did lay an egg before I left!

Unfortunately, no current photos, here’s an older one post bath after one of Boji’s prior treatments. I was trying to see if she maybe had water belly but everything feels okay.

 

[kitkaticus]

I don’t know why that uploaded 3 times