Vent gleet or diarrhea?

[CritterMama]

One of my hens began acting strangely about a week ago. (She's a year-old leghorn.) She didn't move around as much, and looked uncomfortable. I've seen my hens do this before when they've been let out in the yard and are getting ready to lay an egg. I kept an eye on her and watched until she laid a shell-less blob, which the other girls immediately pounced on and ate. Thus, I didn't get a very good look at it. Since then, she hasn't laid at all. Her vent keeps leaking thin whitish/clear discharge, and her poops are mostly dark and runny. The accumulation of gunk on her butt feathers makes me think gleet, but the lack of super-foul odor makes me wonder if it's only diarrhea. She is still fairly active, yet has bouts of lethargy where she just sits and pulls her head in. When I let her out in the yard, she still runs, but not as fast...still pecks and scratches, still dirt-bathes. For a few days, she'd near-constantly look like she was attempting to expel something from the vent, but there was nothing coming out--that behavior has ended. I have isolated her for the time being; she is still drinking, but is not as interested in her pellets anymore-- any treats I give her, like lettuce, she is right on it, tearing into it and loving it. Should I put her on crumbles instead, or something softer? I'm bathing her butt every day or two to keep her as clean as possible; besides the leakage, the only very noticeable 'symptom' anymore is her annoyance with me! Oh, and she is also missing feathers along her breast bone / the center line of her stomach, where you can only see if you hold her upside down. I believe she is picking them out herself. My other girls are all acting normal.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most helpful!!
Thank you very much,
Jus

 

[beakkeeper]

Sounds like she is egg-bound, or possibly has some sort of trouble in her ovaries. There's a tumor-like thing that can grow in laying chickens--can't for the life of me remember the name...

 

[CritterMama]

Thank you very much for your reply, Beakkeeper! She's not egg bound...I can't feel anything when I palpate, and there haven't been shell pieces or blood. Maybe an ovary issue as you suggest, but I'm attempting to treat for diarrhea for now to see if it works. It's been a week, and she's still fairly perky-- just poopy, and cranky with me! Then again, I'd be cranky, too, if someone searched my vent for shell bits, force-bathed my butt, and isolated me from my friends, all while I was leaking and uncomfortable...

 

[beakkeeper]

haha yeah that would not be good...I found out was I was trying to think of before--could it be internal laying? how long has it been since she laid a real egg?