Vent gleet question

[aliciaFarmer]

I discovered this morning that one of my hens, a Partridge Cochin, appears to have vent gleet. I've read up on how to treat this naturally but wonder if there's anything else that could look like that just to make sure? Her vent and booty feathers are covered in white poop. Yesterday it looked like she had a little bit so I wanted to keep an eye in it and this morning quite a lot more, and now she's moving a bit more slowly than usual. Still free ranging and acting mostly normal, but a tad slow and puffed up.

I feed my chickens fermented feed (Scratch and Peck) but because we've had severe storms over the past couple of weeks and sub freezing nights, I've just been feeding them mostly dry feed. I usually constantly have ACV in their water but haven't got it it in about a week and a half due to lack of outside water (frozen spigot) and not wanting to bring the waterers inside. I think the change in diet, coupled with the fact that all three roosters like to hump her constantly have caused the issue, but for the safety of her and the rest of my flock I want to make sure that it isn't possible that another issue could be at hand here. (Note: the third rooster was a surprise discovery two days ago and I have him, a Lavender Ameraucana, listed for sale on our local Craigslist -- we don't typically keep more than 2 fellas at a time at most.)

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any pictures of her cleaned up vent? The white material is uric acid which is normal kidney waste. Does her bottom or droppings smell really bad? Neither ACV or fermented food is necessary to prevent vent gleet. She might just be having some loose poops that are coating ner vent. Usually with gleet, the skin on the outside becomes raw and may have white patches, and there can be continuous foul smelling droppings. Gleet is a fungal infection similar to thrush or candida.

I would keep her vent cleaned up, and trim any excess fluff. Some probiotics in her food or water may help. I soemtimes use a small amount of plain yogurt with cultures or cottage cheese, but there is Probios powder at most feed stores and Gro2Max probiotics found online.

Here is a good link to read about gleet:
https://www.tillysnest.com/2012/12/vent-gleet-prevention-and-treatment-html/

 

[aliciaFarmer]

Do you have any pictures of her cleaned up vent? The white material is uric acid which is normal kidney waste. Does her bottom or droppings smell really bad? Neither ACV or fermented food is necessary to prevent vent gleet. She might just be having some loose poops that are coating ner vent. Usually with gleet, the skin on the outside becomes raw and may have white patches, and there can be continuous foul smelling droppings. Gleet is a fungal infection similar to thrush or candida.

I would keep her vent cleaned up, and trim any excess fluff. Some probiotics in her food or water may help. I soemtimes use a small amount of plain yogurt with cultures or cottage cheese, but there is Probios powder at most feed stores and Gro2Max probiotics found online.

Here is a good link to read about gleet:
https://www.tillysnest.com/2012/12/vent-gleet-prevention-and-treatment-html/

Thank you so much. The reason I thought it was gleet is because she's a little puffed up (though already a puffy Cochin) and a bit slow and withdrawn, standing around rather than being her usual energetic self. I'm in the process of getting her all cleaned up now. She's so fluffy that it's difficult, especially because we don't currently have hot running water in our house and all outdoor pipes are currently frozen. So it's slow going with heating water on the stove by the potful and pouring it into a plastic tote because we also don't have a tub (remodeling life is rough when things like this arise, haha).

I can say though that it doesn't smell any different than typical chicken poop. I haven't gotten to check her vent closely yet but am working on all that. Trimming her fluff is a great idea! She's a little beach ball. I'll definitely feed her some nice plain organic yogurt after her bath.

I'll check out that link now, ty. I read a ton about vent gleet this morning presuming that was what was wrong, I just wanted to make sure something else couldn't be wrong that may potentially look the same or similar.

 

[aliciaFarmer]

That's such a great article! It was the first one I read this morning. ♡

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about the frozen pipes and needing to bathe a chicken. Sometimes it is just easier to pull off any dried poop and trim excess feathers rather than to bathe in winter. But a hen with actual gleet would probably benefit from daily baths in warm Epsom salts or soapy water. Your hen doesn’t sound like gleet at this point. But she could have a reproductive disorder. Those can cause them to be sluggish, have runny poops, and lie around. Feel of her lower belly between her legs and compare with other hens to see if ahe is enlarged. Ascites or internal laying can cause an enlarged belly.

 

[aliciaFarmer]

Sorry about the frozen pipes and needing to bathe a chicken. Sometimes it is just easier to pull off any dried poop and trim excess feathers rather than to bathe in winter. But a hen with actual gleet would probably benefit from daily baths in warm Epsom salts or soapy water. Your hen doesn’t sound like gleet at this point. But she could have a reproductive disorder. Those can cause them to be sluggish, have runny poops, and lie around. Feel of her lower belly between her legs and compare with other hens to see if ahe is enlarged. Ascites or internal laying can cause an enlarged belly.

I think you're totally right and it wasn't gleet. And she's acting perfectly normal again. I gave her a bath because it was just too hard to pick/trim off and cleaned up her big fluffy butt after letting her soak a bit in an Epsom salt bath. Her vent looked totally normal. Her belly and crop felt normal too. No mites, not worms in poop and I let her return to everyone yesterday evening because it was our first day of sun in weeks. I watched her immediately sneak into a little opening I didn't know existed in the garage and start pecking/eating a cardboard box she'd collected three eggs in. That situation is now remedied but now I'm thinking that maybe she just had some intestinal blockage as it was evident this wasn't the first time. After I cleaned her up, she had a pretty enormous egg sized poop, likely due to blockage. At least I learned what vent gleet is and how to deal with it if it ever arises in the future. Thank you so much for your responses!

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that she is back to normal, and thanks for the update.