Vent Gleet treatment options

[ladybrasa]

Hello hello! I have an Amberlink hen who is a little over a year and a half old. Noticed her preening her bum a little more than necessary while roosting one night, so went to look for lice or something … nope no lice but there is a definite bacterial infection smell emanating from her vent, like infected wound smell (but there’s no wound). I feel it’s bacterial rather than fungal. There is some whitish build up that I don’t think is simply urates from poop. Otherwise as far as I can tell, she is eating, drinking, normal behavior, bright red comb - might even be laying but that’s hard to determine.

I poked around the ‘net for treatment. I trimmed her rear really close and started adding ACV with vinegar to the water. I bathed her bum once in warm soapy water. I cannot: bathe her every day, maybe once a week depending on weather. Separate her, there have been no changes in dynamics that I can see nor is she getting her bum pecked. Medications - since I haven’t been able to figure out if she’s laying and which egg (none smell and many hens have similar colored eggs) I don’t want to give oral medications since I donate eggs to the food bank to unknown people, and I really don’t want to toss 1.5-2 dozen eggs daily! I have been smelling eggs … no residual infection smell … I can: do nightly topical treatments - I’ve read spraying with betadine, but would veterycin work too? Chlorhexidine? I can do supplements or natural remedies, as long as I don’t have to do a complete water change daily. (I’ve got two top load waterers that I wash out weekly and have to top with at least 2 gallons daily, in the dark after work. As the days get longer and warmer I can probably do more. Incidentally I feel like the ACV is helping with cleanliness).

Anyway, thoughts/suggestions with doable treatments? Thanks so much for reading this far!

 

[azygous]

Do you know for a fact this hen is laying currently? If she has a bacterial infection, she may be too sick to lay. How is her behavior? Is she lethargic, feathers fluffed up, tail low, appetite off?

There is an antibiotic/antifungal that will treat bacteria and fungus at the same time if you change your mind and decide to treat the hen. This is where you can buy it. https://www.kvsupply.com/Search.aspx?query=Fluconazole Tablets

If you segregate her during treatment, hers are the only eggs you need to ditch, and you can always immediately feed them back to her, which I can assure you will be a swell idea in her mind.

 

[ladybrasa]

Nope, she’s fine otherwise - no fluffing, lethargy, low tail, is at least eating treats very well, in the middle of the flock (38 total), dust bathing, etc.

I don’t know that she is laying, only that total daily egg count has exploded and her comb is fire engine red again, so I suspect it’s a possibility.

Is there something else that can cause a smelly vent?

 

[azygous]

If the vent smells after it's washed, then she may have vent gleet and/or bacterial infection. The only other thing that caused a very smelly vent is when egg binding occurs and the cecum are blocked, redirecting fluids out the vent instead of redistributing them throughout the body as is normal. This fluid smells hideously acrid and unpleasant. But such a hen would be should symptoms of lethargy, pain, and all around unwell being.

 

[ladybrasa]

Yeah, this is definitely infection smell like I’ve smelled from infected wounds or abscesses on a cat. Since she is appearing normal in other ways, can I assume the infection is only just inside the vent? Or does it extend into the GI tract?

After her one bath she smelled much much better. She did however look like she felt yucky after (I couldn’t blow dry her) and shortly after went to scratch and dust bath after the “indignity”. I’m also glad she didn’t hold it against me, and let me grab her up again!

 

[azygous]

Assume the infection reaches up into the intestinal and possibly also the reproductive tract. Be aware that the farther infection travels up the reproductive tract, which branches off the cloaca, the more difficult it is to successfully treat. If you are reasonably certain this involves a bacterial infection, it would be a wise decision to treat now rather than later.

 

[ladybrasa]

Okie dokie, thanks for the advice!

 

[ladybrasa]

Just an update if anyone is interested now or in the future-

The hen seems to be doing better, specifically, I can’t detect an infection smell with my bad human nose. Vent looks normal I think; definitely not inflamed like before. I don’t think I saw any white discharge build up last night? It was semi-dark.

So to re-cap, this hybrid hen never showed symptoms that I could tell other than an infected-smelling vent and white discharge that mimicked the white urea but not quite the same. It seemed to build up on the edges of her vent. I am to understand vent gleet can get very serious and make a hen very sick - she was not, so maybe this is why this treatment worked (or is working, cross your fingers! )

Any way, I picked out some tidbits of information from this Australian site:
https://www.birdhealth.com.au/vent-gleet
It seems legit, as far as I can tell. So first to note is that she’s a hybrid and seems more prone to gleet. Also I noticed that one of their suggested treatments was flushing the cloaca. Also times of stress can trigger it like around start up of egg-laying (check) and temperature changes (check). Stress causes ph imbalance in the digestive tract. I had already started ACV with mother cuz didn’t seem it would hurt and possibly help (acidifies, probiotic component, also seems to help keep waterers a little cleaner). I suspected a bacterial infection over fungal infection based on the particular smell. I don’t know what the product was that the site mentioned flushing the cloaca with. I eventually thought about diluted betadine. It’s is safe for chickens, used on flesh wounds, and I know it is used to prep surgical areas especially around sensitive parts like eyes. Also it’s pH is a little lower (at least at full strength). Anyway, I awkwardly flushed out her cloaca with about a half ounce of dilute betadine and picked out all the crusts and build up (I had already trimmed away all her feathers back there about a week before. Then I have continued cleansing with betadine at and around the vent opening every night. I suspect the daily bathing recommended elsewhere will do about the same, but I am not able to do that in my situation. Anyway, so far so good!

I was hoping that the betadine would also stain her vent and maybe stain an egg if she’s laying, but no such luck with it diluted. I don’t know if she’s laying or not, and if not if it has to do with sickness or simply because it’s still winter.

 

[Taylermartin]

Do you know for a fact this hen is laying currently? If she has a bacterial infection, she may be too sick to lay. How is her behavior? Is she lethargic, feathers fluffed up, tail low, appetite off?

There is an antibiotic/antifungal that will treat bacteria and fungus at the same time if you change your mind and decide to treat the hen. This is where you can buy it. https://www.kvsupply.com/Search.aspx?query=Fluconazole Tablets

If you segregate her during treatment, hers are the only eggs you need to ditch, and you can always immediately feed them back to her, which I can assure you will be a swell idea in her mind.

I have a brahma that has been sitting more frequently while the other girls are foraging. When she is in the nesting box her tail is pointed down. She does have the watery white discharge from her vent but it is not swollen. Right now she is inching her way through the yard with her tail up acting like she needs to poop. Any recommendations?