Vent Injury? Photos Included (graphic)

[Christie311]

Hi friends!

Two days ago my flock had a big scare from something in the yard, there was nothing I could see, I very was close by. One of my pullets (26 weeks old) tried to escape through a panel fence and was "stuck" there. When I came over to her there were feathers all over. I picked her up and she had a little blood on her leg. It wasn't from the fence, she was more so just hiding there in the panel not truly stuck. I cleaned the scratch on her leg and sprayed it with the vet spray. Today we noticed her straining to go poop and her bottom as messy. I did and epsom salt soak and cleared away feathers and poop. Her vent seems a bit prolapsed to me but is it also injured? the brown around there doesn't seem to be poop it's more like a scab. It would not wash away like the poop did. At the same time I found a wound on her leg that I hadn't seen before, that is in the photo as well (last photo). We wonder if a hawk came down and hurt her? I have continued to spray the area today and none of the other chickens are messing with her. What do you make of her vent??

 

[Eggcessive]

In the last picture, are there any maggots in the wound? It looks like the others may have pecked her vent area. If she had a prolapse, the red would have attracted pecking. Has she been picked on or bullied? She possibly got wounded by a predator at the fence or injured it there. But if she was stuck another chicken could have pecked her. I would put Neosporin on the wound and the vent. It might be good to keep her in a wire dog crate separated for a couple of days for her vent to heal.

 

[ChickNanny13]

You can keep the wire cage (food/water) in the coop with the rest so no introduction needed when she's released back into the flock.

 

[Christie311]

In the last picture, are there any maggots in the wound? It looks like the others may have pecked her vent area. If she had a prolapse, the red would have attracted pecking. Has she been picked on or bullied? She possibly got wounded by a predator at the fence or injured it there. But if she was stuck another chicken could have pecked her. I would put Neosporin on the wound and the vent. It might be good to keep her in a wire dog crate separated for a couple of days for her vent to heal.

I *think* the last photo is where there is sand/dirt in the wound. She had a lot of her dust bath debris on here when I picked her up like she hadn't shaken off totally. I will keep an eye that it doesn't end up being maggots though so thanks for mentioning it. It really does look like they others may have pecked at her but the reason I was not leaning that way is because as soon as she got scared that day I walked right over and picked her up, all the others had flown to the coop in terror of whatever scared them LOL the past two days we have been with the for hours on end, my 10 yr old doesn't want to take her off of them LOL and all this time we don't see any pecking. But that doesn't mean they haven't done it when we were away so I may put her in a cage for a couple of days like you said. But you think that area looks wounded around the vent?

 

[Christie311]

You can keep the wire cage (food/water) in the coop with the rest so no introduction needed when she's released back into the flock.

This is what I was worried about so thanks for that idea, brilliant!

 

[Eggcessive]

Yes, vent pecking is aggressive behavior at times if one is low in the pecking order, or if there is crowding, boredom, too little protein in the diet, or if there are more aggressive breeds. But if there had been a temporary prolapse, they might have pecked at that. Do they have a lot of room in their coop and run? What do you feed them?

 

[Christie311]

Yes, vent pecking is aggressive behavior at times if one is low in the pecking order, or if there is crowding, boredom, too little protein in the diet, or if there are more aggressive breeds. But if there had been a temporary prolapse, they might have pecked at that. Do they have a lot of room in their coop and run? What do you feed them?

The cop itself was custom built for 15 chickens but we only have 8. The run is about 20x6 feet and they get a few hours outside each day supervised. They eat Cluck Co Organic Layer Feed and they get the same brand of scratch grain. A bowl for grit and a bowl for oyster shells. I’ve never witnessed any aggression thankfully, they all get along aside from a light peck here and there when eating. I was thinking more about it and wondering about the wound on the side of the leg, if it was hens pecking her vent would that just be a coincidence that she got a leg wound as well? Or did both injuries happen during this scare they got?

 

[Eggcessive]

It’s hard to know really. But just be on the lookout for any other pecking. Do you think they get 90% of their food from the layer feed?

 

[Christie311]

Thankfully we can watch they most of the day tomorrow for pecking! We didn’t see any today so I’m hoping she can heal more. I would say they get 90% from the feed, they don’t get scratch every day and when they do it’s a small handful. Maybe once a week they get a small kitchen scrap. Today they got a wild apple that fell from the tree ha! And about twice a week a pile of grass clippings but they never eat all of that they mostly scratch it LOL.

 

[JulesRSA]

It’s hard to know really. But just be on the lookout for any other pecking. Do you think they get 90% of their food from the layer feed?

@Eggcessive I’m having a similar issue. Switched my 4 girls onto layer feed recently. They were on 18% protein grower and oyster shell, but then oyster shell became impossible to find in my area and they’re all laying so seemed like the best solution at the time.

My top hen then started feather plucking all of the others. I started mixing in the higher protein grower feed again, but the plucking continued even though she doesn’t seem to be eating all the feathers (I’m seeing feathers in the coop again). This new aggressive behaviour seems to have also prompted bullying amongst the other 3 (I’ve had them for a year, zero issues until now - occasional squabbles but no consistent bullying) with my smallest hen getting the brunt of it. Top hen (Tilly) also started crowing again, which she hasn’t done for ages!

I decided to isolate Tilly for a bit to see if that would address the bullying. For the 2 days she was in a wire crate on the porch, the other 3 girls seemed to be getting on just fine. This morning I reintroduced her, and by this afternoon my olive egger (Bella) has been horribly vent pecked it seems to be the two smallest hens doing it, not Tilly - from what I saw before I got Bella out of there!

The coop and enclosed run is more than large enough (designed for 6 birds, I have 4) and we’ve never had this issue before I switched their feed. They get some treats and dietary supplements - spinach, kale, mealworms, the odd handful of scratch, grass clippings one a week, but 80-90% of their diet is the pellets.

Based on the advice here, I’m going to clean up that wound and then reintroduce Bella to the run, but in the wire crate.

Any advice on how to get to the bottom of the underlying issue would be greatly appreciated!