What is this coming from the vent area?

[MerryFeather]

We found one of our chickens a few minutes ago with this coming from her vent area. What is it? Is there anything I can do? She was fine yesterday and this morning.

 

[Weeg]

Is it egg membrane material? Or poop?
If it were me I would get calcium in her ASAP. I'm not entirely sure what it is from the photos, but any hen in reproductive distress should get calcium, that will help them expel anything from their vent. Tums work, but claim citrate is best if you have that.
For either type of calcium, squeeze the corners of her beak to get her to open. She will fight you for a second, but hold on until she stops. Once her mouth is open, take a Tums broken in half, or a Calcium Citrate pill, (I think its a Vitamin D and Calcium combo) and pop that into her beak. It should go down like candy.

 

[Weeg]

@azygous @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive

 

[azygous]

I agree calcium should be given to this hen on the chance she has more such material that needs to be expelled.

To analyze this thing, cut a cross section and look at it. Is it cheesy in consistency? Does it have discernible layers? Or is it a thin membrane with egg white inside? You need to do this so we have an accurate idea of what this is.

 

[MerryFeather]

Is it egg membrane material? Or poop?
If it were me I would get calcium in her ASAP. I'm not entirely sure what it is from the photos, but any hen in reproductive distress should get calcium, that will help them expel anything from their vent. Tums work, but claim citrate is best if you have that.
For either type of calcium, squeeze the corners of her beak to get her to open. She will fight you for a second, but hold on until she stops. Once her mouth is open, take a Tums broken in half, or a Calcium Citrate pill, (I think its a Vitamin D and Calcium combo) and pop that into her beak. It should go down like candy.

It did come out when I pulled it gently. There was a piece left inside. It may be a deformed egg membrane but shaped like intestine. No veins or anything at all though. So I don't think it is that. She is not acting like herself. She doesn't want to eat. I did give her half a tums though. Should I try some nutridrench? Her vent itself looks normal as far as I could tell.

 

[Weeg]

It did come out when I pulled it gently. There was a piece left inside. It may be a deformed egg membrane but shaped like intestine. No veins or anything at all though. So I don't think it is that. She is not acting like herself. She doesn't want to eat. I did give her half a tums though. Should I try some nutridrench? Her vent itself looks normal as far as I could tell.

How large are the Tums? I would give her the whole thing. Hens in reproductive distress often act lethargic. If it looked like egg membrane it may be internal laying. The Tums should help with that, though its slower acting than Calcium Citrate. Do you happen to have a drug store near by? They will probably have Calcium Citrate, which will be much more beneficial.
I might try the Nutri-Drench, try to keep her hydrated. Will she drink water? If not, than you're going to want to look into syringe feeding, or tube feeding if she doesn't start eating or drinking soon. I personally think that tubing a hen is much easier than syringing. Less a chance of aspiration as well.

 

[MerryFeather]

I agree calcium should be given to this hen on the chance she has more such material that needs to be expelled.

To analyze this thing, cut a cross section and look at it. Is it cheesy in consistency? Does it have discernible layers? Or is it a thin membrane with egg white inside? You need to do this so we have an accurate idea of what this is.

I just gave her half a tums. Here is a photo of the maybe egg membrane that come out. You can see an open end on top. It did have a little clearish goo inside it.

 

[azygous]

Cut the cross section, please, so we can be sure this is a vestigial egg and not salpingitis.

And please give her the entire Tums. She needs a minimum of 600 mg of calcium to do any good.

 

[MerryFeather]

Cut the cross section, please, so we can be sure this is a vestigial egg and not salpingitis.

And please give her the entire Tums. She needs a minimum of 600 mg of calcium to do any good.

I cut it and took a picture of the cut end for you. No cheese like stuff or layers that I saw. There is clear goo.

 

[azygous]

Very good! This means the mass is just a fluke and nothing pathological such as infection.

How is her behavior at present? Active/normal or lethargic /subdued?