What is this yellowish mass I found in a vent?

[MrBoZiffer]

This was dangling out of the vent of our almost 4 year old black australorp. Any ideas? It's about the size of a golf ball.

This hen has been a little sick lately, but still had plenty of energy for eating and scratching and moving around. She did have a successful bumblefoot surgery recently, but she hasn't laid in a few weeks. She has been slowly beginning to molt during that time. Despite the bumblefoot and not laying, she behaves like a healthy bird.

So should I be concerned about this mass? Does it look like an infection of some kind? By-product from internal laying? Or worse, infected ovaries?

 

[Eggcessive]

It does look like material passed from the reproductive tract. If you use the search on BYC at the top of the page for "internal laying" you will see many posts and pictures. Some photos were taken during necropsies. Make sure you hen gets plenty of calcium from crushed egg shells, oystershell, or even Tums.

 

[MrBoZiffer]

Thanks! Yeah, they have oyster shell available. Hopefully they're eating it.