Mustard Poo

One of my Bantams is pooing what looks like mustard? Its caught in her feathers like a waterfall, so not liquid, but goo......
I fed them a cabbage centre the other day, so put it down to excess food, but although she seemed to be recovering, back with a vengance today & she's not looking happy. She's out in the garden and still moving with the flock, but unsure what it might be!?
Any ideas please.

Just taken a good look at her & cleaned her feathers off the best I can. There is a large lump of poo stuck to her vent and I can't get it off with water as it's too mixed in with her feathers. The other problem is that she seems to have a tear in her skin under the lump, so don't want this to get worse. I've isolated her in the coop with the others outside, but now not sure how to help her.
Just feel like I'm not very good at this

I would get a small pair of sharp scissors and taking care not to nick the skin, cut the lump away. I had a hen like this the other day - felt horrible that it was so bad and I had not noticed! I managed to get it all off, and she is fine - thankfully has no squits like yours, she was just mucky. I have absolutely no idea what could have caused your problem, but I do find that birds that are not perching at night, tend to get mucky bottoms.

She's perching fine, but all her feather bases are black (she's a black bird) so I'm not sure if she's moulting. I've now put her in a box & will try, but not sure how long I can keep her apart from the others as she's soaking & will get pecked as soon as I put her back in the coop

the poo left is now attached to her skin and as I pull it away, there is red raw flesh underneeth and she won't let me near it - she's pooing over the top of the lump, but I'm going to have to clean it daily to keep her in this 'state'. She doesn't smell too good either, but can't see any puss or ooze, so presuming the wound is clean.
I've got a photo, but unable to upload it - not got a website to publish too either. She's now very stressed, so had to put her back out in the garden to dry off and get back to 'normality'. She keeps poking her behind with her beak now, but wasn't doing this before.

The best thing would be to hold her in a container of warm, soapy water until it dissolves, which it will do quite quickly. Do you have any baby shampoo? Make sure the water is to too hot, but warm enough. Soak it until you can feel it begin to soften, then you may be able to gently and slowly get it all off. Don't try to cut it away with scissors or pull it off, you will make her very sore or worse! When you get it all off, dry her gently and if necessary, when she is fully dry put some wound power on it.

After trying what Sue suggests,maybe a very gentle hairdrier on low, not too close, might dry her off better than just letting her dry off in this chilly damp weather.


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Good luck!

Completely unable to remove the final lump attached to her bottom half of vent. She's now struggling like mad and obviously in pain. Poo's just bulding up behind the lump and all looking really sore - what on earth do I do

Put her in bowl with warm water and give her a bath,afterwoods dry with hair drier-they love it(at least mine)Make sure she had a good soak and then try to remove the lump.Good luck.Give her bath at home not outside.I usually give them bath in bath tube.Before you will let her out again make sure she totally dry and fluffy.

How long can I leave the lump there - I work from 07.30 to 16.30 every day, so finding daylight is a real issue & I'm not sure if putting her out into the coop in the dark after a bath when she's a bit damp is too good. I'm also worried about her skin under the lump, as if it's red raw, I've got nowhere to put her seperate from my other chooks.
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OK, admit I'm panicing a teeny weeeny little bit here - sorry

You can take her from cop after work,give her bath,dry her off and you can give her a box with some bedding(not the pillow obviusly)an keep her in spare loo(close the lid for the toilet)if she not completly dry.Return her to cop nex mornig she will be fine.The lump has to go!!!

If there is an odour there may be an infection. The lump sounds a bit odd, it is attached in some way to the vent? Palpable? Or is is solid?

How are her droppings? are they a bit tacky, viscous with a smell and sticking to her tail feathers?

I think it might be worth a trip to the vet, specially as she may need a course of antibiotics and that lump sorting out.

If can post a photo it might help

I suggested that on Wednesday!!

I get a message "The image must be at least 0 pixels wide, 0 pixels high and at most 850 pixels wide and 600 pixels high. The submitted image is 600 pixels wide and 800 pixels high." when I try and upload the photo???

I'm a little calmer now. Thank you all for your help and comments. I got the kitchen covered in mucky water, but managed to bath her in a washing up bowl of baby bubble bath after begging a hour off work. I've removed a bit more poo and cleaned up her feathers. I now have a proper red 'blood' scab that looks healthy on one side of her vent, with a smaller lump of poo still attached under her vent. This seems to be stuck fast & although I had her in the bath a good 20 mins, still will not disolve and starting to think it's mixed in with another scab under it. Everything looks swollen though. I'm also not sure what the inside of her vent is supposed to look like either? Is it supposed to be smooth pink skin, as doesn't look like that when it pulses? She is doing small brown poos with bright yellow streaks surrounding it & all a bit watery.
She LOVED the hairdryer - never thought I'd ever own one, let alone buy one especially for a chook Managed to dry her well, she even started talking to me, so at least she got some pleasure out of the experience. Managed to get her back into the coop just as the sun went down & when I checked, she was snuggled up between the other 2, nice & toasty warm.
Keeping my fingers crossed that all ok tomorrow during work hours, will then bring her back into the house & look/smell to check whats going on.
Just kicking myself soo hard that I didn't spot this earlier - I soo hate winter and dark days

If she has had a blow dry, her droppings will be watery due to her being a little warm.

Keep an eye on any odour from her vent, and her droppings tomorrow.

For uploading photos this may help:

http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5624

trying again (photo before todays bath) but after I'd washed her with water & cotton wool

Think you shoud trim the feathers hanging over her vent BB. Some of ours have had those feathers effectively block the vent after being stuck down with poo. Then when they poo the feathers get torn out, which could be what has happened in your case, but the flesh ripped rather than the feathers coming out. Her vent looks a bit swollen which says potential infection in that area, although she could be fighting it herself without antibiotics. As Foxy says it needs watching closely as it is a nasty place to get an infection.

would Baytril work?

You have done a fantastic job of cleaning her up, it really doesn't look that bad...

Now if that was me, I would actually get a pair of tweezers and not just trim but firmly take out all the feathers surrounding the vent, I would also have a go at removing that lump. Try gently to dissect first to determine if it is attached, ie: it starts to bleed or causes any discomfort to your hen.

Clean and add a layer of sudocreme to protect from her droppings if they are causing excoriation to the surrounding tissue.

Add ACV to drinking water 50ml to 1 litre drinking water.

Consider also using a good probiotic, the only one I would recommend is Beryls in this instance, designed for poultry (and only after any treatment with antibiotics)