Dirty vent

BabyBantam

BabyBantam

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Advise please.
Nancy is going through a pretty hard moult and is currently covered in full an part sprouting feathers. She's got a lot of new feathers around her vent which seem to be badly clogged with poo. I'm presuming this is due to their stubby nature and will now bath her back end to try and alleviate the problem, but is there anything else I should do?
I'm a bit worried about handling her due to all the new feathers, but not really got a choice. I will dry her as best as I can with a drier, but also worried about damp.
 
Ok, so she's had a bath which has removed most of the problem, but there is still very hard poo caked round the base of the feathers below her vent and these are full of blood. I've caked the area in sudocreme but don't know if this will soften it, or just cake on with it. Small sign of infection too - kicking myself for not spotting this, but she's such a mucky muddle she's always covered in mud :(
She's back in the ark and dry, but this isn't end of the problem I think.
Anyone come up against this before - how on earth do I get all the hard stuff of the feather shafts? Do I need vet ASAP, or will sudocreme do it?
 
Have the affected feathers reached the stage where the fluffy shaft is visible, or are they still at the 'hedgehog' stage? Do you think the new feathers will break out of the shafts of their own accord, if you have done as much as you can to clean and soften them?
I wonder if the caked- on poo is a symptom of a gut problem, apart from the moult? Any other signs she might be in distress? What sort of poos is she doing, are they particularly wet and sloppy?
Does she perch at night or does she sit down in her own poo? If so, perhaps it would help her if you could go out and lift her on to a perch when she has settled to roost.
 
The feathers had started to reach fluffy stage, but I've had to trim that off back to the blood quills to uncake her. She's now got hard poo on the base of the new quills and it's too close to the skin to cut off. Her vent is free, but there is a semi circle of poo in the feathers just below. I've got to hope the feathers will grow a little more so I can get scissers behind it, but not sure if I will. She was soaked (along with the kitchen) in warm water with baby bubbles for about 15 mins, but she was really starting to get distressed, so had to stop. She didn't seem to mind the blow dry too much though.
Her poo has always been a bit on the dark smelly and loose side, but she hovers up every bug and slug in the garden she can find. She has just been wormed with flubenvet and laid the perfect 'fizzy' on the table, so not too bad. She also perches every night too, so not a case of sitting in it. She seems as active and normal as possible, although the rain has stopped play and they are all quiet at the moment as moulting.
Just been to pets at home for antibiotic powder.....whole stock was 1 YEAR out of date. I'm appalled!
 
If she eats a lot of slugs, this may well be contributing to the problem, as you suspect, especially if it seems to be a long-running gut tendency . Slugs and worms are the intermediate host for some kinds of chicken worms, so it would be best to restrict her from hoovering, at least for the time being and until the Flubenvet has done its work and her droppings seem more normal. You will have to keep her penned for the next week anyway, whilst she is eating treated pellets. It may be that she has had some sort of low-level gut infection or infestation for quite a while, and it may take a bit of work to clear it. When were they last done with Flubenvet? If you're not entirely happy about her three weeks after the course has finished, you could give her another go, as if you think she might have quite an infestation in there, a second course would be needed to clear the residue that had hatched from eggs which weren't killed in the first course. (Flubenvet kills worms but not their eggs, some of which may be still in there at the end of the course.)
If all this doesn't resolve the droppings problem, then maybe a trip to the vet for antibiotics? Sorry not to have any other ideas on cleaning her feathers, but it seems that the main thing is to get to the bottom of the problem (so to speak, sorry about that!)
 
Any advise is welcome :)
I've finished the worming course, so will give her a second shot from tomorrow. I know the problem is local to her, as my other 2 are in perfect shape, moulting, but went over them with fine tooth comb today and not a sign of a louse or feather out of place.
My main worry is the caked poo I think and how to remove it without stressing her out by bathing her every day and also the risk of infection. The lack of antibiotic powder also means I'm at the mercy of sudofed until the internet order arrives.
Why does ihis always happen as the light fails :(
 
Hi Chris, nope not a sign as far as I can tell. A clear case of poo clogged in her feathers as far as I can see.
 
Poor Nancy....been a bit of a mucky lady by the sounds of it! :D Don't worry, it does happen with older ladies, their digestive tract isn't quite as efficent as when younger, so unusual and slightly unpleasant droppings this time of year in moult are not unusual.

The immediate problem is to soothe and protect her bot, I use a coating of sudacreme as this will also smother anything else that shouldn't be there and make things more comfortable. Don't worry about what she eats in the garden, this sort of protein she knows right now is very good for her. Make sure plenty of insoluble grit is available though.

To address her tummy issue you could give them all a course of Avipro plus or Beryls.

Consider sending a sample of droppings to St Davids, I think it would cost £10 and they will be able to check for any bacteria, or worms.

As always though, look out for changes in behaviour, weight or appetite, these will give a clue to her state of overall health, although at this time of year if she is half way through moult she may very well be feeling a bit peaky and therefore quieter than normal.
 
Avipro plus administered to water this afternoon :) so glad I bought it when u posted the link Foxy. All the girls are slightly down on weight at the mo, but I put it down to them all deciding to go through a hard moult together - I could start a duvet business :D
She's tucked up in her usual spot tonight, so will check under her perch in the morning and have another look at her tomorrow after work.
 
Well, one trip to the vet later (to be sure), Nancy's had a jab and her vent cleaned out. Slight infection in there, but she said it wasn't serious and I just need to pamper and keep her clean for the next few days and all should be fine. The other two came along for moral support and rewarded the vet with giant healthy poos on the table!
Interesting stance on holding nancy though, she was turned upside down and hung by her feet to inspect her. Never seen her go so quiet :D she's obviously none the worse for the bungee jumping though, as she's hoovered up most of the dish of food before bed.
 
Methinks Nancy will be making up for the indignity with some ferocious weeding tomorrow! :D

Good news all is well apart from a little tummy upset.. :-)17
 
It looks you sorted her now,but in future if this repit itself I suggest to cut away all dirty feathers from aroud the went.That way it makes easier for her to poo wihout getting them dirty.
 
Woken this morning to find Nancy's vent area caked in poo again and her actual vent looking none too healthy. Due to me cleaning he last week, she's now terrified of me too :(. She's been eating fine and also been given a dost of ivermectin. Problems is that whenever she poos for me, it's solid, so have horrible feeling she is oozing liquid from her vent, rather than it being a poo problem. Really worried now :(
 
Where signs of infection in or round vent, but given a jab of baytril on her vet visit. She's not laid for a couple of months as been/is in in full moult.
 
Some of ours in moult are pooing runny. It seems to be because they are eating feather casings with preening. It only lasts a week or so and then they are back to normal. We also have one that has broken an egg inside several times and has gone droopy with egg white leaking from her vent. Was some shell inside which I removed and she was fine in a few hours. It does sound like a vent infection still BB. Perhaps she needs a longer course of Baytril. we have been struggling with a 5 1/2 year old Buff Orpington recently with an apparent digestive system impaction. In desperation we just gave Baytril and 6 days on she is the most active she's been for months. There is an underlying problem though, which may resurface. She has a pendulous crop caused by an addiction to grit years ago. Her crop is now full of mud which we are massaging to remove -we know because we have seen her eating soil and then drinking a lot! She's just strange, but very sweet.
 
Definitely vent infection, just been back to the vet. I'm not giving up on her yet!
She has a build up of scab type material just inside the entrance that may or may not be bacterial or fungal. Main thing is it's weeping which is causing the poo goo. She's now on 5 day Karidox course with 3 days of metacam for pain and inflammation.
She came home and consumed a HUGE crop of mealworms and corn on the kitchen table before being popped back in with the others.
Yep - I'm the nutty chicken woman who everyone laughs at, but I don't care :D
 
BabyBantam: one of my pullets has a similar problem, with soiled bottom feathers (& the runs this morning). I've never given a hen a bath before, so please excuse the naive questions: if I bathe her in warm water with a little shower gel or bubble bath, do I need to rinse her in clean water afterwards to get the soap out of her feathers? Will she get picked on by the others for smelling different afterwards?
Do I need to wash her first thing in the morning so that her feathers have time to dry before bed, in case she won't let me give her a blow-dry
(though with the wind the way it is this week, she'll get a cold blow dry frm the weather, if I don't give her a warm one...)?
 
Sorry that Nancy is a bit uncomfortable. It sounds like the cloaca which is basically a "holding area" has got a bit infected. As chickens just have a single area for eliminating both solids and urine if there is an imbalance it is not unusual for an infection to set in. Some birds are more prone than others and particularly this time of year during moulting. Has the vet taken any swabs of any kind?
 
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