# Under vent inflammed, need help, picture included



## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

Hello,

Here is a picture of my sick hen I took today. (won't let me post a pic in here so this is a link to another forum that allowed me to) I'm hoping someone might recognize this and have an idea of what's happening with her.

After a few days of her looking sad and wattling and figured I would see if there was anything I could do to help her. For the past three days she's been separated from flock and I have been giving her 3 full syringes of diluted Terra Vet 10 (tetracyline hydrochloride) in accordance with the package mixed with a small amount of mashed garlic twice a day. She's been eating papaya, potatoes, turmeric, and some cooked veggies. She's actually starting to look perky, but still inflamed. Yesterday I had to stop giving her the syringe because after the last dose she started weezing and it sounded like water was in her lungs, so I've mixed the solution in her food.

She's normally free range, so I put small cage around her so she can still be with her peers. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you for reading.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Is she laying? Looks like internal laying to me but it could be many things.


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## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

She has not been laying for about a week. I considered internal laying but her poop is watery and green. (And frequent). Would it look egg colored if it were internal laying?

I'm thinking it could be vent gleet? Though she seemed like she was dieing before I gave her the antibiotics, (which wouldn't help with gleet)...though the skin does look really agitated.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The red skin is a first but her stance indicates egg binding. How much heat is there in that red area? There could be a massive infection or a tumor. 

The green droppings indicates she has not been eating.

If you use an online software like photobucket pics are not a problem here. 

From your verbiage it sounds as though you live in the UK or Australia, vets are pretty willing to look at chickens there if you would like a more informed answer. Its hard to diagnose by pics alone.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

The antibiotics would help with a secondary infection caused by the vent gleet.

No, the poo would not be egg coloured. The oviduct is separate from the intestine and the eggs would be collecting there. If you necropsy an internal layer they're filled with formed yolks, which can grow bacteria and cause serious infection.

It could be so many things. What does it feel like? Hot? Hard? Soft and squishy? Water ballon like? Lumpy?


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## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

Thank you for the replies, it's really nice that there are people out there that care enough to respond. I live in Hawaii actually, sorry for the weird sentences.

One thing to note is that she's 5 years old, so she doesn't lay that frequently anyway. The lump is soft, squishy, water balloon like and I couldn't find any lumpyness. The temperature isn't particularly hotter or cooler than her body. Even though she didn't eat for the first few days, (when I though she was going to die), she's been eating the past 3 days since I've been nursing her and her poop is still green.

Fiere, I think what your saying about the secondary infection from vent gleet could be a definite possibility. Do you think the soft and squishyness and temperature of it would be consistent with this?


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Usually if there is infection the area is hotter than the normal skin temp, but that is a possibility the gleet could've travelled up the reproductive tract and caused infection. The consistency of her pooch could change depending on where the infection is, so that's not really definitive in that case. The reason I asked about the firmness is because if you could feel lumps, it could show a tumour or cysts; internal laying hens usually feel like a ball, they are round and firm but not hard; did she feel like she could be fluid filled? 
How is her weight? Feel between her chest for how prominent the bone is and how thick the breast meat is. 

I'd definitely say there is something going on with her insides. My wonder at this time is whether it's digestive or reproductive, and of course if it's something treatable like worms or infection; or something more sinister that will eventually lead to her passing. Of course without a vet analysis we can only try to narrow it down so you can treat for something and hope the hen gets better.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

You're going to have to hit her with something stronger, like injectable penicillin. The hard part is getting a small enough needle for her. The penn can be gotten at the feed store, if you have a good relationship with your vet they might sell you the needles small enough to dose her.

The soft, squishy abdomen is known as ascites. Its fluid build up in the abdomen from infection.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

The thing about the injectable penicillin at the feed store is it is designed for large animals, so it is THICK. Using anything smaller than a 20g hub is going to be very hard (or impossible) to get into the bird because the penicillin will have to be forced through. The initial jab with a large gauge needle is much less painful than trying to push the penicillin through a small gauge, if you do get it out it's going to blow out like a shot from the pressure and trust me that bird is going to go haywire.

Dosage for livestock penicillin g is 0.5cc for an average sized large fowl.


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## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

Thank you Fiere and Robin416 for the dosage information! The ball has shrunk a bit and her poop isn't green anymore. The ball feels fluid filled and she has definitely lost weight. I just called my feed store and the smallest gauge needle they have is 20 gauge. So I'll buy some penicillin and start giving her that tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the 5th day on the antibiotics so it will have finished the minimum days for the doses for that antibiotic.

I'll keep giving her garlic, turmeric, and applying the antifungal cream. She's a wild one, we have to seriously manhandle her while treating her while she pecks, screams, kicks us... it will be difficult to needle her...but its better than letting her die a slow death.

I'll let you all know if she gets better or not... Thanks again.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If you can get this under control, if its from vent gleet then this might work. But if this is from internal laying it will crop up again.

There is one other thing I failed to mention, her abdomen may have to be drained of the excess fluid.

Try covering her head, you might have an easier time handling her that way. If I could get a Guinea to lie quietly in my lap while doing an injection then I'll bet you can get your girl to lie still. You want to inject in to the breast and to move the injection site each day to prevent issues from injecting in the same spot. Three days should get it.

You can do a sub-q injection but double the dose. Pinch up a wad of skim and inject under that.

BTW, please keep us updated. We particularly like to hear good things.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Sub Q is basically what you're going to get with pen G in a chicken. You'll get half of it in the meat and it'll ooze up under the skin. It's thick as snot! Wrap the bird well, and poke it in about 1/2 an inch or so (a 20g needle is usually way too long for a chicken) into the breast or thigh. Use a different spot each time as it does take a while for this to absorb and doing it twice a day is going to make her a bit sore and bruised with repeated jabs in the same area.
Just pull back on the syringe a tad and make sure you're not in a vein, you'll have a bad reaction if you are.


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## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

She's eating with charisma and holding her tail up normally. She got her first shots of .5cc of the penicillin today, we used a black sock to cover her head and it works brilliantly! Thank you! Hopefully I'll be posting some pics of a healthy chicken in a few days when I can release her back into the flock.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If its possible, bring her a buddy so that the transition back in to the flock isn't rough. 

I'll be watching for her updates.


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## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

*Happy Chicken*

Thank you Robin416 and Fiere! Here's the most recent pics of her, she's doing great!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0mDYNhpZviDQXlCa1c5S1dYWWJORWRCZ2M1RVBnR05LVU9V/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0mDYNhpZviDc2FMdE9BcjUxT3cxU2VVNEtjakswc1Jad1hR/view?usp=sharing

These pics were taken on day 4, after the last penicillin treatment. Today her butt was fluffy. While giving her the penicillin shots I noticed she had fowl lice so I treated her for that as well. That could have been cause for the redness and swelling, and the penicillin took care of the infection while the garlic and antifungal cream helped with possible vent gleet, and turmeric helped with inflammation. She's back in the flock like nothing happened and I've been giving her yogurt to help rebuild her antibodies. Having her out in the cage and having them all eat together worked so she wasn't ever quite separated. So basically treated her for everything, (except internal laying, I'm hoping it wasn't this and I'll be upping her calcium as a preventative measure). Anyway good news and good karma for you folks


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Wow, hard to believe that's the same bird. Amazing change.

Has the fluid in her belly subsided too? 

It really isn't a calcium issue with internal laying. The early egg misses the direction it is supposed to travel in and ends up in the abdominal cavity. That's what makes internal laying so insidious, other than spaying there is nothing we can do to stop it. Or I have heard about hormones being given to stop ovulation.

Thank you so much for the update.


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## MsBoejangles (May 19, 2015)

One thing I forgot to mention is we also treated her with reiki twice a day for 15 minutes. (She would fall asleep after being in held for less than 5 minutes, it was the cutest thing ever).

I believe the liquid in the belly has subsided, its definitely shrank, I don't have much to go off of to know if its completely gone or if it's a normal chicken belly.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Pick up another and check her abdomen. Then check the girl that was sick. That's the easiest way to tell the difference when you've never experienced something like this.


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## DoubleR (Jan 12, 2014)

Well done! Amazing!


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