blood trickling from vent - this can't be good...

[aliris]

Hi - 5yo Rhode Island Red - she hasn't laid much for a good 2 years, when I give her calcium pills as suggested here, she used to lay sometimes sporadically but not for a good while. I've witnessed several no-shell and soft-shell eggs. Her tail end really droops and lots of gooky ick on the butt. That's been her reality for a long while.

A couple days ago I noticed some weird alarm calls from her, she appeared to be getting worse, eating less. This morning I put her in a warm bath and realize how extremely swollen her back end is, and red. I checked inside her vent cavity - don't know what that's called, but there's no egg stuck there or anything.

Then she appeared to perk up a bit, fiddled with some feathers on her back, looked alert... but still she's swollen. And I thought the blood had stopped but it hasn't really. Not enough to appear in the water, I didn't notice it until taking the pictures I'll attach.

I gave her a frozen-oil pill earlier in case there's stuck poop to move?

She's perkier now, I don't know what else to do. I've got her soaking in periodically cleaned water, up over her vent. She appears to really like the water, when I drain it she gets agitated til it's back.

Any thoughts oh wise ones? Thanks if you have any...

She's perkier now... - but her crest is kinda droopy. That's new as of today. She made two of those horrible bleats this morning calling my attention to her plight.

Before sending this just now I went to inspect again and found she's got a good softball sized lump below.... it's horrible and I actually squeezed on it and some white gross goo came out and liquid light brown-green watery stuff. I feel like I was actually expelling that, and I think that's good? Anyway, thoughts?

 

[aliris]

@Eggcessive - is this coccidiosis? The poop looks like it. I think you were giving advice about this in another thread. What dosage should I use with an adult? I'm estimating she's at least 5 lb...

 

[Eggcessive]

At 5 years old and not laying for 2 years, I would think it might be a reproductive issue or possibly cancer. Has there been any rat poison that she could have gotten into? Can you see a vet? I am not going to be online much for a few days.

 

[aliris]

Hi Eggcessive, sorry to call you off of offline, lol.

Yeah, perhaps just that - a reproductive issue. I believe you or another has opined as much in the past. It's just that the poop looks like the pictures of coccidiosis.

So I borrowed some corid from a friend and made up a batch for the 5-day treatment, 2tsp per gallon of 9.6% corid soln - I am pretty sure, not positive, that at least one other chicken is having this green watery poop. And as it seems to be given prophylactically, I figure it isn't going to harm them to all be treated? So I made up that 5-day treatment amount, set it in the others' coops, but they free range and have access to other water, and put the sick one in the "hospital" (aka shower stall) and gave her only that water. She's been drinking that and eating some, too.

Maybe I'm wrong, please correct me if so, but it seemed worth a try and not likely to harm otherwise?

Also, fwiw, "5 years" is exaggerating her age. She was an egg approx Aug 2020 so really she's coming on 4 years. She never laid well after 2 others of her same age died of some unknown disease, and a fourth her age also lays infrequently since that event.

And no rat poison for sure.

I'm in the middle of a big city and they don't do livestock vets here!

 

[Eggcessive]

Corid is pretty harmless to use even if it is not coccidiosis. If you have a regular dog vet, and your dog or cat needs a vaccination, ask if they will do a fecal float. Poop pictures are welcome if you haven’t posted one already.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I went to inspect again and found she's got a good softball sized lump below.... it's horrible and I actually squeezed on it and some white gross goo came out and liquid light brown-green watery stuff. I feel like I was actually expelling that, and I think that's good?

Where is that blood coming from, looks like it's towards her back, is it actually coming out of the vent or from broken feather or wound?

You inspected and found a softball sized lump below what? You squeezed the lump and stuff came out - where? The lump? the vent?

Does she have a wound below her vent or lower?

 

[aliris]

I think that photo may be upside down... hard to tell but I know the lay of the actual-land, as it were. The blood was trickling from her vent. It was definitely from inside, (1) I could see it and (2) much later when I took her from the water and she dried off, blood encrusted the vent a bit. eww.

So no broken feather, no wound.

The softball lump is - I need some anatomy terms -- I'm looking online and I just don't see what it's called. The whole fluffy part, beneath the vent. It's like it's hinged and it bows down.

Y'all taught me before that this sort of "tightness" is found in younger, healthier egg-laying chickens and I do see that for sure in those who are younger, etc. She's just got a massive ball of stuff hanging beneath her legs.

When I felt inside the -- I guess it was the cloaca? - there was just a large, empty, smooth cavity there, no eggs or anything else. I thought perhaps whatever that mass was could be flet, but it was walled off, underneath. So I was surprised that later when I squeezed that mass, this - I guess fecal soup came out. There was a lot of milty white stuff and then clear-to-green watery fluid. Which I realized on looking at later photos of that poop associated with coccidia, that at least one of my chickens has definitely been putting out. I cannot now remember which, I have seen it but I don't remember the perpetrator.

She survived the night. Her vent area pulses. I imagine at the least if there is still blood clogging that exit that would certainly be a problem. I think I will put her back in the warm bath which at the least seems to ease her pain. But must also be necessary for opening the exit for excrement. Poor thing.

I will also give her some of the corid-water just because, again, it seems it cannot hurt? It seems that for those afflicted, relief can be ery quick if this is a coccidia infection. Though it also seems that if so, there is already a lot of internal damage. But as I've noted, this chicken has been ailing for a very long while now.

Thanks, @Wyorp Rock , for your questions. I really appreciate any thoughts or instruction! Off to stick her in a warm bath again...

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The Corid won't hurt her.

Sounds like when you pressed on the bulge that fecal matter and urates (white) came out.
The intestines and oviduct both "meet" at the Cloaca (Vent), so...

I would suspect that she may have something reproductive going on. Whether it's a disorder like cancer as mentioned or something else, it's very hard to know unless you lose them and check the internals.

I'd give her extra calcium for a couple of days too. 1Calcium Citrate with D3 tablet daily would be good.

 

[aliris]

I realized the dosage I mixed up yesterday wasn't really right; the package is crazy-confusing. I put 3Tb in 1.5gal water but that's not right for a "drench". Today I mixed 3 fl oz into 16oz water (1 pint) and have fed that to her while sitting in a warm bath. she loves the water, she's probably very thirsty. I've gotten 3 "412" syringes into her but who the h knows what "412" means. mL? Ah, it holds 12cc - https://www.frontierdental.com/us/e...tion-syringe-curved-tip-412-12-cc-50-pk-34651 -- so I guess I got about, um, at least 10cc into her... No idea if this could help. But her comb looks way perkier than yesterday and she just decided to make a move from the water bath! Which is at least feisty if a pia. smh. I'll stuff a calcium pill in her. That's what I've been using on your advice from a long while back.

 

[aliris]

OK, this will sound massively stupid... I realize that underneath the vent is a large, approx 2cm oval lesion. I think it's possible blood might have been coming from that? It's painful to her but not with blood on it now. I will try to attach photos... except what I took just doesn't show it, I do not have enough hands!

I'm thinking it's that mass just pushing through her skin... and the diarrhea is secondary to that. Thanks, @Wyorp Rock