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[pwms]

Hi

 

My nearly 2 year old black rock hen Victoria has been very poorly lately. No eggs for a while and a white substance leaking from her vent which seems to dry in and harden on her feathers and skin. She also removed herself to the coup most of the day and was not eating or drinking much.

 

On examining her I found hard white calcified deposits inside her vent.

 

I have been giving her baths in clean warm water twice a day and massaging the deposits and slowly removing them. Things seem to be improving and she perked up last night and her appetite returned. This morning ther were two soft shelled eggs in the coup, I'm assuming one of those was Victoria and one was from Henny our light sussex who has also been off laying for a while.

 

We also have another black rock in the coup who is perfectly normal and laying almost every day so hard to blame the environment.

 

Any ideas on what this is and I am doing the right thing?

 

Any advice gratefully received

 

Peter

[The Dogmother]

Could be any number of things at that age TBH. I'd advise doing the usual basics when you're unsure of the problem; worm them with Flubenvet if they haven't yet been done this quarter, check them for lice and treat if found, make sure that they are eating nowt but pellets (no treats)... you'd be surprised how many people think that their chooks will continue to lay if fed on mashed potato and pasta

 

Add some good quality poultry tonic to the water, and some crunched eggshells/limestone flour and cod liver oil to their feed and see how they go. I suspect that the 'deposits' might be dried up lubrication which hens produce when they are laying a soft egg, or even the dried up remains of a soft egg which burst inside.

 

Hybrid hens which have hither to been stonking layers tend to get egg tackle issues around the 2 year mark - all that egg production just takes it out of them.

[pwms]

Thanks for that,

 

My hens have a staple diet of layers pellets with an early eveneing treat of a handful of dried worms between them or sometimes kibbled corn. Very occasionally they get fresh peppers or corn on the cob.

 

They have been wormed recently and had a liquid feed supplement a few weeks ago.

 

No mashed potato here but they do get macaroni now and again as a special treat but they haven't had that in a while .

 

I will keep up the internal massage since it appears to be doing some good - I get some of the hard material out each time but don't want to overdo it since it it clearly not the most pleasant job and especially not for Victoria.

 

Thanks

 

Peter

[The Dogmother]

Did you worm them with Flubenvet?

[pwms]

Not sure what it was and I'm in the office right now so I can't check. By the sounds of things it's particularly good?

[The Dogmother]

Flubenvet is the only licensed poultry wormer; it comes as a powder or ready-mixed pellets; that's the one you need to use. It's very effective.

 

To maintain optimum health it is recommended that chickens are wormed quarterly with it; many of the symptoms you've described could be attributed to a heavy worm-load amongst other things, so it's best to worm them so that can be discounted from the equation.

[pwms]

Aha,

 

I have been using liquid Verm-X added to their water. Last done about a month ago.

[The Dogmother]

Best get them on some Flubenvet; I find the ready mixed pellets easy to use, and get the 10kg bag from here

 

You feed them nowt but those pellets for 7 days and try to keep them in the run of a morning when their consumption is highest. Warning... if you've not been using a licensed wormer then the resulting poos may put you off bean sprouts for life; there will likely be a good few worms expelled!!!

[pwms]

Thanks for the advice - and the warning . . . . .

[pwms]

Hi,

 

Initially Victoria was responding well to the twice daily baths and massage of the hardened deposits inside her vent. The deposits were coming away bit by bit and the white runny poo that was leaking out was starting to become more solid almost normal poo. Unfortunately she seemed to run out of energy to fight whatever the underlying problem was and she became lethargic and a day later passed away.

 

Unfortunately I did not get the Flubenvet until the day she passed away but I fed it to the remaining two hens but with no dramatic results so I can only assume it was not worm related. They have now finished their dose and seem fairly happy.

 

 

Regards

 

 

 

Peter

[The Dogmother]

Mixed news then Peter. Sorry to hear about Victoria.