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SueChick

Is this Vent Gleet?

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I really need some help from anyone out there with experience with vent gleet please.  I have had chooks for 12 years now and this is a new one on me!

5 weeks ago I collected two rescues hens from the BHWT (ex-“free-range”).  They were skinny and partially bald as expected but I thought they were otherwise fine.  One had a runny bottom so I thought oh dear worms or stress or something and set about worming they and settling them in which they did really well.  However the bottom didn’t clear up.  It was red swollen around the vent and ran what looked like liquid poo down her bare red bottom (sorry but graphic!). Anyway, to cut a long story short after quite a few vet trips she has now been treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories as well as being tested for worms and coccidiosis (both clear).  But still we have the yucky bottom!  I bath it and squirt purple spray on it daily or every other day but we aren’t winning.

So then I called the BHWT for advice and they suggested it was vent gleet and suggested I used canesten.  I wanted back up if my vet before doing this but she wouldn’t give it because it’s a human drug which I understand but she also won’t prescribe a Chicken anti-fungal.  I am not sure why.  Lots of people have used nystatin given by their vets but mine won’t and I think she needs an internal anti fungal as well as topical as I don’t want it escalating to sour crop too.  

Todag I am going to do the Epsom salad bath to soak off the yuck and apply some canesten just on the skin until I get some vet and/or chicken people’s advice.

What do you think?  Here is a photo - sorry it’s yucky!

 

 

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Edited by SueChick
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It could simply be a gut flora imbalance which has now been severely compounded by the antibiotics, which kill off the gut flora completely? You can also find. as we have, that using anti-inflammatories causes cankers, so you need to check her throat for cream coloured growths. I would recommend an emergency dose of Avipro Avian anyway, administered as a  10mL syringe slowly down the throat daily for a week. Then if she has cankers feed her a teaspoon of chopped onions daily until they clear, although they may be too advanced and will need more vet medication in the form of Flagyl I think; it's been many years since we needed it.

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One of my rescue chickens had very red area around vent,wouldn’t have been as bad as your girlie and I read somewhere about canestan cream. I cleaned area and used cream twice daily for around a week and it cleared. Like Beantree said once antibiotic in system the body is open to lots of other microbes and fungal infections can flourish.

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Vent Gleet is a broad term for a condition that we don't know the cause, it could be viral, bacterial, yeast etc.
You're doing the right thing by cleaning it daily, we use a lot of betadine in the clinic which may help more then purple spray. If she was mine I would apply canesten into the vent daily as advised by the BHWT. If you're worried about the after effects of antibiotics try ACV and a probiotic to restore the gut flora.

Never heard of anti-inflammatories causing Canker, which is a parasite... or using onions to clear it; we are taught that onions can be toxic so I would avoid that.

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Thank you - that’s great.  Never heard of cankers but I have a vet appointment tonight to see if I can get an antifungal prescribed so I will ask him/her to check her throat too.  My usual vet wants to check via a sample to see if there is Candida (thrush) present but if there is she won’t prescribe anything anyway so what’s the point of spending money to get the test done?  If this vet will prescribe I will get it tested but I have already spent in excess of £80 trying to get to the bottom of it! (Sorry for the pun!).  4 vet visits and we aren’t really much further forward.  I have bought canesten but I’m scared to use it as my vet said I could overdose her?  

Also really worried as what will happen re fly strike when we are away this summer if she is still like this and I’m not here to wash her off daily?  Wow am I stressed about this one!

UPDATE

Took Hope to a new vet today and he was really good.  He thinks it may still be a low grade infection rather than vent gleet because it’s not smelly like gleet is.  That being said because we are going with more antibiotics (a more appropriate dose than we were given before) he is protecting her gut with an anti-fungal and when she is off the antibiotics, I have some friendly bacteria to treat her with - in fact I will do the whole flock anyway because once it’s opened you have to chuck it away if it’s not used and good bacteria is good for all my hens - especially my other rescue.

thanks for your replies and I will keep you posted on the results.

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Hmm, the leaky vent could be caused by a couple of things; if it was vent gleet, then you would be able to smell it - that is a candida/yeast type infection that's best cleared with an antifungal. You can syringe a couple of mls of neat ACV into her vent once a day and use Sudocrem on the bald and sore skin. Equally it could be caused by an egg/gynae issue, and she is producing extra lubrication to clear it.  Either way, it's nigh on impossible to tell without examining her - can you find a chicken-savvy vet?

Re canker; you'll see cream cheese type deposits/plaques inside her mouth is this is the case - this is a bacterial infection transmitted by wild birds, usually pigeons. It 'can' be treated with Metronidazole, but is often fatal. Personally, I would cull a bird with canker.

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On 5/16/2018 at 11:00 PM, The Dogmother said:

Re canker; you'll see cream cheese type deposits/plaques inside her mouth is this is the case - this is a bacterial infection transmitted by wild birds, usually pigeons. It 'can' be treated with Metronidazole, but is often fatal. Personally, I would cull a bird with canker.

It's a protozoan parasite not a bacteria ;-) It's really easy to treat and clears in a couple of days, we get quite a few raptors with it as they eat the infected pigeons.

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