Paging Pullet or anyone else knowledgable re. poultry.
I have 40 cornish hens about a week and a half old. One of them has had a really dirty vent for several days, but no other symptoms of disease. I tried looking it up on thepoultrysite.com, but they only list diseases by name. Any idea what could cause this? Is it comunicable? Do I need to cull this one to protect the rest?
A feces covered vent, known in the industry as “pasted vent,” really only means that that particular bird is having diarrhea. There are exactly a zillion things that cause diarrhea. If your other birds are fine, and this bird is up and eating and otherwise acting like nothing is wrong, then I wouldn’t be over concerned. He’ll probably be better in a week or so. If he’s down and puffed up and unhappy, he needs veterinary attention and you need further diagnostics to make sure your flock doesn’t have something nasty.
If you want more diagnostics, get in touch with the Ag department of your local major college and ask if there is a livestock diagnostic system in your state that can help you out. The Cornell veterinary school would be a good place to start on your end of the country, but be persistent about it. Sometimes the first person you talk to doesn’t know about any of the poultry stuff around. Keep in mind that diagnostics might require sacrificing the sick bird.
Now, if the vent isn’t feces covered, but seems to be covered with a dirt like stuff, then you have to think more along the lines of an external parasite. Northern Fowl mite is the popular one here. If you’re worried about mites, get in touch with a good chicken vet. Cornell should have some. North Carolina University’s vet school, too. There are regulations on what you can put on chickens, as opposed to other birds, depending on their final purpose in life.
Does that help? I can narrow down the list of diarrheal diseases if you tell me more about your situation (you can PM me if you want). Where you got the birds, how you keep them, what you feed them, all that good stuff.
Yes, it just looks like a pasted vent (or poopy butt, as my wife diagnosed it). I’ll just watch over it to make sure it goes away. I’ll PM you if I need more help with this.
Heck, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, and the University of North Carolina-CH are within 30 miles or so of each other.