Friday, December 10, 2010

Chicken Hemorrhoids? (Bloody Eggs!)

Just when we start to think we have things down to a routine one of the girls does something to mess that up! Tonight, not ten minutes after Jeff left for work, I went downstairs to check on the girls since it seemed I was hearing more noise than usual. I saw an egg in the nesting box and when I retrieved it, I noticed that it was bloody! Of course, I was worried....what in the world does this mean? Is one of them hurt? I threw away the egg and went upstairs to pour myself a glass of hard cider (with what I had to do next I needed something to take the edge off.) Then I went back to the basement and faced what any good urban farmer needed to do- inspect their vents! (Yes, vents are what you think they are!) I began with Scabby since if any chicken was to be injured it would most likely be her. I turned her over and pushed away her feathers. It was a fight, but nothing seemed wrong with her. I did the same for the other two birds and they all seemed fine. (Yes, I googled to see pictures of what their vents should look like-shudder.) Other than annoying the birds and getting myself scratched, I didn't answer the bloody egg question. I went to the backyard chicken forms and found this post that answered my question. (Yes, clearly I should have just looked at this web site first before the "vent inspection".) So it seems that it is perfectly normal for the girls to break a blood vessel in their "plumbing" in the first few months of laying and that it is nothing to worry about. The best remedy is to add some fat and protein in their diet....great just what we need to go out an buy them another treat! Ha!

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=273527

4 comments:

  1. But really, have you heard of chickens with hemorrhoids? I have one that has her 'vent' sticking out and she's not clean back there. It looks like the rooster has mounted her, as you can see some of her feathers missing at the back of her head and some rough-looking feathers around her shoulders.
    I'm not sure what to do, but have considered applying some Preparation H just to help the poor thing. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, we are seeing what sounds like the same thing in one of our hens, it looks like a pollup or a hemorrhoid hanging out? I'm curious if you did anything, should I do anything, did the vaseline help?

      Delete
  2. I don't think they get hemorrhoids, but I could be mistaken. We haven't had this issue ourselves, but I did some research. I would try some vaseline on the outside of her vent to ease her discomfort which I have read will ease the inflammation and can help the vent return to normal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That was funny! Thank you for the humor. I will check out the link now!

    ReplyDelete