Mites/ lice or feather pickers?

[Nicoliosis5]

Hello everyone.

I posted a thread a week or so ago about one of my hens that had lost all the feathers on her bum.

I am writing now because, within 2 days, ALL 6 of them have lost their bum feathers. I have no idea what's going on. I have checked for mites at night but of course I don't know exactly what I'm looking for.. Just crawly little bugs.

I haven't seen any blood drawn on the bums but a few of them have a significant amount of red skin (it has been very cold here in New England for a couple days) so last night I applied some Blue-Kote to the red areas to try to limit attention to the ares. This morning I let them out and most of them have blue beaks!!

Did the blue stuff bother them,so they were picking at it themselves, or do I have a whole flock of feather pickers? Or bugs?

AHHHH


Here are the bums, pre-blue stuff.







Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[eggbert420]

Vent gleet maybe? a fungal infection of the gastrointestinal tract.  It can lead to feather loss around the vent and the entire backside of your chickens.

 

[Nicoliosis5]

Thank you eggbert.

However I did some research on vent gleet and I don't think that's our problem. There is no discharge or smell, The feathers and skin are clean. Their vents look clean and not irritated. We have no drop in egg production.No loss of appetite or weight. The hens all seem completely normal, other than the fact that their booties are bare and slightly reddened from the cold weather.

 

[Nicoliosis5]

On a side note,

Does anyone know if there is an egg withdrawal period when using blue kote?

This mornings eggs have blue stripes on the shells.