1 yr. olds with naked butts?

[llnmaw]

One of them seems to clearly be molting so when I noticed her naked backside it seemed like no biggie. But now 3 out of 4 of my hens have reasonably large naked spots on their butts! One of them molted in the fall...so it would surprise me that she would be doing that again (or maybe that is not unusual?)

It does not seem like anyone is picking/pulling out the feathers, in fact the one without a naked butt is the least likely to be an instigator of a problem.

So after all that. What might I be looking for that would be causing them to loose feathers only on their butts? The spot is below the vent. I don't see anything obvious...obviously..or I wouldn't be asking!

~L.

 

[madamwlf]

Check them for lice and mites. Lice like to hang out around the vent area.

 

[llnmaw]

Would I actually see lice?? Off to google "lice on chickens" images!

Thanks for the idea!

 

[madamwlf]

Yes you will see them. The egg casings will be on the shaft of the feather. Lice a small white to opaq colored bugs.

 

[RedIII]

Check them for lice and mites. Lice like to hang out around the vent area.

x2

Sometimes if you pick up the bird and search the skin under the wings, you might also find an indication of pests like mites. You'll see little dots running out of sight when you spread the feathers to see the skin. Erm........I recommend wearing gloves when you do this, if for no other reason than to cut down on the heebie jeebies.

 

[llnmaw]

Yeah...thanks for the glove suggestion. I'm a little icked out at the prospect, but will go check for mites/lice.

Thanks for tips!

 

[RedIII]

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

 

[llnmaw]

Okay..so I checked them out. I see nothing! What else could be causing the naked backsides? The area around the vent is not naked, it starts about an inch away from the vent. It's almost as though the feathers are rubbed off? Though there is nothing that I can think of that they could be bumping up against.

I'm confused.

I did take a picture of one chicken...not sure how helpful that is though. It's just a naked chicken backside!!

 

[RedIII]

Hmm, it's possible that you could have a feather picker. You said that all of the birds have the bald spot except for one, right?

 

[JoePa]

I had a hen with a naked area just below its vent - I put on rubber gloves and picked up the chicken - turned it upside down and spread some seven 5% around the naked area - the feathers grew back - don't know what caused the feather loss - but whatever it was it seemed like the seven did the job -