2 girls with butt going bald (pics) Please help!

[ChicksR4Me]

Two of my girls are losing their feathers on their underneath side just below the vent. My RIR's rear seems to be worse than the leghorn. They are not egg bound because I sat in the coop this morning with the camera to get a picture for you all and the RIR laid an egg right in front of me. I don't think the white chicken is eggbound either because I have three white layers and I got three white eggs yesterday. No white eggs yet today but they seem to lay a litter later in the morning for some reason. Can anyone tell me what to do to help them and if there is something I can do to prevent it from happening again. Also I want to add that I have not seen any of the other birds picking on them, they are active, drinking and eating normally. Thanks

This was about 10 min before she laid an egg.

She laid an egg about 2 minutes after this pic was taken.

I couldn't believe I actually saw her lay this egg! wow

I didn't get as good of picture of the white bird but here it is

Any advice on this would be very much appreciated.. I'm very concerned that if I don't do something quick they will get worse and the other birds may start having problems as well.

Thanks, Kari Sue

 

[ChicksR4Me]

Please!!!!!! Anyone????????

 

[NurseNettie]

I'm still new to this myself-- but don't worry, someone will come along sooner or later that can give you a good idea what it is.

It could be as simple as these hens are being "aggressively" bred-- do you have roos?

It can also be feather picking by others-- whether or not you see it, and the other option could be mites. Again, no expert here, just the choices I see posted most often for this sort of problem.

 

[ChicksR4Me]

Quote:
Thank you so much for your reply! I was wondering if it was showing up for others to see.
I do have one roo but I have 21 females.. so I'm not sure if they could be aggressively bred. I was under the understanding that the ratio was 11 females to 1 male. I did have 2 roos but the other one was extreemly agressive and constantly mating.. He is no longer with us though. How can you tell if there are mites?

 

[NurseNettie]

Mine haven't had a mite problem, but I believe they can be seen by the naked eye. You might want to check the learning pages or do an internet search to see if you can find any pictures--I've never had experience with them to date.

There's still the option of feather picking-- someone is just pulling out the feathers-- happens often.

 

[ChicksR4Me]

Quote:
I will look.. thank you

 

[warmfuzzies]

It looks like the skin is red and inflamed. I would do I search for medical problems. I have never seen this, but mine have feather loss spots form aggressive roos, and the skin does not look anything like this.

 

[zachary]

I did have a roo that would pick the feathers off the hens butt when he would mate them......

 

[ChicksR4Me]

Well... I have some iodine that I picked up at the feed store a few weeks ago and they told me to mix it with vaseline and put that on any wounds. The chickens don't like the taste of it so it would help if there was pecking going on and also help to protect the wound. See, a few weeks ago I thought one of the birds had a wound on his behind above his tail and that is what prompted me to get it. But when I looked closer at what I thought was a wound... it was mud or something.. I thought it was scappy... but it didn't get to the skin. I'm still glad I have it on hand and I'm hoping it will help with the obvious problem 2 of my girls are having now.
I guess I was just hopeing that someone on here would have some idea of what causes this problem. I'm just frustrated and feeling sad because that has to be causing some pain to my chickens.

 

[LynneP]

Might be broodies trying to expose skin to warm eggs. Keep watching for signs of lice and such, but it may be as simple as making sure eggs are collected promptly and that these hens are eating properly and not declining into fasting to brood eggs...

Some discussion threads for you here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/se...:10&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=broody+behavior&sa=Search