3 out of flock of 4 chickens all bleeding from vents! Help!

[rookie01]

On Friday we rushed one very sickly chicken to the vet with a prolapsed vent. She was given shots and antibiotics and we were told it wasn't contagious. All four chucks are currently molting so they are pretty shabby looking anyway at the moment. However on Sunday one more laid a massive egg and that evening one (I'm assuming the gigantic egg layer but not sure) was bleeding from its very sore- but not prolapsed vent). We assumed it was just due to a small tear that had been pecked by the others so we separated her from the rest- bathed her in salt water and covered her cage, reduced feed to stop her laying. Now however i have just found in my never empty run that one more chicken is bleeding- definitely been pecked by the other chicken that is in the run with her- we put corn flour on the wound to stop the bleeding but now she is bleeding again- from the vent. Any ideas as to what it could be or what more we can do? The school has had them since September and never had any problems until now. They have all been laying since December but have been erratic since they started moulting two weeks ago. All suggestions greatfully received!

 

[teach1rusl]

Three possibilities jumped into my head. One of my three y.o. hens has hard molts (fall/winter, not now), and when her feathers come in, they must really irritate her, because she will pick at the protruding shafts (including around her vent area) until they bleed. I've watched her do it to herself. So maybe they're doing it if they're feathering in, and then as you said, the others are being drawn to the blood?? Is there enough blood for you to assume that others are certainly pecking at it???

Also, you're sure there are no mites/lice involved?? Have you checked their skin over closely?? I'm curious because this is an odd time of year for molting. But birds will pick at themselves when they have bugs...

The only other thing I could think of was the prolapse got their attention, and so now they're pecking at butt areas in general, especially if a bit of blood is back there???

You can try BlueKote to camouflage the redness. Many find that it helps. If it hasn't stopped by the time the molts are over, you can try pinless peepers. By the way, laying will always be sporatic at best when molting - the protein that goes into eggs is being used for feather regrowth.

Good luck - sounds like an awful problem

 

[rookie01]

Thank you for the advice one much better today, one died today and one seems to have been egg bound. traumatic day all round .