Bald bottom and stopped laying!

[Joeschooks]

Hi

Can you give her a thorough examination for any abnormal swelling, particularly between her legs and around her vent. I use a cupped hand to assess birds at roosting time and compare one to another directly because those feathers can hide all sorts of lumps and bumps. Also check her breast area and assess her body condition from it. Is her breast bone sharp under the skin or quite well covered. Again, check against your other girls.
Can you be sure she has laid a couple of eggs recently? ie actually saw her lay them rather than see her making a trip to the nest box and then afterwards finding an egg..... or can you identify her eggs by shape/colour? It is unusual to have a partial moult in this area of the abdomen and combined with her hiatus in laying, might indicate a reproductive problem. What does her comb look like? Is it nice and plump and red or pale and dry looking?

How high are your roost bars? Pecking of this area can occur at roost time by a hen standing below and pecking to try to get a better roost spot..... if the roost bars are at a height which allows this ie puts this hen's undercarriage at a convenient height for pecking from below. I appreciate you say this girl is top of the pecking order, but maybe that is changing, especially if she has a health issue going on which has impacted on her laying.
Could mice or rats be gaining access to the coop at night. I did read a post recently from a well respected member of the community that mice may take feathers from a bird whilst it is roosting at night to feather their nest.

PS. To the best of my knowledge frostbite will not cause bald patches but bald patches could cause frost bite and moulting is usually done in 6-8 weeks, so some of the information given in this thread may be awry, albeit well meaning.

Hi and thank you for this useful information.

She appears alert, healthy and active and her combs are bright red. She is eating and drinking well and I would not suspect anything from her appearance. I will go out tonight after dark and have a more thorough look and a feel under her feathers. The hen is question is easy to catch because she squats, my others are challenging!

She used to lay about 5 eggs a week from 6 months of age to 9 months of age, then she's pretty much given up except the two eggs I had a couple of weeks ago. They are definitely hers because she's the only one who lays brown eggs (I only have three other layers at the moment and theirs are blue, green and white) and also I got four eggs one day so I know they all laid. These two eggs were a little odd in that they were fairly light in colour for her. Her eggs nearly always have/had a little blood speck in them - nothing unusual in itself I know, but maybe related if she has a reproductive problem?

The roosts are about 18" above ground so perfect bottom pecking height. They all go straight to the roost at night but who knows what happens when I'm not looking! I've had another thought too - I went on a day trip to Paris two weeks ago and left long before dawn. Their auto door opener failed to open that day (the only time its ever failed!! Typical!!) My neighbour let them out at 3pm so they were shut in all day. Maybe that stressed her and caused her to pluck although she quit laying long before that and the other girls are fine. I've never noticed a significant number of her feathers laying around the coop.

I'm confident I can discount mice because there's no holes in the coop other than the ventilation but that's covered with 10mm weldmesh (I think it's called hardware cloth in the US). They can get in the run area but I don't think a mouse would survive my girls when they're awake!

I will post an update later when I've checked Claudette over again!

 

[aart]

10mm weldmesh

mm or cm?

 

[Joeschooks]

mm or cm?

10mm. So I believe its mouse proof. I watched an interesting YouTube video showing an experiment for the smallest size hole a mouse can get through - If my memory serves me correctly their experiment concluded 17mm round hole was the smallest, at least for their particular mice.

 

[Joeschooks]

10mm. So I believe its mouse proof. I watched an interesting YouTube video showing an experiment for the smallest size hole a mouse can get through - If my memory serves me correctly their experiment concluded 17mm round hole was the smallest, at least for their particular mice.

Aart, I just realised you might be clarifying because you saw my earlier post on electric fencing... my run area is enclosed with large 5cm weldmesh but my coop's vents are covered with 10mm weldmesh so no critters in the coop (I hope)!

 

[aart]

10mm. So I believe its mouse proof. I watched an interesting YouTube video showing an experiment for the smallest size hole a mouse can get through - If my memory serves me correctly their experiment concluded 17mm round hole was the smallest, at least for their particular mice.

Ha! I had my converter set up wrong(to feet instead of inches). SMH.
10mm = 0.39"....should work, small mice can get thru 0.50, bigger ones get stuck.

 

[Joeschooks]

Ha! I had my converter set up wrong(to feet instead of inches). SMH.
10mm = 0.39"....should work, small mice can get thru 0.50, bigger ones get stuck.

View attachment 1259845

That is one determined little mouse!! Incredible. That looks like a similar size mesh to my coop vents.

 

[Joeschooks]

Hi

Can you give her a thorough examination for any abnormal swelling, particularly between her legs and around her vent. I use a cupped hand to assess birds at roosting time and compare one to another directly because those feathers can hide all sorts of lumps and bumps. Also check her breast area and assess her body condition from it. Is her breast bone sharp under the skin or quite well covered. Again, check against your other girls.
Can you be sure she has laid a couple of eggs recently? ie actually saw her lay them rather than see her making a trip to the nest box and then afterwards finding an egg..... or can you identify her eggs by shape/colour? It is unusual to have a partial moult in this area of the abdomen and combined with her hiatus in laying, might indicate a reproductive problem. What does her comb look like? Is it nice and plump and red or pale and dry looking?

How high are your roost bars? Pecking of this area can occur at roost time by a hen standing below and pecking to try to get a better roost spot..... if the roost bars are at a height which allows this ie puts this hen's undercarriage at a convenient height for pecking from below. I appreciate you say this girl is top of the pecking order, but maybe that is changing, especially if she has a health issue going on which has impacted on her laying.
Could mice or rats be gaining access to the coop at night. I did read a post recently from a well respected member of the community that mice may take feathers from a bird whilst it is roosting at night to feather their nest.

PS. To the best of my knowledge frostbite will not cause bald patches but bald patches could cause frost bite and moulting is usually done in 6-8 weeks, so some of the information given in this thread may be awry, albeit well meaning.

I'm impressed, I managed to catch Gwyneth (one of my flighty girls) during daylight hours! I did trick her with scratch though! Hopefully she will forgive me by morning! I'm pleased to report that she is fine and was able to compare her to my hen with the problem...

I could't find any lumps, bumps or swellings on my bald girl. She has a fairly boney chest but not unusual and no different to Gwyneth. The bald area between her legs looks very dry and the top layer of skin is flaking - only a very thin layer which still doesn't look at all red or sore. I checked again for signs of mites. I couldn't find any evidence but they've never had mites or lice so I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking for. I could see two new feather pins coming through so I'm really hoping the whole area will re-feather soon... Does this shed any more light on the condition Rebrascora?

 

[rebrascora]

Layers are supposed to be lean. We are used to seeing plump supermarket chickens for roasting, but they are very abnormal as regards chicken development, so it can be quite surprising to realise that all chickens are not like that under those feathers. As long as she feels pretty much like the other hen and they both don't feel like bags of bones and feathers, then that is good. This is why it is important to compare with another chicken when you do these assessments.
Good to hear that she has no abnormal abdominal swelling either and that pin feathers are starting to appear. It may be that another bird has plucked and possibly eaten her feathers or that she is going through an early and unusually slow moult and that she is just not going to be the great layer that she should be as a hybrid.
I was initially concerned that she might be internally laying or have ascites or perhaps salpingitis, but the fact that there is no swelling and she has laid eggs recently negates those things which are often responsible for a bald belly and no eggs. There is nothing else that springs to mind as regards ailments, so hopefully she is just one of those stop/start layers that happen occasionally. Since we are still in winter and there may be some freezing nights still to come a little coconut oil or Vaseline smeared over her bald patch will help moisturise that dry skin and protect it from any chance of frost bite.

 

[Joeschooks]

Layers are supposed to be lean. We are used to seeing plump supermarket chickens for roasting, but they are very abnormal as regards chicken development, so it can be quite surprising to realise that all chickens are not like that under those feathers. As long as she feels pretty much like the other hen and they both don't feel like bags of bones and feathers, then that is good. This is why it is important to compare with another chicken when you do these assessments.
Good to hear that she has no abnormal abdominal swelling either and that pin feathers are starting to appear. It may be that another bird has plucked and possibly eaten her feathers or that she is going through an early and unusually slow moult and that she is just not going to be the great layer that she should be as a hybrid.
I was initially concerned that she might be internally laying or have ascites or perhaps salpingitis, but the fact that there is no swelling and she has laid eggs recently negates those things which are often responsible for a bald belly and no eggs. There is nothing else that springs to mind as regards ailments, so hopefully she is just one of those stop/start layers that happen occasionally. Since we are still in winter and there may be some freezing nights still to come a little coconut oil or Vaseline smeared over her bald patch will help moisturise that dry skin and protect it from any chance of frost bite.

Thanks so much for your help and advice. You answered my next thought too, whether it was ok/a good idea to put vaseline on the dry area. I know its good for protecting combs and wattles from frost and dryness but wasn't sure if it was a good to put it on an area they can easily reach with their beaks. I'll do that in the morning.

I'm sure you're right about the problem not being internally laying or anything too serious. I haven't experienced those problems before but I'm sure I'd pick up on some signs of illness if she had a serious problem.

It's a shame my grandmother isn't still with us; she'd have knitted her a little pair of pants! No one wants their groin exposed all day in 0 degree weather!

 

[rebrascora]

Actually internal layers can go for months without appearing to be unwell at all apart from a gradually swelling belly(which is often well hidden by feathers) and eventually they walk with a wide stance and start to get a poopy butt as the pressure of the yolk masses constricts the gut and the swelling means the poop does not fall free of their feathers. I had one go more than 9 months and not appear sick until eventually the weight and pressure of it started taking an effect on her ability to get about.
I love the idea of your granny knitting her some bloomers.... what a fab mental image that conjours up and a happy thought to remember her by.