I have an 11 month old Black Australorp named Ebony that has (since a chick) always had a problem with poop sticking to her vent area. Two months ago it was pretty caked up so I cleaned her up and trimmed the feathers back, shortly after she started loosing all her butt feathers. I have been watching and it wasn't getting any better and has been 6 weeks. Now she is also loosing feathers on her wings and looks feels like she has lost weight. We had a major issue with owls and coyotes in January and lost half of our flock (8 birds) the only truly secure although kind of odd coop I could come up with at the time was a great dane size dog crate that is stainless steel and super heavy duty (had been used for our 200lb+ English mastiff). There is a ladder roost in the crate and it is covered with a tarp so it is water proof but still has ventilation, the bottom is a plastic tray that can be removed and cleaned and straw. It is located right next to a play house that holds the nesting boxes two wood ones (which none of them use) and one plastic cat litter box with hood that all 8 of them lay in. She sleeps on the bottom to last roost. During the day the flock grazes in the yard that is fenced (about 30'x30') and have access to both nesting box area and sleeping area. She has always been one of the top birds in the flock and hasn't been picked on that I have observed. No bleeding no weird poops that I have noticed. My Americauna about a two weeks ago also 11 months old has also started loosing her feathers. At first I thought it was molting but now I am concerned it is something else and don't want is spreading to my other hens. We added 3 new pullets that are 3 months old to the flock starting 4 weeks ago but that is the only thing that I can think of that has changed. When I took her out tonight to get a better look I noticed the big spot in the picture that looks like a blister. In the yard they have a lot of dirt that they daily clean themselves in and the other birds (2 BO, 1 White Bird, 3 RIR) all look good with beautiful fluffy feathers. They all eat a mixture of egg layer and scratch along with a never ending supply of crickets and lizards (arizona desert) and all of our scraps. My inclination is that we are dealing with either lice or mites but don't have that much experience and have never had either problem in the past.
