Bare bums, dirty bums; help diagnose

[SemiSweet2391]

One of my hens died this week. Since she was the oldest I thought it was fue to her age.

Today, I noticed 2 of my remaining 4 with bare bums. I decided to give everyone a good looking over.

I could not find any bugs on them. No moving specks and the shafts of the feathers looked normal. I don’t think they have mites but I am still learning.

One had a dirty bum. It didn’t smell, but she also had a bare bum. Does this look pathological/related to my other hen’s death? Or is it unrelated?

Any advice/thoughts welcome. You guys rock.

PS
Pics are worse than I thought but you can kind of see her bare bum in the second pic.

RE: plucking. I guess it *could* be plucking; I've had issues with that before. They are on high protein chick feed. Their coop is 6’x4’ and the run is 10’x30’.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

Sorry for your loss. That's hard when you don't know why too.

Bare butts is usually mites, or plucking.

Plucking is usually due to overcrowding or too low of protein.

I think if I were you, I'd get a can of permethrin powder and douse the chickens and coop with it. Sometimes those mites can be very hard to see. You've covered all the other bases, and that's about the only thing left.

I'd also put them on some probiotics that might help the dirty bum issues. That can be powders for their water, crumbles for their feed, or Greek yogurt.

I had one a few years ago always with a dirty butt. Probiotics didn't even seem to help so we just cut around the vent and kept the feathers off her back end so nothing would stick.

Have you ever wormed them? That's another consideration you might try too.

 

[SemiSweet2391]

Hi,

Sorry for your loss. That's hard when you don't know why too.

Bare butts is usually mites, or plucking.

Plucking is usually due to overcrowding or too low of protein.

I think if I were you, I'd get a can of permethrin powder and douse the chickens and coop with it. Sometimes those mites can be very hard to see. You've covered all the other bases, and that's about the only thing left.

I'd also put them on some probiotics that might help the dirty bum issues. That can be powders for their water, crumbles for their feed, or Greek yogurt.

I had one a few years ago always with a dirty butt. Probiotics didn't even seem to help so we just cut around the vent and kept the feathers off her back end so nothing would stick.

Have you ever wormed them? That's another consideration you might try too.

Ok, I can get the powder and the probiotics! I have never wormed them before, that's a good idea. Can I do all those treatments at once? Like they won't interfere with each other? Thanks for your help.