Bare butt

[sphinxface]

So this girl first started getting bare around her crop, I figured her over-enthusiasm when seeing us was pushing her stomach against the fence and rubbing away her feathers but now she's really bare all down her keel and mostly around her vent. I've tried looking for mites at night and am not really seeing anything in the coop, but haven't tried picking her up and looking. But the weirder thing is is that she's the only one who is this bare? The others seem to have a bit missing around their combs but that's mostly it. She's having some internal problems today and we gave her a quick soak so I was able to get some good pictures.

She's always on the bottom of the pecking order, she never tries to fight anyone. Could they be pulling off her butt feathers?

 

[sphinxface]

Could she have pulled all those feathers put herself because poop was stuck to them?

 

[emmaie892000]

Could be due to lice or mites as well.

 

[sphinxface]

I did find some lice eggs down there, she doesn't dust bathe as much as the others so she might not be getting dosed with the DE very well... I'll have to put more in the bedding where she nests and sleeps.

 

[jak2002003]

I think the other chickens are plucking her feathers no they see the red skin.

Isolate her and treat there for mites, lice, etc and wait till her feathers grow back before you put her back in the coop.

 

[emmaie892000]

You could probably re-introduce sooner if you sprayed her bottom with bluekote to cover the red. If the feather shafts are completely removed from the skin, new feathers will begin to grow back soon. If there are some broken feathers, or feathers that are just the shaft, you may want to go ahead and pluck what you can, or else her butt will remain bare until her next molt.

 

[sphinxface]

Shouldn't they be molting soon? She didn't molt last year... I see her feathers all over I thought at first she was molting but she's just getting more and more bare... I guess I could put her in the isolation pen but it always makes me sad ;0

 

[emmaie892000]

It could be molting as well. Unless you see active picking I wouldn't isolate her.
I know some people who purposefully trim birds bottoms who keep getting poop on them, so having a bare bottom isn't bad for them.
To treat for lice and mites, I use a poultry spray that I got at my feed store, and Sevin dust on their bodies and in the coop. Keeps them fairly under control.

 

[sphinxface]

Just cleaned the coop, sprayed it with some poultry protector stuff, added some poultry dust to the bedding, and dusted the girls. It was the first time I'd ever grabbed them by the legs and flipped them over... I feel like I deserve a merit badge or something... Anyway! I saw quite a bit more lice down there than I had guessed, gonna retreat them again next week and maybe again for a 3rd week just to make sure I'm getting good coverage. ;P