Can you trim their butt fluff? (Poop stuck)

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

My 8-9 month old Production Red hen, has poop stuck to her butt. This has happened before and I took a wet papertowel and had to scrub the poop off of her vent/butt fluff. Could I trim her butt fluff or will she bleed? Also, what do you think could be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CMV]

Yes you can give her a trim. Don't hit any blood feathers, which are fresh quills coming in. They will look exactly like porcupine quills, and they will bleed if you disturb them. Any regular feathers can be trimmed right back without a problem.

A couple things can cause this. If the bird has diarrhea, or doesn't roost on a roosting pole are two reasons it can happen. I have a bird that refuses to roost on the poles. She parks herself on top of the nesting boxes, so at night the poop doesn't fall away from her like it should, and then sticks to her butt feathers. As a result she has a chronically poopy butt, so I keep her butt trimmed.

Good luck.

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Thank you. I just finished trimming back her butt feathers. It was a gross job but somebody had to do it.

I don't think she has diarrhea. But I will have to pay more attention to it. She doesn't sleep on the nest boxes, she sleeps on a roost (2x4).