Chicken diaper rash???

[NovaW]

Hi all-

I have three, three-year-old hens who have all been fairly healthy throughout their lifetime. However, one of the girls has always had an issue with feces sticking to her butt feathers (and I don't mean a little bit). It got to the point where I was regularly washing her rear and trimming her butt feathers to reduce the irritation to her skin.

I have puzzled over what to do to resolve this as she is the only one that has an issue with poops getting caught so chances of poop having an incorrect consistency due to something such as parasites seems low if the rest of the flock exhibits no symptoms.

As of late, this particular hen's rump seems even more irritated. At the moment, she has a patch of red skin around the size of a playing card underneath her butt where the poop typically sits which does not seem to be clearing up. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions on how to remediate this?

Right now she sleeps in the nesting box each night (even though there is enough space for her to roost) which leaves her sleeping in the feces that she defecates each night. Although we clean out the nesting box every day, nothing changes. A possible solution to this could be building another roosting bar as we don't know if the reason she isn't roosting is that the other girls are kicking her out.

Besides this, because this resembles a diaper rash of a baby, has anyone heard of using diaper cream on chickens? What would this do to the eggs? Are there any other ways to clear this up?

Thank you all so much-

Nova

 

[Trishamn]

I would get some baby rash cream with calendula in it, calendula is made from marygold petals and cures rashes very quickly. Here's one on Amazon, if you have a natural food store, they often have Boiron products and they have a lotion too. It's good for sun burn, bug bites, chafing. Not just your chickens butt.

https://www.amazon.com/Weleda-Diape...qid=1512195104&sr=1-24&keywords=calendula+oil

 

[WhiteWyan]

I can't imagine the diaper cream would hurt. If I were you, I'd give some apple cider vinegar in the water, which could help to firm up her droppings.
Does she get a lot of treats? Maybe try sticking to pellets if you don't already to see if that helps.

When you say "diaper" that does give me an idea. What if you put one of those chicken diapers on her, to catch the poops, so it doesn't stick to her skin?

And I agree that putting a second roost bar up could help a lot with her needing a separate spot to sleep.

 

[Bala]

Suggest homemade layer feed for chickens please

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post some photos?
You may want to give her a wash up, remove all the poop, trim it out if you need to. If she is extremely fluffy, trim some of the fluff, this may help the poop to clear the bum. Try to determine if the raw tissue is from the poop or if she something like vent gleet (any smelly white discharge?) You can apply a soothing ointment like A+D if you need to. To hid redness to discourage picking from the others, you can use something like Blu Kote. Sleeping in the nesting box would definitely contribute to poop sticking in the feathers. Another roosting bar may be a solution to encourage her to roost, block of the nesting boxes. She may also have something else going on besides being picked on and not feel well (hence sleeping in the boxes). Check her over for external parasites, see that her crop is emptying overnight and get a fecal float performed by your vet to check for worms.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would follow Wyorp Rock’s advice. Then, each night just after dark, remove her from the nest box and place her on the roost. Without a light, she will stay put until morning. After a few nights, she should go to roost herself. A soiled vent area is usually caused by runny droppings, so I would add some probiotics to her diet daily, and get a few fresh droppings checked for worms and coccidiosis. I just purchased some packets of probiotics from my vet, just for animals. Plain yogurt 1 tsp per day can really help in place of probiotics.