Chicken with Bald Butt

[Jillybean2411]

Most of mine have the same bald bum, all but the head chicken. Apparently they pluck each others bums while on their roosting perches. It seems to get better in the winter, perhaps they are too busy trying to keep warm to pluck each other.

Good luck

 

[2greenboyz]

It would be great if that's what it turned out to be, just plucking. Still have to solve the soft egg problem, somebody's gotta own up to that one. I just would like to know what peepers are, never heard of that before. Can I look at a pic at TSC or someplace? (Learn something new every day)

 

[farm-a-zootical]

Do a BYC search on 'pinless peepers'. They're basically chicken 'blinders'. They keep them from being able to see straight ahead to grasp individual feathers. I had to order mine, but they're not that expensive. It's better to have two people to put them on. One to hold the chicken, one to spread the peepers & apply them. Mine started picking one another when they couldn't free range because of predators although they have plenty of covered space to run in. Temper tantrums. I'll take them off in a few months & see if they've dropped the habit. There are several thread on BYC regarding peepers.

 

[ShaunaCH]

It would be nice if all it is is plucking. I gave her a warm epsom salt bath this evening - that was...exciting. She was none too happy. I also put on a pair of gloves and checked for blockage - none that I could tell. I held her in a towel for a bit to try to get her dry before I put her down. Once I put her down, I watched how the others reacted to her. There was a bit of plucking from the other bottom hen, but not sure if it's because she was all wet. Ugh, I just so don't want to have to drain her. In my research I came across the possibility of ascites and that seems to be the only possible remedy for it. I just can't tell if she's swollen (compared to the others) or if that's the way it's supposed to look (assuming there were feathers there). Along with a few soft eggs, we also got one very teeny tiny egg recently. Other than that though, she is eating fine, her comb & wattle are a nice bright red and her eyes are clear. I double/triple checked and there is no sign of parasites on her body. For extra caution and put some new DE in their nest box and coop tonight. Hmmm, I guess I'll just keep an eye on it and if it starts to swell or seems hot, I'll have to go find a place to buy a syringe and re-read about how to do it - kind of freaks me out though.

 

[ShaunaCH]

Oh, and my chickens are free range during the day in our enclosed backyard. Although, our yard isn't very lush. We do, however, provide a healthy amount of treats.

 

[farm-a-zootical]

I went through the same worries, but if she's low on the totem pole, and there is only one doing the plucking, isolate the bully in a dog crate for a while so that bully one will be the lowest in the pecking order when you reintroduce it. I'd put the vapor rub on the bald area as a caution. If your other chickens catch on, they'll join in. Soon. That's what happened to us. They'd all caught on before we found out they were doing it on the roost. It is a hard habit to break when they do it for meanace. Chickens are little dinosaurs. And cannibals. Some people can curb it by adding protein to the diet of the offender so it won't want to eat feathers. It was an 'attitude' issue for us. Sadly. No amount of protein helped my problem ladies.