chicken's first bath, and a bare bottom!

[hensandchickscolorado]

So, I noticed my Barred Rock's eggs were coming out more and more yucky, so I took a close look at her bottom and noticed CLUMPS of poo all over. Yuck.

I read on the forum that it was okay to give her a little bath, so I did, in warm water and dish soap. I towel dried her and threw on some DE to help dry her out a little more.

I pulled off a bunch of yukky clumps, but no feathers. However, the poor girl is BARE BOTTOMED. She has none of the "fluff" that other girls have.

I only have three chickens and they get along quite well. Did perhaps they try to clean her up and pull out the fluff? Did the poo weigh it down and pull out the feathers? The other girls have nice fluffy clean bottoms .

This is kind of gross, but poor Maxine looks very sad right now with her pale cheeks and some sad feathers drooping down at the bottom.

Any advice? Is this normal?!!

 

[azygous]

I have a nine-month old SS pullet with the same problem. I also noticed her bare bottom while I was giving her a much needed ***-bath.

It appears her baldness is also accompanied by swelling. Is your girl swollen in that area?

I have no idea whatsoever what is causing it or if it's something to be concerned about.

Hopefully we'll both get some answers from our more enlightened brethren.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I have a nine-month old SS pullet with the same problem. I also noticed her bare bottom while I was giving her a much needed ***-bath.

It appears her baldness is also accompanied by swelling. Is your girl swollen in that area?

I have no idea whatsoever what is causing it or if it's something to be concerned about.

Hopefully we'll both get some answers from our more enlightened brethren.

I made a post in the emergency section a little while ago about my bare bottomed hen. Like you, I found the feathers gone when I cleaned off the yuck. Anyway, upon further inspection she looked to have an egg sized lump under her vent (I thought she was egg bound). Turns out its a fat pad. I guess she's just a fat piggy and needs to diet a little. Maybe this is what's going on with your girl? FYI, poop left matted on feathers causes ammonia burn, probably the reason for the bare booty. Good luck, my girl still has her bare butt hanging in the wind. I'll be glad when she moults so she can put some pants back on!

 

[chicken pickin]

hmmmm ive wondered about the bare bottom thing also. I have a neighbor down the street with chickens and everytime i drive by i like to look at their small cute farm and ive notice some of the chickens had no fluff on the bums and some looked reddish. I hope my girls dont get like that, and giving chickens baths sounds like tough work, is it difficult?

 

[azygous]

I didn't mention it because I hope it isn't this, but I had an older hen who had acites and died. It caused swelling in the area below the vent like this. But my SS pullet is way too young for that. I hope. But she appears to be feeling okay. Besides, acites doesn't caused feather loss there.

As for bathing chickens, it's not hard. I usually just back them up to a wash basin of warm water and children's bubble bath soak and just wash off the butt crust.

Only with broken feathers do you have to wait for molt to replace them. All others should grow back.

 

[Shelly1st]

I also have a hen with a bare bottom. She got hers because the other hens were bullying her and pecking out her feathers. I had to remove her from the flock and treat her wounds with hydrogen peroxide then applied Neosporin. After a month of recouping I reintroduced her to the flock ... well she is going bald in her the bottom again. I read in the "Chickens Magazine" that you can help heal bald patches and prevent pecking by spraying tree-pruning sealer on the wound. This sounded crazy to me, so I thought I would check with all of you first before I tried it. Any thoughts?

 

[azygous]

Tree-pruning sealer - no, I wouldn't. It's probably similar to pine tar and that is sold as an anti-picking solution. It will create an awful mess, and you will wish you hadn't gunked your poor little girl with it.

Try Blu-kote instead. It will disguise her pink, bald skin, and it also tastes terrible to the victimizers, but won't do more than just stain her skin purple.

If you have a persistent picker, I suggest pinless peepers. They have solved some very serious picking problems in my flock. (Choose any color except red, though)