Cleaning a dirty butt.....

[arkansas_ash]

Since you got me thinking about "Miss Doris" and her poopy butt, I too finally did the trim. Trimming was necessary as there were some, how was it said earlier, dingle berries, on her rear.

The after trim below. You can see the reddish skin irritation below the vent from Doris' poop, which as I mentioned was watery and has been since last summer. One has to be careful when trimming to not trim too short or too much as the fluff down there is what acts as skin protection. If it wasn't winter I would have done soak method instead.

The good news is that while taking these pictures, I saw Doris go a solid poop and not the usual watery stuff, so I'm hoping her "diaper rash" will heal on its own without the need of treatment. The last pic is of my Orpington, "Miss Osage" who has the perfect rear. Her poop hits the fluffy feathers and bounces off onto the ground.

Who'd a thought I'd be taking pictures of the other end of my hens
Fun thread, and hope I didn't hijack it. Just wanted to add another experience with hens ends.

 

[Minky]

That is one nice, clean and fluffy looking Orpington a$$.

 

[Chickassan]

Lol! Miss Doris is white. I tells ya, it's always the cotton balls that get the funkiest.

Since you got me thinking about "Miss Doris" and her poopy butt, I too finally did the trim. Trimming was necessary as there were some, how was it said earlier, dingle berries, on her rear.

The after trim below. You can see the reddish skin irritation below the vent from Doris' poop, which as I mentioned was watery and has been since last summer. One has to be careful when trimming to not trim too short or too much as the fluff down there is what acts as skin protection. If it wasn't winter I would have done soak method instead.

The good news is that while taking these pictures, I saw Doris go a solid poop and not the usual watery stuff, so I'm hoping her "diaper rash" will heal on its own without the need of treatment. The last pic is of my Orpington, "Miss Osage" who has the perfect rear. Her poop hits the fluffy feathers and bounces off onto the ground.

Who'd a thought I'd be taking pictures of the other end of my hens
Fun thread, and hope I didn't hijack it. Just wanted to add another experience with hens ends.

 

[achiekitty]

Not going to help with anyone's first poop removal but a little tip to make future removals easier. Dry shampoo, yep after you clean the poo dry shampoo the butt and nothing or nearly nothing sticks. Also if you can't do a full water bath you can use a spray bottle to cleanse the offending orifice. Get in there! Its just poop!

Spray bottle sounds good. I tried a hose spray and didn’t work. Probably better if I was holding her, because she just ran away, with a drippy wet butt. I gave her a bath once and she never relaxed and started freaking-out like she was being attacked.

 

[achiekitty]

Spray bottle sounds good. I tried a hose spray and didn’t work. Probably better if I was holding her, because she just ran away, with a drippy wet butt. I gave her a bath once and she never relaxed and started freaking-out like she was being attacked.

A couple of days later,

I tried the spray bottle method. I held her with with one arm facing backward so I can see her fluffy butt and gently sprayed it. The first time she started started struggling so I set her down.

Then I tried again after about a minute. She tried to run away (normally she would squat for me.). I caught-up with her eventually and I repeated the process. This time she didn’t struggle at all. Guess she knew what to expect and accepted it until it was over.

It was a warm, windy day so I set her down with a wet behind. It dried out eventually and looked a lot cleaner and prettier.

 

[Jonidoodle]

Not going to help with anyone's first poop removal but a little tip to make future removals easier. Dry shampoo, yep after you clean the poo dry shampoo the butt and nothing or nearly nothing sticks. Also if you can't do a full water bath you can use a spray bottle to cleanse the offending orifice. Get in there! Its just poop!

 

[achiekitty]

A couple of days later,

I tried the spray bottle method. I held her with with one arm facing backward so I can see her fluffy butt and gently sprayed it. The first time she started started struggling so I set her down.

Then I tried again after about a minute. She tried to run away (normally she would squat for me.). I caught-up with her eventually and I repeated the process. This time she didn’t struggle at all. Guess she knew what to expect and accepted it until it was over.

It was a warm, windy day so I set her down with a wet behind. It dried out eventually and looked a lot cleaner and prettier.

I got an email notification about this thread so I started reading it and was laughing out loud about everybody’s warm, caring silliness. Then I co
ame upon my own entry from 2019. Who’s silly now!!!

BUTT, I wanted to add something important and possibly a chicken life saving and stress-busting Piece of information.

A year ago, the same hen, with the not so clean butt, we’ll call her Grey, cause that’s her name, had a prolapsed vent.

I managed to clean her up and treat her. I won’t go into details because it’s for another thread.

The treatment went on for about 2 weeks, maybe more. She was not eating and she reeked. I started to say goodbye to her and thanked her for her time with us.

Just when I thought she was a goner, I gave her a bath one more time and large piece of stuff got dislodged from her butt. (I thought it was her body parts so I kept pushing it in and she kept pushing it out.)

We’ll, it turned out to be dry, crusted, poop.

Her prolapse has healed and the only thing keeping her from getting better was that stuff.

Lesson learned: Don’t be scared to clean them off, it’s way worth it. One can always wear a mask and heavy duty gloves, and a plastic apron.