Diagnosis?????

[jrmewag]

We have a full grown hen approx 2yrs old.
She has poop cakes on her butt like a baby chick with pasty butt. Also her feathers where she was being mounted are still very straggly looking and now have a bare spot on her back.

The rooster has been separated out where he can’t get to her for a while now and her bare spot wasn’t there when he was in the same pasture.

She has no other signs of disease etc. She eats fine, her comb looks great and she is running around as normal.
Any ideas with this combo?

 

[coach723]

A poopy rear can be from many things. Have you ever wormed or had a fecal test done for parasites? Worms can be a cause of runny droppings. Some hens have 'lazy' cloaca's and just don't push the droppings out as hard, resulting in dirty rears. If it's hot where you are and they are drinking a lot, that can cause runny droppings. Eating some things can cause it too, like watermelon. If it's really bad I would clean it up, and monitor, fly strike can be an issue (and can be fatal) if it happens where droppings are built up. Is this hen still laying eggs? Sometimes dirty rears can be an early indication of a reproductive issue, check for any bloating of the abdomen.
The bare spot could be rooster damage, and that often will not fill in until they molt. It may have gotten worse from feather picking by other hens, especially if the pecking order reset when you removed the rooster. Look for pin feathers coming in to indicate a molt, which is a possibility, I have several who've started already this year. It's also a good idea to do a good check for mites/lice whenever there is feather loss, just to be safe. Hope those give you some ideas to help narrow it down.

 

[Flockandfowl46]

For the time being I would trim the feathers and try to clean her up to thoroughly check for maggots until you figure what's wrong post above has great info!

 

[jrmewag]

Thank you both so much!!
We are going to check everything. She is alpha though as well.