Dirty behind/ winter woes

[JakRat]

Hello,
One of my girls has a very dirty back end. Should I give her a bath or will she be fine?

Also I am so worried about my girls in the winter time. They have a heated upstairs and warm run, but I am worried that they arent happy or something is wrong because they have not gotten many of their feathers back since October. They dont have worms, I looked, so I am unsure whats going on... Also their coop is super stinky, could this be why their feathers arent growing back? I have been giving them protein and what not but still they are missing some of their breast feathers... am I just being paranoid? I love my girls!

 

[CMV]

A bath couldn't hurt if she is caked in poo, but make sure she is dried off well before putting her back outside. A bath will also give you a chance to see if she has bugs. With continued feather loss I'd think you may have a bug problem. Normally with poopy butts I'd say just let it ride until warmer weather, but with the other things you are mentioning I think you had better do a thorough bug check.

A super stinky coop means that they probably have a lot of ammonia fumes in their air. That's not good for them. Winter is a tough time to keep animals clean, but it is just as important (if not more so) to keep the air quality good. Do you have enough ventilation? Ventilation is possibly more important than keeping the birds' coop heated.

Regardless, if the birds have bugs then the coop is going to need a thorough cleaning, so the problem will be solved, hopefully.

 

[MarieNC]

I had to bring one of my girls in the other day and clean up her poopy butt. It happens!

 

[chicks4kids]

I brought one of mine in the other morning and washed her bum...she liked sitting in the warmth of the house until she dried off...the kids spoiled her!

 

[Happy Chooks]

You can also take some scissors and trim her rear end feathers. I have a couple extra poofy butts that I have to do that to. (Barred rock and Marans)