Feather loss under vents/not mites

[ChickieMama9]

Hi Everyone,
I have been having flock troubles ever since flockdown however, things are starting to escalate. I have 5 silkies and then I have 6 orpingtons.
I live in Minnesota, so last winter I was feeding a few extra warm treats (scrambled eggs,cinnamon, and dried worms.) My orpingtons would of course eat the most of these which caused two of them to have a batch of runny poo. Their flock mates then picked out all of their bum feathers.

I stopped with the overload of treats ever since. Unfortunately, their flock mates continued to pluck their regrowth feathers so their bums have been bare ever since.

In the last two weeks however, this has spread to two more orpingtons so I now have four orpingtons with completely bare bums. They do not have mites, I dust weekly and check daily. They have been antsy ever since lock down, but I worry this is something more. One has previously laid a soft egg (only one, she was startled, and this was 8 weeks ago.)
She is also one of the bare butts who now seems to have puss around her vent (or another dried substance.) She also was one of the over eaters so her bare butt is not new. The other over eater also has scabs around her vent. The two with newly bare bums, do not show signs of anything other than feather loss.

The silkies are also unaffected by all of this. Has anyone ever seen anything like this or does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? I have attached photos of all the bare bums. I have also been applying “peck no more” which is why some have darker/purple spots.

 

[sourland]

It's feather pecking/plucking. There's a strong possibility that the bird in perfect feather is the culprit or at least the worst at doing this. I would put Pin Less Peepers on her and see if that solves the problem.

 

[spbaz]

I am having the same problem. Started with just one hen who I assume was the the bottom of the pecking order, and now all of the hens except one have bald butts. They are healthy otherwise, no mites, no worms no pasty bums, just the bald looking butts. I am thinking the one who still has feathers on her butt is the problem hen. I am thinking of isolating her for a few days, we have room in our coop. She also doesn’t lay anymore, she is quite old! Someone else mentioned putting diaper cream on the exposed butts? Not sure if this is an ok thing to do or not?

 

[Eggcessive]

The usual causes for feather picking are overcrowding, feeding too little protein or too many snacks, boredom from not getting outside to free range, and too much extra light. It can lead to vent pecking damage and cannibalism. Ideally, try to have more room, get them outside if possible, and feed a layer or all flock ration that has 16-20% protein. Adding scraps, scratch, veggies, etc is not necessary and can dilute the protein. Some breeds are more aggressive than others, and I have rehomed some before because of it. Pinless peepers might be a good option for the aggressors. I have no experience with them.

As for a no picking ointment, pine tar (in the horse aisle,) bag balm, Nustock sulfur/pine horse cream, vaseline, or a commercial no pick cream may be used. Bad tasting creams may work better, or just the stickiness may help. But try to get to the reason they are doing this.

 

[Mahtowagal]

Mine used to be like that and things just resolved on their own. I seem to recall that the last time they were bald was when I still had my rooster. Since just having 5 hens here, no more bald butts.