Feathers on butt won't grow back

[puddinbabe]

I have a RIR who has no feathers on her bottom or her underside. At first I thought it was a moult, but this has been ALL summer. They aren't growing back. She will pull them out sometimes and seems itchy. I've treated her for mites and lice with DE, dusting every so often. She always has a few mites, but not an infestation. But I can't see why her feathers wouldn't grow back. There are a couple of places where the feathers have broken off very close to the skin, so there is a little feather shaft left. They're so small I can't seem to get them out, but they're not falling out either. I know the feathers in those places can't grow back until the old part is gone.

Any ideas? My girl's going to have a cold winter without any feathers!

Annie

 

[SpottedCrow]

Did she go broody at all? Usually picking out their breast and belly feathers are a sign of starting to go broody.
As for bum feathers, sometimes the other girls like to pick them out when they get bored...

 

[puddinbabe]

I've never seen her sit on or protect eggs. I've only had her for about 5 month though (we got her from someone in town who couldn't keep chickens). But that is one theory...

 

[ruth]

What do you feed her? If you've seen her pull her own feathers out it could be some sort of illness, I'm no help there but DLUnicorn is the expert. BUT...when birds pull out and eat their own feathers it can also be a sign of a vitamin deficiency. There are liquid bird vitamins sold at pet stores plus you can try feeding her high protein sources like cooked egg, cheese, cat food.

 

[puddinbabe]

She isn't eating them as they are all around the coop. She gets layena food with treats and oyster shells.

 

[OffSpring]

I seem to regularly "rescue" other peoples discarded chickens around here...

I know this can bring disease into a flock, but I do quarantine them in a completely separate area for a few weeks while I keep a close eye on their health... (I have been lucky so far)

Anyway one of those hens also a small patch around her bum where there are no feathers. There wasn't any there when I received her and they have never even tried to grow back.

I would say the gap is about 4-6 inches square.

She seems perfectly healthy in every other way and I have never seen her get caught up in the middle of an "adjustment" of the pecking order. My flock don’t seem to bother with any of that nonsense (probably because of the amount of hens, the space they have and the variety of different breeds there are).

So in short, I wouldn't worry about it too much, just keep a close eye on her!