We have recently noticed some grey balls growing at the base of our chickens’ tail feathers. They do not wash off/out like solids balls of poo do - they take a lot of pulling off.
We recently bathed our chicken and pulled off a lot of these balls, which on closer inspection are a bit like natural sponge in consistency, and seem to be made up of lots of little balls. We wonder if they are collections of some parasite’s eggs.
We cannot seem to find anything like it in pictures online, so don’t know where to start to treat it. And there are no vets around here that deal with chickens - which are considered ‘exotic birds’ apparently!
So we’d be very grateful for help to understand what it is and how to treat/eradicate it.
In case it’s relevant, we live in SE England. And the 2 affected chickens are a ?Bluebell and a Sussex.
We recently bathed our chicken and pulled off a lot of these balls, which on closer inspection are a bit like natural sponge in consistency, and seem to be made up of lots of little balls. We wonder if they are collections of some parasite’s eggs.
We cannot seem to find anything like it in pictures online, so don’t know where to start to treat it. And there are no vets around here that deal with chickens - which are considered ‘exotic birds’ apparently!
So we’d be very grateful for help to understand what it is and how to treat/eradicate it.
In case it’s relevant, we live in SE England. And the 2 affected chickens are a ?Bluebell and a Sussex.