My Barred Rock, Maude, is a very perky fun chicken who lays an egg a day. She eats well, forages well and drinks. However, her butt is always dirty. I clean it and then it's dirty again. She poops normally but obviously sometimes not. Her eggs are perfect and she comes running when I go inside the chicken yard. What the heck? How can I fix this or do I just keep washing her butt or do I just let her live the way she is? Are some chickens just dirtier?
I have some hens like that, it looks like they're always riding their bicycles in the rain. I am wondering if a dose of broad-spectrum wormer would help that.
Would it hurt to treat her even though she doesn't have worms? Also, wouldn't this make her eggs inedible? Sorry, newer to chickens and none of the girls have ever had any issues.
Some, but not all wormers have an egg withdrawal period, from 4-14 days depending on what is used. I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable will chime in here with answers to your other questions.
I also have a barred rock who constantly has a dirty hiney. I don't know if she has an excess of fluff or her vent may be just a tad bit inset. Anyway, I just clip her butt fluff back a bit every so often and problem solved. As far as worming goes, I know some who recommend twice a year, some more, and some who have never wormed their chickens. I have had my girls for a bit over a year and hadn't wormed them...until one of them got sick with lethargy, not eating, losing weight, etc. I wormed my entire flock last week and will now do it at least once a year. But it's entirely up to you. The withdrawal period for most wormers is 14 days I think.
I think some chickens just have a better angle on their squatting, so they don't end up with poo on their butt fuzz, while others do. I just bathed two chickens this past weekend (one a barred rock). Had to let them soak quite a while because they each had such a clumpy build-up back there. The others were fine - backsides looked good After toweling them off, I trimmed that area really well - less fuzz to stick to.
I'm not sure there is such a thing as not having any worms, even if you had a negative fecal from a vet / lab. It's a matter of how heavy the load is. It's unusual to see them in the poop, even if they have a fairly heavy load. I also have one who keeps a poopy butt and is otherwise apparently healthy; she's over 2 and has always been this way. She doesn't seem to bend her body the way the others do when she poops. She is very flighty and hard to handle, and it is mainly small amounts on the outer feathers, so I've never tried trimming her. I do worm my chickens once or twice a year.
I've got a hen the same way. I had to put her in the kiddie pool the other day and wash her butt with some Dawn dish soap. She's hard to handle so I don't know about clipping her butt.
One of my favorite local farmer friend says that feeding extra grit is the answer to this problem. Perhaps it would help?
