Help... Myrtle is in trouble.

[Desert Peep]

My 6 month old buff orpington Myrtle is in trouble. About 4 days ago she started hanging out in the nest box 24/7 so I thought she was going broody. She wouldn't come out to eat or drink, and I had to put on leather gloves to get the eggs out from under her. I tried giving her a bowl of water and she attacked me. So today I got brave enough to take her off the nest (with gloves) to check her out; I just had a hunch something was wrong. Well, she pooped all this white stuff on my pants, and when I gently turned her over in my lap I noticed all the feathers on her underside were gone. She is just bare skin. I didn't see anything crawling around in her feathers or on her skin. So I put her down on the ground and she runs and jumps in the water bowl and can't drink fast enough to quench her thirst. Then she poops out this huge, disgusting, smelly blob of a poop that is covered in this white film. The poop itself is green. And she continues to eat and drink likes she's starving, which she probably is after not eating for 4 days. She has still been laying eggs. The only other thing I've noticed with her and her BO sister is that lately they have been pooping on themselves. On their fuzzy butt feathers. The poop just seems to not be making it to the ground. She seems to be shaking her feathers out a lot and rubbing her beak on the ground. What's going on??? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. This is my first time my girls have had any type of health issue.


Her vent area

Her unusual poop

 

[Miss Lydia]

well heres the poop chart looks like her poop is normal, she very well could just be broody. They will pluck out their chest and tummy feathers for their nest.. trim the feathers around the vent a little and see if that helps with the poo clinging to the feathers..
sorry http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[Chickengal505]

Calm down Myrtle is fine. The poop on the feathers is normal for buffs as their butt feathers are very..."fluffy". The missing feathers are called a broody patch, she does this so that when she sits on her eggs the heat goes directly to her eggs. The abnormal poop is just broody poo, things happen to a hens diet when they go broody and their poop gets all weird so dont worry and enjoy your mother-to-be

Edited to add: The rubbing the beak on the ground thing is normal to, shes just cleaning her beak

she fluffs her feather because the weather is probibly changing and she's getting hott. (Like you putting back your hair or fanning yourself)

 

[chicmom]

I think she sounds broody, drinking water quickly, taking a huge dump, acting frantic, being mean enough to make you put gloves on to collect eggs......They will sometimes get a messy bottom when they are broody.......

 

[Desert Peep]

Thank you for reassuring me that she may still be broody. I've never had a broody and didn't know about them plucking out their chest and tummy feathers. Thanks also for the Poop Pics. Who knew there were so many different kinds of poop