Hen Pulled Our Large Area of Feathers Below Vent - EDIT: LAID TWO EGGS AN HOUR APART

[BonnieBlue]

I originally posted this question/observation in the injuries forum, but thought it might be better suited for here:

I have a hen that has pulled out all of her feathers in an area below her vent (not around, but just below) and has a bald area between the size of a quarter and a silver dollar. I failed to get pics. I checked her thoroughly for mites or lice, and do not see any. I sprayed the area with Vetericyn. I believe she has done this just over the past couple of days, i think just today, as today is the first time I have seen it, and I try to keep a close eye on them, because I recently lost a hen from an impacted crop. I looked at her vent and did not see anything that struck me as abnormal, but these are my first chickens. The interesting thing is, I don't see a lot of feathers around. I will now and then see one, and her sister lost a larger feather yesterday, but there isn't a noticible littering of feathers anywhere.

Is this something that is indicitive of a bigger problem, or is there something I should watch for?

She is an Easter Egger that will be a year old tomorrow. She lays on a pretty predictible schedule, but she did not lay today, and on her schedule, I would have thought it would have been early afternoon to lay. She appears to be eating and drinking normally.

EDIT: She just laid an egg, but the shell was paper thin. She had been pacing and going from box to box, and it pretty much fell out in the coop instead of in a box. She has not had thin eggs beore. Could this be related to her pulling her feathers below her vent? She gets extra calcium and has not run out, so I am assuming it is an opps egg.

EDIT AGAIN: SHE JUST LAID A SECOND PAPER THIN EGG AN HOUR AFTER THE FIRST. She was straining as walking around then squatted and laid another paper thin egg that cracked as soon as laid.

Related: Is this egg safe to eat, or should I just scramble it and feed it back to her for more protein?

 

[nuthatched]

What's her age and diet?

 

[BonnieBlue]

What's her age and diet?

She will be a year old tomorrow. Diet is Nutrena Hearty Hen, Treats of approx 1 T Dried mealworms a day, the two of them share a few fresh veggies finely chopped (maybe a handful) every day or two, oyster shell is available all times with now and then ground egg shells added. They get an offering of electrolytes and layer boost water (mixed) as well as their fresh plain water.

I am hoping the two paper thin eggs were just an oops thing. I am quite concerned about the pulled feathers. If there were fly eggs, I did not see them, but I did not see any open sores. I am going to bathe her tomorrow and wash that area well in case there are any fly eggs. It is hot and humid here, and when it rains, I get flies for about a day until the mud outside their run dries. I do keep the area sprayed, and fly paper outside the run. I do spot cleans in the run 2x daily, and a deep clean of the coop every morning.

Sorry I'm babbling. Having just lost one of what were 3 (impacted crop) only 2 weeks ago, I am paranoid as all get out about their health.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a hen that has pulled out all of her feathers in an area below her vent (not around, but just below) and has a bald area between the size of a quarter and a silver dollar.

She lays on a pretty predictible schedule, but she did not lay today, and on her schedule

EDIT: She just laid an egg, but the shell was paper thin. She had been pacing and going from box to box, and it pretty much fell out in the coop instead of in a box. She has not had thin eggs beore. Could this be related to her pulling her feathers below her vent? She gets extra calcium and has not run out, so I am assuming it is an opps egg.

EDIT AGAIN: SHE JUST LAID A SECOND PAPER THIN EGG AN HOUR AFTER THE FIRST. She was straining as walking around then squatted and laid another paper thin egg that cracked as soon as laid.

Related: Is this egg safe to eat, or should I just scramble it and feed it back to her for more protein?

It's hard for a hen to pluck feathers from below their own vent, I would suspect that another hen is plucking and pecking at her. The other hen may be eating the feathers too, hard to know.

Photos of the bare spot may be helpful.

If she's having trouble with laying and expelling an egg, then I'd give her 1 Calcium Citrate+D3 tablet once daily for 5 days. See if this helps regulate her.
Sometimes what you describe is a glitch, time will tell.

If the thin egg cracked when it hit the ground, I'd feed it back to the hens.

 

[BonnieBlue]

Thank you.

If the other hen is pulling them, is there something should watch for with her? They have been together since day 1. The other hen was the one who seemed most upset at their sister leaving. They still roost practically on top of each other at a year old and even in this heat.

 

[BonnieBlue]

Update: I gave Violet a bath so I could examine her more closely cleaned up, and if there were any fly eggs, could get rid of them. I did not see parasites or any sores, wounds, etc. Is it a possibility that even tho the other hen (Peony) has always been highest in the pecking order, but Violet was 3rd, that now with only two Peony is pulling Violet's feathers and we have some dominance being reestablished?

I cleaned up Violet's back end, as there were shavings and crud. I noticed just the last couple of days that her poops were watery. I don't remember it being before yesterday, or the day before that. All of the girls were given a 3 day treatment of worming meds the end of may, as the vet initially thought the one I lost had worms. It turns out she/they didn't, that we know of as I never saw evidence after worming them. I feel confident that I can rule out parasites, because I had a friend help me bathe her so I could make sure no external parasites were being missed. Neither of us saw anything.

As far as egg laying, I would have thought after the two oops eggs, her body would be taking a break today, as it normally does when she lays late in the day. She normally then takes a day off and goes back to morning lay the following day. She has been in and out of the nesting box all morning. Will let you know the results of that.

On top of her bath, she got:

1. Her back end sprayed with Vetericyn, just in case there were any tiny wounds I couldn't see.

2. 600 mg of Calcium with Vit D

3. 1/2 tsp olive oil even tho her crop felt empty.

She ate a bit of mash this morning before going to her nest. I will monitor her eating and drinking since her poops are watery.

Also, I weighed her, and she weights 5 pounds, give or take an ounce.

I have attached pics both pre and post bath. It is most of the area below her vent that has no feathers now.

Thank you for anyone who can give advice, or calm my nervous mother nerves. I am still gun shy about missing something after losing one.

Edit to add: Violet just had a nice big pretty poop. Hopefully that continues and is one step back to normal.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Looks like loss from some plucking, but the skin looks good.

If the other hen is plucking her and eating feathers, then you can try increasing protein to see if that helps. It can become a bad habit, plucking and eating new pin feather that are coming in.

Sounds like you are on the right track with the Calcium.

As for deworming, what did you use? You won't necessarily see worms expelled in poop when you deworm them.

 

[BonnieBlue]

Looks like loss from some plucking, but the skin looks good.

If the other hen is plucking her and eating feathers, then you can try increasing protein to see if that helps. It can become a bad habit, plucking and eating new pin feather that are coming in.

Sounds like you are on the right track with the Calcium.

As for deworming, what did you use? You won't necessarily see worms expelled in poop when you deworm them.

I used Panacure dewormer.

What can I do other than mealworms for protein? I tried scrambling an egg for them yesterday. They took a few bites, spit out a few bites, and left the rest. I have thought about a spoonful of plain nonfat Greek yogurt. The probiotics would be good, too. If they would eat it.

I hope I can nip it in the bud. (Said in my best Barney Fife voice.)

Violet didn't lay yesterday after being in a box most of the morning. But she wasn't squatting, etc and her activity level was good after.

 

[FrostRanger]

Switch to an all flock feed and provide oyster shells on the side. All flock usually has around 20% protein in it although nutrena also makes a 21% protein layer feed (ik chewy sells it)

 

[BonnieBlue]

Switch to an all flock feed and provide oyster shells on the side. All flock usually has around 20% protein in it although nutrena also makes a 21% protein layer feed (ik chewy

I just opened a new bag of feed a week ago. I'll have to figure out what to do with it to use it up. The hearty hen i feed is only 18%. Thanks for the info!