Ingrown Feathers? Now with pictures!

[Knittycat]

I posted this on the managing your flock board a couple of weeks ago and got no response, so I'll try here.

My chickens have been victims of a bully. Now that the feather plucking bully is gone they are starting to re-grow their feathers. One of my girls had a bare butt. I've noticed that as her butt fluff was growing back in, there were a couple of places that looked like she had ingrown feathers. I caught her and lanced the skin over the feather, and a small drop of clear liquid came out and out rolled a half formed feather.
Today I noticed a couple more and I caught her and did the same thing, only this time instead of a clear liquid, it looked like the feathers were coated in a waxy substance.

Is this normal? Will her feathers grow out normally, or do I need to continue to intervene?

 

[Knittycat]

Anybody?

 

[Knittycat]

So, I take it that nobody had encountered this before?

 

[klmclain1]

Never heard of it - but this will give you a boost back up! One other thing..when you post a question, try to wait at least 24 hours before posting a "response" to your question. You need to give everyone a chance to see the question and so many are working - and not on here more than once a day. Many people also do a search for questions that haven't been answered - so if you've posted a "reply" to your own question, they will never see it.

 

[Knittycat]

I bumped it once it fell of the first page, and then again today.

 

[klmclain1]

No biggie... it's just that people are more likely to look at a post that has "0" replies so far. Someone pointed that out to me a few months back and I had never thought of it!

 

[Knittycat]

Ah, I see. Well, I'd had no replies the last time either. Kinda frustrating. It looks like she's got another one developing on her hind end. I guess I'll have to cut that one open too. At least she's not bleeding or struggling when I'm lancing the skin over the feathers.

 

[klmclain1]

Could you take pictures and post them?? Might help!

 

[Knittycat]

It's a bit tricky to hold a chicken under one arm and take a picture of her butt with the other...but I'll try!

Or I could ask the hubby. "Hey honey, will you take a picture for me?" "sure! what of?" "this chicken's butt"

 

[Knittycat]

Ok, here's the picture of the bumps. The two bumps are circled and you can see a bit of feather coming out of one. I started to lance that one, but the chicken started to bleed a little bit (that's the first time that happened) so I let it be for now. It's much smaller and less pronounced than the other ones I lanced. They were quite large and you could see the feather dimly through the skin.

Additionally, what's with the 'hairs'?