Messy leaky but

[bluedawg]

My hen has lost feathers around her vent and the surrounding feathers were coated with loose poop. I washed her off and dusted with DE incase it was mites but I don't see anything and I spied some poop leaking out while I was watching her so her but will be a mess again in no time. What could be causing this?

 

[Trishkabob]

hi,
I just came on to check about a similar issue we had today- you might check out an earlier post today by Big Ben about vent issues-
our SLW has had vent issues at times...poop stuck to the powderpuff of feathers under her vent. Lately it has seemed worse and I noticed that she was biting and pulling her feathers out around, but not at, the site. Not sure if she couldn't reach or what but it looked so red and painful today, we decided to check more closely. I held her while my husband wiped the feathers with wet paper towel. There was caking of a lot of old poop and it seemed clear she was bothered....skin nearby looked red and inflamed (like diaper rash) so we kept wetting it and wiping and then took our dog's brush (wire) and GENTLY brushed. It was gross, though not smelly. She didn't love it but put up with it as I held her. We finally had to dip her whole butt in a bowl of tepid water and brush and dip and brush....
Then we dried it with papertowel and then blow dried it on low/cool because we rhoight it was so wet itnwould just get muddy and caked with dirt if not more poop.
Thus was not our idea of fun on a warm Sat. evening but we are SO glad we did it. She is puffy and clean again....for now. Our other 2 have no issues so this one must have a bigger puff of feathers there or just doesn't expel her poop as well(there is a sentence I never thought I'd write). The other posts mention trimming those feathers which I wondered about doing. Apparently, it's ok to do so if this happens again that's our next plan.
The leaking poop might be something more-prolapse? Not sure about what that is exactly.
good luck.