muddy chicken

[chookchik]

Hello,
I live in the Pacific North WET, it has rained so much this year. Anyway my run is completely muddy and has puddles in it, it's getting stinky and I have one chicken (silkie/cochin) that is completely muddy, like she was rolling around in the muck or something. Her feathers are droopy with muck and I don't think she can clean herself. I will upload picture shortly.

Should I give her a bath?

 

[gryeyes]

Yes.

 

[tadpole98]

i would.
remember completely dry her before you let her out. not even a tiny bit damp and that could get her sick

 

[chookchik]

She looks a lot worse than this picture shows, her whole back end is muddy and her tail is droopy, normally the feathers on her head are black and shiny, you can kind of see the mud on her left side.

I'm worried she'll get sick, it's not going to stop raining any time soon and I don't see how she can preen all that muck (mud and poo) off.

Advice??

 

[centrarchid]

She looks OK to me. She will clean up when she dries out. Worries for me when bird can not fly up to roost and suffers from cold stress. When my bird gets really bad, I get them to dry out then make so they can dust bath. Process gets mud balls out and preserves oils. If bathing route chosen, then after bird dries allow dust bathing. Dust bathing seems very important for maintaining normal feather function with respect to flight and insulation and even though soap and water can remove dirty look, it can also compromise those two very important feather functions.