My chicken's butt...

[GrizzlyAdam]

One if my hens has poop-covered feathers all over get butt that are almost like dread-locks. She lays and poops fine but the feathers on the under carriage are pretty gross looking. She acts healthy as can be but I don't know if there is something wrong with her. Help me please. Thanks!

 

[Michael Apple]

That's common. Soy creates runny droppings and it is hard to avoid since it is a staple in many livestock feeds. I keep a pair of dull tipped dog grooming scissors and a wide tooth steel comb in my poultry cabinet. For birds needing the occasional clean up these items come in handy. You may want to wear surgical gloves when butt cleaning. Be careful not to clip feathers unless you have to. Don't clip near the base of feathers or you'll cause bleeding and that risks infection.

For birds with a mass of cling-ons, pick a warm day and set the bird in enough warm water with light hypoallergenic shampoo in a tub to reach the vent area while standing. Set the bird in there long enough to soften the accumulated waste and remove it gently by hand (again gloves make it tolerable)

. Rinse the birds vent lightly and wrap the bird in a towel to absorb most of the water. Remove the towel and let the bird go if it's warm enough outside. If it's too cold, let the bird dry off in a warm room.

Besides that you could also look at what you are feeding your bird which may cause this problem of loose droppings in otherwise healthy birds. It's hard to control what they eat when they range. I worm my birds with Wormazole which kills all types of worms in Spring, mid Summer, and Fall. I used to never worm birds but found it's better to, especially if they range around property much of the day.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I had a rooster with a lot of white runny clumps stuck to him that I mostly ignored. However, when I gave him Sulfadimethoxine after a few months (I was treating him for another problem), he acted like his guts were in agony, & I now suspect that he'd been experiencing something like Ulcerative Enteritis & the sulfa med caused extra pain when it contacted the ulcers.
I soothed his guts by feeding some buttermilk for a few days. I also gave shots of Penicillin in case it treated whatever kind of enteritis he might have had.
His diarrhea cleared up for the first time in months!
I don't know for sure if it was the Penicillin, or maybe even the Sulfadimethoxine that cleared it. Or maybe the combination??

But now I do pay more attention to whitish clumps on rump feathers in case a bird may be suffering from something potentially painful & treatable.