Newbie to Chicken Care - Flock has health concern

[JWalter3]

I am new to caring for chickens and helping students care for a small flock of chickens (9) at a school. We have golden comets (?) and black asian (?).....all hens, no roosters.
Most of our hens have developed a condition where they are losing the feathers around their vent. The skin underneath is red and at least one hen has some vent drainage. This pic is of the chicken who seems to be suffering from the most severe case of all. We have tried bathing in dawn, athlete's foot cream, gave the coop and feeding equipment a good spring cleaning and fresh bedding. Some of the chickens seem to be growing new feathers, but this poor girl is still not well. Is there anything else we should do? Is it time to call a vet?

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC I'll defer to the more experienced folks on your issue and hang out to see what they say When you have a sec, drop by new member introductions and introduce yourself.

 

[rebrascora]

How big is your coop and run? How much linear roost space?
My first thought would be to rule out feather picking which is usually associated with boredom and lack of space or possibly not enough protein. Have you witnessed them pecking at each other at all, particularly at roost time? One or two spots of blood on her skin suggest picking might be at least part of the problem.

How old are they? If they are over a year, then moulting is a possibility. Hens can be tempted to peck at blood feathers if they have nothing better to do.

Check the birds and coop for lice and mites. Lice live on the birds. Mites usually live in the cracks and crevices of the coop and crawl onto the chickens at night whilst they are roosting to suck their blood. Picking the birds off the roost after dark individually and inspecting them (a strong head torch is useful for this) should enable you to decide if this is part of the problem. Check around the vent and
under the wings and back of the neck.

That chicken looks to have an abdominal swelling. Compare the area below her vent and between her legs to the other chickens. Abdominal swelling can put pressure on the gut and cause seepage of white urates which soil the feathers below the vent and make the skin raw, especially if the chicken in question or flock mates peck at it. A better photo of her back end from ground level rather than above looking down as this one is, may help to confirm that it is swelling and urates rather than vent gleet. Do you know if that hen has been laying recently?

Those are the most common things that spring to mind straight off, so if you can answer those questions and check for lice and mites and maybe take a better photo and let us know results we can start thinking deeper if none of the above causes are relevant.

Regards

Barbara

PS....Hello and welcome!