Not sure what to do...

[Jamsoundsgood]

I've got a 24ish week old BO pullet with a rather, um, dirty bum. I don't think she has diarrhea as I haven't seen any, but it's almost as if she had pasty butt, but worked it off. The feathers are rather impacted. She still eats and drinks just fine. No coughing or sneezing. Nothing out of the ordinary. Her bum does seem a bit swollen, but I'm not really an expert as these are my first chickens. We did just clean out the coop last week so there isn't as much litter built up yet as there used to be. She's also towards the bottom of the pecking order. We lost our rooster a few weeks ago and I haven't been as keen on letting them out to free range as I used to so she hasn't had as much time away from the others, and there are 25 of them! Could this just be a case of "cut away the bad stuff - and let her get on with it" or is there a possibity that there is something else going on?

Thanks!
Emily

 

[easttxchick]

Is she laying yet?

I would definitely clean her behind in case there is something you can't see due to feathers.

When you say you lost your rooster did you lose him to disease, predator, old age...

 

[Jamsoundsgood]

She's not laying yet, and we lost our rooster to a predator. He was pretty awesome when it came to protecting the flock, not so much at staying alive.

 

[emvickrey]

I would give her bottom a good soak in warm water and clean her up. See whats going on under the mess. She may have an infection going on or maybe just a dirty fanny. If she has something going on you need to catch it and fix it.

 

[easttxchick]

I would clean the area with the sticky feathers to make sure she doesn't have a wound festering under there.

Also, older birds can get pasty butt so just clean the area so she doesn't get impacted.

Hope all goes well for her.

Sorry about your rooster-I know to a lot of folks they are a pain, but I adore my little WLH guy(even though he is a demon spawn).

 

[Jamsoundsgood]

Thanks for the replies. I didn't even think about it being a wound. She was prone to pasty butt as a chick. Heaven knows she learned to like the hair dryer.

We'll see how well she remembers it! I did examine her pretty thoroughly though, and didn't see anything that looked infected, so I'm thinking she might have just gotten a bit on the pasty side. I was planning on taking some yogurt out tomorrow anyway. Timing is everything, right?