Only one hen with messy butt feathers?

[porokelle]

Warning of dirty butt and cloaca photos below.

We have four large, fluffy orpingtons with huge feathery pantaloons. And one of them - is a complete mess. We've been giving her a water butt bath weekly since the weather's warmed up. I think it's mainly poop but it also looks worse each time she's laid an egg.

Any ideas of why it's just her? Maybe she just doesn't eject her poos as far as the other girls? Or they're particularly wet?

She is the largest of all of the girls and does eat the most (and eats //anything// she finds). They've all been treated for lice, mites, and worms. She had a ton of lice last year, but this year there's been done. All the mess washes away when she has a bath. She eats normally, lays normally, is vigorous in charging for treats and helping me dig for worms.

Only other thing that's changed is she's starting making high pitched chicken sounds a lot (she never spoke before this year). Like she's just been able to find a voice and doesn't know how to use it. And she's been more scared of us, but she's also been on the bottom of the pecking order for about a month (usually last or next to last). Fear and pecking order possibly due to being singled out for baths.

I don't think there's any white or yellow discharge, and her cloaca looks how it normally does.
The photos are from about 2 hours after laying another 80g egg - she is big, lays big eggs. Before and after the bath.
She smells fine - poos are just starting to smell as our weather warms.

 

[nuthatched]

What's her diet? What did you treat worms with?

 

[porokelle]

What's her diet? What did you treat worms with?

She's free range with access to layer pellets. They get some wheat, and a few treats of sunflowers pumpkin seeds peanuts or cranberries. One in a blue moon some yogurt with oatmeal.
They get two big bowls of a huge variety of garden greens and edible greens. Nothing new. Has access to oyster shell.
She's always been the messiest butt, even when the girls had lice last year.
Worms were treated with Flubenol powder.

 

[Lillith37]

You could try eliminating the treats and see if that makes a difference. Sounds like they get a lot of treats. Does her poop look normal? Can you take a picture?

Some girls just have messier butts than others… How old is she? Does she have any swelling between her vent and keel bone?

 

[porokelle]

You could try eliminating the treats and see if that makes a difference. Sounds like they get a lot of treats. Does her poop look normal? Can you take a picture?

Some girls just have messier butts than others… How old is she? Does she have any swelling between her vent and keel bone?

All of their poops have been normal when cleaning out the coop each day. But I'll follow her around tomorrow to double check I know which are hers. That might also give me an angle to see if it just goes down the back rather than expels past the feathers.

She's 2 years old. No swelling that I can feel.

I do suspect she's just a messy girl. It fits with her personality of not really minding about anything other than food, not that she can clean herself back there too well.

 

[Lillith37]

You could try trimming her feathers as well if she keeps having troubles after you've given her a chance just on plain feed & water.

I have an older hen whose feathers I need to trim because she leaks/dribbles urates overnight sometimes. With the feathers trimmed back, I only have to use a face washer/baby wipe and warm water in the mornings to soften the dried urates and clean her up. She doesn't mind because I think it makes her uncomfortable/itchy when it dries out and she isn't so great at reaching around back there either.

If you do trim her feathers, just be careful and watch your other hens, because sometimes they will peck at the exposed skin.