Plucked Bottom

[Ashley80]

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me work out what is causing this problem. One of our girls has a badly plucked bottom, I'm not sure if it's caused by a disease/parasite, self inflicted, or from bullying. Everyone else in the group of 7 looks fine and have their bottom feathers in tact.

Unfortunately I haven't been watching the girls much lately (13 week pregnant, all I've been looking at for the last 8 weeks is the bottom of the toilet bowl), so I can't give much recent behavioral info. I can tell you she is in the bottom 3 of a group of 7, she was hatched last Jan, her wattles are still nice and bright and she still feels plump. I did get my first ever soft shelled egg last week, but I don't know if it belongs to her or not. See was pecking at her bottom today, but that might have just been because it was annoying her. She also had some diarrhea stuck to her bottom today.

There are pictures of her below, the camera makes her bottom look quite a bit redder than it is, and she looks damp because I'd just washed some runny poop off her before I took the photo

The nice end...

The not nice end...

Any ideas about cause and possible solutions greatly appreciated!

Thanks in Advance!

Ashley

 

[NonnasBabies]

Honestly it sounds and looks like you have a feather picker among the bunch. At least she's not bleeding!! I would spray her good with Blue Kote and watch them like crazy. Since you've taken her out they might start on another one!!

Hope you get it figured out!!

 

[7L Farm]

I have the same problem. Feather pecking. I wish I could help but I've tried everything. Maybe you'll have better outcome than me. I've heard add more protein,Get pinless peepers, Blue kote, Rooster Booster, Hot Pick. Your lucky its just one maybe isolate her. I was told also to free range more to keep em busy. I hope someone chimes in with the answer. I have no clue how to stop this behaviour. Chickens are cannibals is the only thing I've figured out.

 

[jesskoot]

Oh my gosh, I have a hen w/the same problem. I though her feathers fell out because she recently had several weeks with very runny poop and I thought her rear end was just irritated by that like diaper rash. The poop problem has been resolved, but her little butt is bare in the very cold weather. What is a feather picking? Is one of the others is doing this to her? What is Blue Kote? She is still laying reliably.

 

[Judy]

If you can get out of the toilet bowl (!) long enough, try to identify who your bully is and isolate her rather than the injured one. BluKote would be great. You can also use blue or purple food coloring in a pinch. When you remove a bully, and keep her alone for a week or so, she returns at the bottom of the pecking order. It would be very good to upset their pecking order like that.

The other thing is space. If you are closing them in their coop because of weather, let them out. If they are in a run, try to let them out of that, at least for a while. Boredom, too little space, and low protein are the 3 causes of this, and low protein should not be a problem unless you give them an awful lot of scratch or corn or low protein treats instead of regular feed.

 

[shesaredroan]

I too, have a hen with a bare bottom. She's one of the oldest hens (hatched late March 2010). She's a Black Jersey Giant and due to her color, her bare spot is easy to see as she trots across my yard when I let them out to free range in the late afternoons.
Because none of my other 40+ hens are experiencing this, I have been trying to figure out what's going on?!?!? She is happy, healthy, shows no sign of being upset about anything.
She's not been broody, either...........I understand broody ladies will sometimes pluck their own feathers to feather their nests....plus, vent area feathers are not what are typically self plucked to make the nest.
Glad I found this thread!! With BYC I'm always learning.

 

[Ashley80]

Thanks everyone, that makes sense. The girl at the bottom of their pecking order has been clucky for the last few weeks so bare bottom girl has probably been copping more attention from the 'top perch' girls than usual. It sounds like I need to do some chook surveillance to pick out the bully.

Cheers

Ashley

 

[Gen51]

I am currently enlarging my pen to get more hens. I only have 4 girls and 3 of them have the bare butts. I highly suspect that the one with all her feathers is the bully. I was told to check for mites but wouldn't all of them be bare if that were true?

 

[Gen51]

I had the same problem. I only had 4 hens and 3 had the bare butts. I finally traded the feathered one for a new hen and low and behold- the other girls have already started growing feathers back. You may have a bully like I did. You should try and catch her if you can at it but I never could catch my girl doing it. Only suspected. I hated to get rid of her, broke my heart actually but I did and now I know for sure it was her.