Preventing flystrike

[aart]

We feed all of our birds Purina oyster shell layena crumbs food, and water. They do get daily treats like mealworms and fruits like strawberries grapes bananas blueberries and cheerios

If only one bird is having issues, it's likely not the diet.
But might be good to cut out all those treats for a week or two and see if things improve.

 

[Bejep714]

We gave her another bath today. She is pooping and eating. Her poops are not as big as usual, but still fairly large. They are a bit watery, but mainly solid. We still have her isolated in our house, but we will likely bring her outside tomorrow with everyone else. Her one poop had some yellowish water which looked like egg yoke, but it also is closer to the color the electrolytes make the water we have been feeding her. She has been moving around fine, and acting normal. She isn't panting or seeming in pain, and seems to be getting better, but still hasn't layer an egg. She is an almost daily egg layer, so not laying in two days is a bit strange. I will check her cloaca tomorrow

 

[aart]

I have tried to clean them before but one bites and twists, and I accidently pulled feathers, and the other is even worse. What should I do?

I trim the feathers off, any feathers with poop stuck to them cut ~1/2" from skin.
Best to have someone else hold the bird while doing this and be very careful.
I use nose hair scissors, they are very sharp and have large rounded tips.
Haven't had to do it since I got rid of all my copiously fluffy butted birds.

If your birds have constant juicy poops, that's a whole other ball game and should be investigated, starting with diet.

 

[aart]

I cut the twos back feathers a few days ago and the one Orpington is good now, the other not so much. Her bottom is clean, but down from it is very muddy and dirty. I could see her bare skin pretty well because some of the feathers fell off, and it is red around the feathers. Its very low, mostly on the bottom of her body, but looks horrible. Is it still a worry for flystrike? I can attach a picture if needed.

If there is poop attached to the feathers, trim those feathers off.

 

[Fluffy_Feathers]

I have had flystrike in my flock twice now. The first one was too far gone and had to be culled, the second one I was able to save. Both of these chickens had very poopy butts and the chicken coop had a lot of flies. After my second hen I decided to switch to sand in the coop, and that eliminated almost all flies in the coop. In the run I still have just dirt, but I know people put sand in there too. I also got some Elector PSP, which was more of a panic impulse buy since the sand keeps the flies away anyhow, but you can spray that directly on the chicken if you're willing to spend that amount of money. My chickens with poopy butts don't like to be messed with either, so I will just spray that stuff directly on the chickens' butt. It's less stressful for them and me both. I will also spray it around the coop because why not, extra protection. Just be sure to follow the directions.

 

[Fluffy_Feathers]

her butt is way worse.

Her butt as in the vent area that you cleaned? Or are you talking about the muddy area further down you mentioned before?

She didn't happen to get flystrike, did she? Can you get some pictures?

Flies just buzzing around won't affect her unless they actually give her flystrike. If she doesn't have flystrike then there's something else going on unrelated to the flies.

 

[Bejep714]

I cut the twos back feathers a few days ago and the one Orpington is good now, the other not so much. Her bottom is clean, but down from it is very muddy and dirty. I could see her bare skin pretty well because some of the feathers fell off, and it is red around the feathers. Its very low, mostly on the bottom of her body, but looks horrible. Is it still a worry for flystrike? I can attach a picture if needed.

 

[Bejep714]

Now I'm worried. I went down there a minute ago her butt is way worse. I gave them strawberry treats, and usually she attacks them, but she didnt even run over this time. She is acting very strange and I am worried since fly's are out now and buzzing around.

 

[Bejep714]

We bought the elector PSP and its coming today which is good. She is just standing huddles with her eyes closed right now. This morning when we let them out at 7 she was fine, but now suddenly she is acting so strange, and I'm not sure if it would really be that sudden. The flies were not out at 7 but are now so that could be a factor, but her crop has always been large so we are thinking she could have problems with that.

 

[Bejep714]

We felt her crop, and it is smaller and hard, is that normal