Red Butts

[Chicklette 1]

I couldn't find any recent posts about chickens with sparse feathers and red butts, however that is what I have on probably 5 or 6 of my hens. Some are not red but just sparse feathering. I have examined them for mites and did not find any parasites. About a week ago, I did find worms in one of the droppings so I immediately wormed all of them with Wazine 17. They were definitely round worms. The problem started before I found the worms. I have been putting some wound powder on the bottoms that looked red. There were some very old posts that said the cause could be feather picking or mites or stool burn or molting. It's just that I do not only have one but several at the same time. I have had a lot of broodies and because of the worming and trying to break the broodies, I have not had as steady egg production but I'm sure everything will eventually return to normal in that department. I took the shavings out of the nest boxes and put in nest pads to discourage the Broodies from liking the nests. I feel like all of this is somehow connected. For all of them to do this at the same time is strange to me. Question is: Is this normal?

 

[stcroixusvi]

A friend of mine just got some adult chickens and has the same problem - I'll be curious to know what you hear from the forum.

 

[Josh_Manors]

It sounds like the problem that I was having with 2 of my 3 girls about a month ago. I posted a picture of the problem here if you could pull it up and see if it looks like the same. It cost a good size vet bill with all the blood work, throat cultures, and test on stool samples, and nothing was found with the tests. Finally the vet convinced me to separates them and watch for feathers to return and sure enough they started filling in feathers that weren't disappearing. It ended up being one hen that decided one day to start picking out the feathers of her sisters causing redness and a few sores, but only around the vent area. The best thing I found for the sores is Vetericyn spray, works fast and is easy to apply. Hope this helps, I can definitely relate to the frustration a problem like this causes.

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

I have the same problem.

 

[Chicklette 1]

Looks like at least several of us have the same problem plus there were very old posts on the same problem but no real answers. I think I will let nature take its course and hope it will pass. I did put wound powder on the bottoms that were a little more red. Hoped it would be soothing. There is a medication that is used for hot spots on dogs that would probably work to help sooth but I hesitate to try it on the chickens without consulting a vet. Since no one knows for sure what the problem is, it is hard to tell what will solve it. Good luck to all of us. It just seems to me that it is a seasonal thing because most of us are experiencing this at this time.