The Gardening Chick
Chirping
A couple of months ago one of my largest RIR pullets "Spot" started laying blood covered eggs. I separated her to find what appeared to be a minor prolapse with extensive bruising around her vent, picked feathers and a very large scab on/ above the upper part of her vent. A few days inside in a kennel with Epsom salt baths, Neosporin and later Vaseline on the area seemed to heal her pretty quickly.
When the girls were all out in the yard today, I noticed one of my Barred Rocks, whom she was raised with, pulled or picked at Spot's feathers. When I took a closer look at her, a few of her broken feathers were bleeding and the area directly around her vent, as well as surrounding area, are red. I am unable to get a picture of the full area because many of the feathers appear to be broken and rearranging them to take a better picture seems to cause her more discomfort. The redness is more pronounced than it appears in the picture. The good news this time is that the eggs are not blood covered yet, however I hope that she does not get that bad again.
Additional information: Spot appears to be a higher ranking flock member, but not one to cause trouble. She also consistently lays larger eggs than most of my other girls. I just switched from 18% protein to an all flock feed (20% protein) to accommodate one pullet that began molting early. I only have pullets. Crowding is not an issue; the incident this morning occurred in a 3,500 sq ft area, for 9 chickens. I have a trail cam but don't seem to capture much more than chickens walking back and forth, scratching or eating.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Is there a way to determine a cause? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again? Should I isolate her at this point, or take a wait and see approach? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Happy New Year everyone!
When the girls were all out in the yard today, I noticed one of my Barred Rocks, whom she was raised with, pulled or picked at Spot's feathers. When I took a closer look at her, a few of her broken feathers were bleeding and the area directly around her vent, as well as surrounding area, are red. I am unable to get a picture of the full area because many of the feathers appear to be broken and rearranging them to take a better picture seems to cause her more discomfort. The redness is more pronounced than it appears in the picture. The good news this time is that the eggs are not blood covered yet, however I hope that she does not get that bad again.
Additional information: Spot appears to be a higher ranking flock member, but not one to cause trouble. She also consistently lays larger eggs than most of my other girls. I just switched from 18% protein to an all flock feed (20% protein) to accommodate one pullet that began molting early. I only have pullets. Crowding is not an issue; the incident this morning occurred in a 3,500 sq ft area, for 9 chickens. I have a trail cam but don't seem to capture much more than chickens walking back and forth, scratching or eating.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Is there a way to determine a cause? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again? Should I isolate her at this point, or take a wait and see approach? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Happy New Year everyone!
