Vent Pecking....

[our4chix]

Hi All!
I have four chickens, a BR named Pepper, a RIR named Pumpkin, a Speckled Sussex named Nutmeg, and a Brahma named Triscuit.
Lately, within the past week or so, Pepper has taken on pecking the vent of little Pumpkin (she is the same age as all of our girls, but she is by far the smallest). Before she began vent pecking, she was pecking at Pumpkin's comb, resulting in open wounds that we put basitracin on and then some vasaline. This helped her heal right up. But now Pumpkin has bleeding and scaring around her vent and Pepper terrorizes her. Pepper is the only one picking on little Pumpkin. The other two girls like in a land where they hurt no one and no one hurts them. We just ordered pinless peepers, but I need help with what to do in the meantime as well as other things to prevent this in the future....

Please help....ANYTHING helps at this point.
Thank you!!!!

 

[flgardengirl]

I use a product called blue kote. It will color the affected area blue and the others will not want to peck them. You can use a qtip or a little paint brush to put it on them and it won't get all over the place as much. It really stains everything even your skin lol. You may have to separate the pecked one from the others until it heals up a little.