Weird chicken vent

[Fluckadoodledoooo]

With all that has been happening lately I have been worried about my post office closing and not being able to deliver me my baby chicks in a month from now. I wanted five laying hens so that my family always has at least one egg a day. I decided to pick up two hens from a farmer it was getting desperate all the regular adult hen selling places were completely out. Anyway these two both have dry looking vents and some black dots on them. They are far from my healthy chickens. But I’ve never seen their vents look like this before so wanted to ask what the experts think! Attaching the photos now. Any help is appreciated!!

 

[azygous]

It's frustrating when we can't make the photo zoom in. Either take another photo closeup of what you wish us to see, or when posting the pic, select "full size all photos".

 

[Eggcessive]

They may have suffered from some feather picking from being overcrowded, not getting enough protein in their diet, boredom from not getting out to roam, or from too much light in their coop at the previous home. Check them closely for tiny lice or mices under their bottoms. What are you now feeding? A 20% Flock Raiser feed now would give them plenty of protein to regrow their feathers. Some may not grow back completely until they molt next time. Place some crushed oystershell in a separate container, so they can take it as needed for extra calcium. Feather picking can become a learned behavior and can spread to others.

It is good to keep new chickens separated and quarantined for a month, to check for symptoms of any disease, to worm them, and check for lice and mites.

 

[Fluckadoodledoooo]

 

[Fluckadoodledoooo]

Posted a close up one!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

What is the foam/bubbles?

 

[azygous]

Oh, thank you so much! It's easy to see now with the closeup that the "black dots" are either pin feathers emerging or broken feather shafts. This indicates that this hen is the victim of severe feather picking as we refer to chickens yanking each other's feathers out.

One short term remedy is to paint Blu-kote on the bare skin to camouflage it so the other chickens aren't as attracted to the sight of bald skin. The other thing you can do is to identify the feather pickers and install pinless peepers on them. Here's my EE Flo wearing her peepers.

 

[Fluckadoodledoooo]

Wow! I have noticed them picking at eachother more than my chick raised ones ever have. Is there any way to help their feather shafts heal? Thank you so much for responding! Your chicken with her peepers is so cute!

 

[azygous]

The best way to encourage new feather growth is to discourage feather picking. Sometimes it's difficult to protect the new feather growth if the pickers have discovered how tasty and rich with blood the pin feathers are. Blue-kote helps sometimes. Pinless peepers can help. But sometimes it's necessary to segregate the victim to give her time to heal, both physically and emotionally.

A small pen within the run is a big help. Sometimes we call it our "chicken jail". When I built my new run some years back, I built a jail in the rear. I use it for rehabilitating bullying victims, corralling hormone-crazed roosters to give the hens a break, and occasionally I use it as an outdoor brooder. Pictured here is one bad-ass feather picker in the jail.