WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY CHICKENS BUTT??

[azygous]

Check in the ears of the chicken shaking its head. It could be an infection if you see crust, or simple dry ear. Put a little mineral oil in the ears to soothe them. If the chicken occasionally scratches their ears, then you know it's uncomfortable.

 

[azygous]

Also, lice do not nibble on living chicken skin. They feed on dead skin and dander on the surface of the skin layer. You can easily see lice on the chicken butts, crawling around. Unlike mites, lice do live on the chicken throughout their life cycle.

Lice are not responsible for the inflammation you're seeing. If a parasite is responsible, it's more likely mites.

 

[PsychoChickenLady]

Check in the ears of the chicken shaking its head. It could be an infection if you see crust, or simple dry ear. Put a little mineral oil in the ears to soothe them. If the chicken occasionally scratches their ears, then you know it's uncomfortable.

Thanks. I haven't seen anything "in" her ears, but she is my most timid, and I'm not sure how closely/long I actually looked inside her ears. They all sometimes scratch their ears, I'll have to check them all more closely!!

 

[PsychoChickenLady]

Is the treatment for either that much different? I was going to to change their indoor sand box (which currently has sand and wood ash asking with whatever pine shavings they've tracked in) to add diatomaceous earth, if I can get it at my local store, but what else should i do?

 

[azygous]

DE isn't effective on getting rid of lice or mites. It does add to the dust in the air which is not too good for chickens or humans since the particles are very sharp-edged and corrosive to respiratory tract tissue. All DE will do is absorb odor.

You need to find an insecticide safe for chickens but effective on lice and mites. Permethrin and spinosad are the only two that I'm aware of. In searching for an insecticide, avoid any that contain a petroleum distillate.

This product is pricey, but I've used it and it's extremely effective. https://canada.desertcart.com/products/13022323-elector-psp-premise-spray-8-oz

 

[PsychoChickenLady]

I'm terribly afraid I've made it worse. I wiped off as best I could, with a damp cloth, what was left of the Polysporin (she had bathed in ashes so it was a mess) and I put regular antibiotic ointment and Vaseline on her.

At bedtime, I brought her in the house, soaked her in an Epson salts bath, dried her as best I could with a hair dryer, and now she's (hopefully) sleeping downstairs in a dog crate.

I've tried reverse image Google searches, and the best I get is works of art and Russian web sites.

I checked for mites, just found dust. I checked for fleas, ticks and lice and can see no sign of them either.

The little dark bumps are feather shafts, and there are so many broken feathers.

We're changing and cleaning the coop,
getting new sandbox filler of sand, dirt and ashes and vigilant observation will round out the extent of my abilities.

Oh, and prayers! Lots of prayers!

(After her bath, I wanted to give her the night with nothing on her butt and I'll put hydrocortisone cream ~ sparingly, on before I take her back out to the coop).

 

[azygous]

She should be okay. The cortisone cream should help. How cold does the coop get?

 

[ameliathedominant]

hey is it possible this a pecking order issue? does she ever get picked on?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She's being plucked at. How much space do you have in the coop?
You can try using NuStock cream to help heal and deter picking. If you are keeping her separated out Hen Healer would work well. It's BRIGHT Blue, so may attract the others, but it's a lanoline based soothing cream. I've used it and was happy with the results.

 

[PsychoChickenLady]

She's being plucked at. How much space do you have in the coop?
You can try using NuStock cream to help heal and deter picking. If you are keeping her separated out Hen Healer would work well. It's BRIGHT Blue, so may attract the others, but it's a lanoline based soothing cream. I've used it and was happy with the results.

Thanks!

I'll have to get measurements, I can never remember. More than is recommended, maybe not by much though. We have 10 hens and 3 nesting boxes.

The only time I've seen "excessive or unusual" pecking was last Saturday, when we installed their droppings board. They all seemed out of sorts and took it out in each other. (It was below -20 that day, so they weren't happy when they felt they needed to leave the coop. They didn't, there's lots of room, they just didn't like the noise. Some didn't mind and were actually supervising the sawing and drilling). Other than that, it's just been normal, "no this is my place" pecking.

This girl is firmly in the top five, and doesn't tolerate much crap from any of the others, not even the ones above her.

I'm just at such a loss! It looks like more and more feathers are missing, but only from her butt and now sort of up her chest. She's not missing any from anywhere else.

I honestly don't know exactly what I'm looking for, but I can't see any trace of fleas, ticks, lice or mites. She has pearly white and fluffy down right down to the skin, not a speck or a fleck of anything, EXCEPT on her butt.

I seriously want to go physically plunk her in the snow just for the numbing effect on her poor bottom!