Poorly chicken.Any ideas?

[VerySmallSqueak]

One of my hens has a permanently soiled looking rear end.
She seems fine in herself other than that.
Any ideas of what it could be,and what can be done about it?
Also,are the eggs safe to eat?

Firstly I am not a vet, however I do have chickens. Two, who because of being light in colour do suffer from having dirty feathers. I would check firstly for mites, if not, they may not be roosting and therefore sitting overnight in their bedding which they have made dirty!

Failing that, do as I do and bring them in for a wash and blow dry. Many breeders who show their hens do this. You will need a sink of warm water, a towel and more than one pair of hands. I normally place a towel over the chicken's head this will have a calming effect and she will allow you to bathe her. However, once you rinse away the dirt you will need to dry her off. I use a hair dryer, very low heat, and she will then be nice and clean. It is important to keep her indoors for a few hours especially in this very cold weather,keep her in a cat basket or failing that, a cardboard box. Some straw, water and perhaps a treat and she will be a happy hen.

As for the eggs, I eat mine without any problems. My problem is I have too many eggs!!

Hope this helps...

Thanks alice. Do mites cause diarrhoea? I ask this is they have had a bit of a recurring mite problem which we inherited with them.

I suppose it could be that she is showing dirt more than the others (she is the lightest) - I hadn't really thought of that. I had assumed there was something wrong.

Not sure whether the mite problem causes tummy upsets. I do know that if I give my hens too many treats, as in fruit, they suffer the following day! So, I try to keep to just giving them their daily corn ration, and of course pellets. Although in this weather I do feed warm porridge.

Not sure if your hens free range but mine do have the run of the garden and they have access to a dust bath which they enjoy, helps in cleaning feathers and getting rid of mites. Although if it is mites then you should check their coop, normally mites are more of a problem in summer. Hope this helps.

Hi. One of my light coloured hens has a mucky behind a lot - she is a bit stupid and sleeps in us nest box which doesn't help. I would steer clear of "wet" food for a while (unless they free range when you have no choice as they eat slugs and stuff).

The eggs will he fine to eat as long as you've worked your girls regularly. Actually, worms can make for runny tummies.

A bit of tlc and a bath will cheer her up no end.

They are free range.

I reckon I should try worming them - they are due,so possibly that is the cause.

I'm dreading the return of the warmer weather from the mites point of view. Horrible little things! They do have dust baths (obviously not in this weather as it's all mud!) but,trust me,mites are very persistent!

I feed them pellets and vegetable cooked leftovers - I can't think of anything in their diet that I give them that would cause this.

I do think my first ports of call will be a bath and worming,and see if that improves matters.

Thanks for the advice!

Oooh - re the mites. Buy a bottle of mite powder, empty the lot into a litter tray / old sandpit thing with a load of sand and soil. They'll mite dust themselves :). Obviously when it's stopped raining every day (so probably sometime in 2023!

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip Crikey. I'll definitely try that!