Mites, Lice, or feather plucking?

[Josh_Manors]

I have 3 EE hens and today one of them is suddenly lacking feathers around her rump??? She was perfectly fine yesterday and the other 2 are still ok. There are no feathers on the ground or in the coop so it's a complete mystery as to what happened over night. I did a complete clean out of all bedding and found no bugs in the run or in the coop. Any help or tips from the experts on this forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Do you have any roosters?

 

[Josh_Manors]

No rooster, just the 3 hens.

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Hmmm, that's weird. Could you post a pic?

 

[Josh_Manors]

Hope these photos post. She is showing no signs of sickness what so ever???

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Other hens can pick at the rump and eat the feathers sometimes. I think it's nothing to really worry about unless she shows that she's sick.

 

[wren]

Well you could search for mites and lice or just treat them with spray on frontline as a part of your regular routine.

 

[maggiegigs]

Did she have "pasty butt syndrone". My orp did until I changed her diet to only free range and layer pellets....no TREATS! My orp's butt looks very similiar because the poo suffocates the feathers and they started just falling out which is probably why you just did not notice.

 

[Josh_Manors]

No pasty butt syndrome and she was not missing feathers yesterday. One post mentioned Frontline spray and now I'm researching old posts for frontline. Thanks for the help.