Mysteriously Messy Bum

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

Everyone knows that one of the telltale signs of a healthy hen is a nice fluffy bottom. I recently noticed my 21 month old ISA brown hen has a weirdly messy bottom. Here's the thing: it's not right around her vent but actually under it by a couple inches. Upon checking her vent itself, it looked healthy and happy with no mess around it. The patch in question is dried--not sticky to the touch but just clearly covered in gunk that has since become more of a crust that's matted her feathers together. It's not super brown or anything (so I'm not sure whether it's poop or not), and the color is vague and perhaps even clear. A few more things:

• Again, vent is totally healthy so I do not suspect vent gleet.
• There is no bad odor to the area.
• I worried about a crushed egg or something because she did uncharacteristically skip laying today, however there are no yolk-like stains that I'm seeing.
• Her energy level is high, like always (the photos are bad because she's one of those chickens that are always a blur!). No change in behavior.
• She's eating and drinking like normal.
• While I haven't seen her poop, the poop I've been cleaning from the run all looks legit (as in not sickly).

My deduction is that she possibly sat on a crushed egg or some otherwise weird substance--that would explain how there isn't any gunk actually around her vent but under it, almost near her stomach. But my fears are about an egg-related concern (i.e. did one break inside her? is she bound?). Any thoughts or insights are much appreciated!

Photos for reference:

 

[dawg53]

I dont know where you got your information about a nice fluffy bottom means a healthy hen.
I've had plenty of birds with nasty bottoms and I guarantee you they are healthy.
I use the garden hose to spray off their nasty rear end and bottom to prevent fly strike.

In colder temps, I wash their bottoms off in a plastic container of warm water and dry them with the hair dryer. I do this to prevent skin scald on their bottom and I like collecting eggs without poop on them.

You can also trim back feathers and fluff a little so that they get a clear "shot" to the ground.
Dont cut back too much feathers and fluff. You dont want the urates in the feces coming in contact with the skin. It will scald the skin causing redness and irritation which presents another problem.

As long as your ISA Brown is eating, drinking and acting like a chicken should, nothing's wrong.

 

[maryn7]

I had the same concern. My girls put on a lot of fluff in the rear and poop was getting caught in it. I was nervous to cut out feathers during the winter, but someone pointed out that poop-covered feathers aren't contributing to warmth either.

I did a mix of cleaning off what I could with warm water and cutting out the matted bits. My barred rock had it so bad, I had to cut an almost golf ball sized chunk out. Dried them off with a hairdryer after (this is key!). They are both much happier and it hasn't repeated.

I did a lot of reading on the forum when they were chicks and got the idea that any poop near the vent area means disaster/disease. But it seems like a pretty common problem, esp in winter (you can find lots of threads asking for similar advice now that it's winter).

If the poops look otherwise normal in their coop and run and she's not acting abnormal, I think you've just got some fluffy butts that need cleaning/trimming.

ps - if you've got a second person to hold the bird, much easier than trying to hold a chicken and wield scissors! Recommended.

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

I had the same concern. My girls put on a lot of fluff in the rear and poop was getting caught in it. I was nervous to cut out feathers during the winter, but someone pointed out that poop-covered feathers aren't contributing to warmth either.

I did a mix of cleaning off what I could with warm water and cutting out the matted bits. My barred rock had it so bad, I had to cut an almost golf ball sized chunk out. Dried them off with a hairdryer after (this is key!). They are both much happier and it hasn't repeated.

I did a lot of reading on the forum when they were chicks and got the idea that any poop near the vent area means disaster/disease. But it seems like a pretty common problem, esp in winter (you can find lots of threads asking for similar advice now that it's winter).

If the poops look otherwise normal in their coop and run and she's not acting abnormal, I think you've just got some fluffy butts that need cleaning/trimming.

ps - if you've got a second person to hold the bird, much easier than trying to hold a chicken and wield scissors! Recommended.

Thanks for the reassurance--I had seen posts about it being an indicator of issue so got nervous. I've had chickens with intermittent poopy butts that I did the old wash n' trim on, but in this case it seemed like an unidentified and largely spread out substance. I'm wondering if she just sat in something weird.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye out and will incorporate the grooming tricks you mentioned. Thanks!

 

[buffy-the-eggpile-layer]

I had the same concern. My girls put on a lot of fluff in the rear and poop was getting caught in it. I was nervous to cut out feathers during the winter, but someone pointed out that poop-covered feathers aren't contributing to warmth either.

I did a mix of cleaning off what I could with warm water and cutting out the matted bits. My barred rock had it so bad, I had to cut an almost golf ball sized chunk out. Dried them off with a hairdryer after (this is key!). They are both much happier and it hasn't repeated.

I did a lot of reading on the forum when they were chicks and got the idea that any poop near the vent area means disaster/disease. But it seems like a pretty common problem, esp in winter (you can find lots of threads asking for similar advice now that it's winter).

If the poops look otherwise normal in their coop and run and she's not acting abnormal, I think you've just got some fluffy butts that need cleaning/trimming.

ps - if you've got a second person to hold the bird, much easier than trying to hold a chicken and wield scissors! Recommended.

Thanks for the reassurance--I had seen posts about it being an indicator of issue so got nervous. I've had chickens with intermittent poopy butts that I did the old wash n' trim on, but in this case it seemed like an unidentified and largely spread out substance. I'm wondering if she just sat in something weird.

Anyway, I'll keep an eye out and will incorporate the grooming tricks you mentioned. Thanks!

I dont know where you got your information about a nice fluffy bottom means a healthy hen.
I've had plenty of birds with nasty bottoms and I guarantee you they are healthy.
I use the garden hose to spray off their nasty rear end and bottom to prevent fly strike.

In colder temps, I wash their bottoms off in a plastic container of warm water and dry them with the hair dryer. I do this to prevent skin scald on their bottom and I like collecting eggs without poop on them.

You can also trim back feathers and fluff a little so that they get a clear "shot" to the ground.
Dont cut back too much feathers and fluff. You dont want the urates in the feces coming in contact with the skin. It will scald the skin causing redness and irritation which presents another problem.

As long as your ISA Brown is eating, drinking and acting like a chicken should, nothing's wrong.

Thanks for the helpful pointers! I'll give her a warm wash later to get her back to fluffydom.

 

[Julie Sachse]

I have 3 Easter Eggers all about a year old and one of them gets poop butt all the time, It baffled me why, so i just kept watching their habits, I noticed they each perched differently at night, Butta my dirty butt hangs her butt down, her tail points to the ground. Blue always clean, puffs up her feathers into a ball and sits on top, no feathers hang lower then the perch like Butta's do. The third is Big Foot, Biggs for short, she puffs more feathers out to the sides so she looks more like a oval, egg shaped I guess you could say, her feathers into the perch but not hanging below. Now that I know how it happens, she gets a butt bath about every 2 weeks in a bin in the sink, I had to put another bin upside down under it because she doesn't like when her head is below the top of the sink. She doesn't mind the baths but she LOVES the blow dryer. I love my girls!