Chicken bald back

[gavclojak]

Hi guys, its me asking for help yet again!!!

i wanted to know what is normal feather loss? One of my girls(hen solo) came to me in a sorry state, feathers look like they have broken off mid shaft and massive bald patch on her bottom and a bare chest, i am sure she is loosing feathers on top of her head too, can see no sugns of redness or pecking, in fact....dare i say it i think i have been incredibly lucky on that front as i have only seen the odd passing opertunistic peck.

 

i have notices that under the tummy, below the chest of another girl missing and she is quite bald there again not at all red maybe 1 inch wide and 3 inches long,(she may have come like that as she is only just letting me pick her up)three of them have bald patches arond ther bottom below the vent...and today i have notices what looks like dried spots of blood on a concret slab in there enclosure, cant be positive and it took a bit of rubbing to remove.

 

I have looked over all the girls and cant see anything, all eating, laying, dust bathing, acting normal i have checked the nest area and the inside of the cube for evidence of blood and nothing so am flumoxed!i should i be worried?

does antone have any clues....

[paulad]

sorry i cant help on this one as im a newbie like you - sure someone will answer though x

[Mrs_B]

I would think that if they were bleeding from where the feathers have been pulled you'd see dry blood on their skin - so unless you can see evidence of that I would say it may be something else?

 

The problem with pecking is sometimes you don't see it! Some hens can be sly about their behaviour. Is there a chicken with all her feathers - she could be the culprit!

 

I would try some anti-pecking sprays and also some iodine/purple spray if there are any cuts. Search the forum to see what other people recommend as there are quite a few on the market.

 

Hope this helps and the feather pecking improves!! My bottom hen has a bald patch on her back - and this is because she's the bottom hen as she gets pecked when they eat/drink and she always gets in the way and never 'learns' so she is always putting herself in harms way - but she has only bled once in several months, and I popped on some iodine which fixed any excessive pecking.

 

x

[gavclojak]

Thanks for the reply and help. to be honest there isnt one of the girls out of five that doesnt have some bald patches on some part of them. the area's dont look pecked as there is no redness....strange...i thought maybe its happening at night but have found no evidnce in the coop.

One thing they have in common is they all have dirty rear ends.....is that normal....maybe from the iconstant dust bathing?