I recently purchased a farm that came with four chickens. They are approximately two years old. One has dirty butt feathers, all the rest don't. She looks good otherwise. Can anyone give me and suggestions please?
Hello, I have enjoyed my hens and coop from Dare 2 Dream since 2017. They are nice egg-layers as well. I am concerned about Goldie, the sex-link, who just sits on her hocks most of the day. She will take a few steps and then sit down and does not go up/down the ramp. She was getting picked on, so now she is separated and is brought in to the house at night. She is skinny despite eating. I am providing TLC and after a month, brought her to the vet. He really couldn't tell what was wrong with her w/o blood work and scans. Her poop tested normal and she does not have lice or mites. I added B complex to her diet a few days ago. Do you have any idea what this could be? Thank you for your knowledge.
Dirty butt feathers are a sign of diarrhea, which means she's probably not well. There can be lots of causes for diarrhea though, so narrowing it down will take a little more research. One really useful read is "What's the Scoop on Chicken Poop" by The Chicken Chick to reference pictures of the color, consistency, and other notable factors of the diarrhea to known causes to see if you can find a match. See it here: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive.html
Some common causes are worms, cancer, and egg binding. Let me know what you find and we'll see if we can walk you through it!