# Adult hens with pasty butt



## sandra

I have a couple of hens that I have to keep clipping the feathers on their butts because they keep pasty butt. They are about a year and half old. Everyone seems very healthy and happy. Their poop is normal. I had assumed they were just fluffy chickens and that is why they get pasty butt. The poop sticks to the, and makes like a diaper rash effect on their bums. They eat good. They drink good. They do everything all the other birds do. I have three New Hampshire red hens and two of the, get the pasty butt and one New Hampshire red never gets the pasty butt. She is smaller than the two that get pasty butt. I also have two Jersey giant hens and Jersey giant rooster and they never got pasty butt. Every one is cage free from sun up to sun down and have free range of four acres. I do put them in a chicken tractor at night which we mover around every few days.


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## Bee

Have you given any antibiotics lately to your flock?


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## sandra

No, I didn't know I should. What should I give them and can I get from local farmer feed and seed?


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## Bee

No, you shouldn't...I was merely asking to see if you had stripped their intestines of natural flora to be found there through the use of antibiotics. It could explain the runny butts and sore bottoms~which is often a sign of thrush, or candida albicans~an overgrowth of harmful yeasts that happens when more beneficial bacteria are killed by the antibiotics. 

Try feeding some yogurt or buttermilk mixed in with their feed for a few days and see if this helps their bowels get a good culture going. Even better, you could start fermenting their feeds and get a whole range of good benefits and feed savings. There is a thread here in the feeding section in you're interested. 

Some birds will have messy butts in the heat of summer due to increase water consumption, with increased urine production causing a more runny stool. But rarely does that result in sore bottoms, so I'm thinking yours may have a little yeast infection.


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## sandra

Should I put something on their bums? I trimmed the feathers away and cleaned up their little bums in the meantime. I got some plain yogurt, I will give them some of that today and see if they like it. Will it bother the rooster? Everyone is molting right now, they all look like ratting chickens, lol.


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## Bee

No, it won't bother him. You can place a moisture barrier there like bag balm or vaseline, much like you would a child's rashy bottom. It'll look a hot mess but it may provide some comfort.


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## sandra

Thanks. Off to pamper chicken butts! LOL.


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