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Our four hens all have fluffy bums and two seem to have some erm 'gunge' on the fluff. We have actually already cleaned one up, and she was NOT happy about it and the feathers took ages to fluff back up, so then I was worried she'd get cold. She's now dirty again. Do we need to worry and do something about it or not? What do other people do? Also could it be a sign of illness? Or is it nothing really to worry about. All help greatly appreciated.

I would check the skin, I had one cockeral who looked "pooey" and actually had a maggot infestation round his bum. Yuk!

I wouldn't clean them, but if you want to I can not see it doing any harm?

when you say gunge.. you mean poo?

what are the hens like in general - happy? not overly pale combs? clean eyes?
eating ok? poo ok?

sometimse they are just mucky. but you could consider worming them.

Thank you

Will get some worming stuff- is Flubenovet what I need? Will also check for maggots (yuk) I was hoping that coz it's so cold that shouldn't be a problem, but better safe than sorry. I had a friend whose pet rabbit got fly blown and it was horrid and so awful for the animal.

Hi PB,

I agree - mine had the same problem and it was worms, as once we had wormed ours the problem went away.

We used Flubenvet - the herbal stuff is OK for prevention, but in my opinon you need the proper drugs to get rid of the problem when it is established.