If you’d told me a few years ago that one day I’d be standing at my utility room sink, scrubbing a chicken’s bum with an old toothbrush… well, it wouldn’t have been on my bingo card. But here we are.
Chickens are usually very clean, so when one has a poopy bum it’s a sure sign something’s not right. If that mess dries on their feathers, it turns rock hard, attracts flies, and pulls painfully on their skin. The trick is to catch it early, which is exactly what I was trying to do a couple of days ago.
One of my girls wasn’t quite herself. Her back end felt hot and a bit swollen, which can mean all sorts of nasty things. So I half-filled my mop bucket with warm water, added a good shake of Epsom salts, and plopped my bewildered patient in for a soak.
Her vent (that’s the all-purpose exit for eggs and everything else) looked healthy. No infection, just a stubborn path of dried-on poop beneath it. She sat there calmly while I gently soaked the area and then worked away with the toothbrush, turning to give me a gentle peck if I pinched or pulled too much.
When she was finally clean, I wrapped her in a towel, fluffed her up, and took her back to the coop. I’d prepped the isolation hutch just in case, but she trotted off happily to join her sisters. The next morning all three “Bettys” (I'll admit it, I can’t tell them apart) had matching fluffy bums.
I’ll keep an eye on her, just in case it’s something like Water Belly (I’ve dealt with that before - let’s just say “chicken juice” is not something you want on your clothes). But for now, she’s fine and none the worse for her epsom salts bath - I think she actually kind of enjoyed it.
Here's the thing; Keeping chickens is equal parts joy and worry. They’re fierce little predators, but also fragile, and sometimes love looks like a mop bucket, some Epsom salts, and an old toothbrush.
Do you keep chickens? What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever had to do for them? Tell me in the comments - and if you like peeks into real life here at the mill, you can get more stories like this in my free This Life I Made newsletter
Comments