Chicken with white earlobes? HELP! PICS!

jeremy

CA Royal Blues
13 Years
Mar 23, 2008
8,123
183
396
Oakland, CA
I recently acquired 2 Red Star hens. They've been in a quarantine coop and run for a little over a month now. Both birds seem to have improved leaps and bounds health-wise since I took them in but there's something about one that's got me a little worried.

As far as I know brown egg laying chickens are suppose to have red ear lobes, right? There are rare exceptions but we're talking about Red Stars, not exactly rare. Both birds lay a brown egg daily, one has typical red ear lobes, the other though has white. Now it's not the entire lobe either, it's more like a layer of white that is just covering the lobe almost completely. Also, the same bird seems to be showing signs of what I can only describe as "pastey butt". I've only encountered that with chicks, so I'm assuming it is a problem.

Anybody have any advice as to what is wrong with this hen? I was hoping to begin integrating them into my laying flock soon but not if I can get this figured out. These birds came to me as "house chickens", they'd lived inside an apartment for over a year.

Here's some pictures of the bird in question,

This is her when she first came to live with us, her comb is now pink.
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this is how she looks today,
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and here's a photo of her bum, sorry about the poor quality, she wouldn't hold still.
IMG_0986.jpg
 
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By the size and shape of her comb, she looks more like a leghorn cross than a redstar. If that is the case, her lobes might be white. I don't think there is anything wrong with her other than a dirty butt.
 
Earlobes look normal to me. My easter egger has white earlobes and lays green eggs. I have multiple chickens that have earlobes just like that, its normal.

I wouldn't integrate the chicken until her butt cleans up, she may have diarrhea.
 
Quote:
Do you have any experience with fungal infections in chickens, or how to treat them?

As far as diharrea goes, I'll clip the feathers tonight when I get home while she's sleeping to minimize stress. Does anybody know of anything that will clear up the diharrea?

Any other thoughts?
 
I agree with lemurchaser, I think the earlobes look fine and it is probally mixed with leghorn. My Spitzhaubens have those blue earlobes I think they are cool looking.
 
I also am guessing it is not a 100% red star and that it is crossed with something else. I wouldn't rush to treat a fungal infection. Other than color, do the ears look any different than any other chickens? It doesn't look like it to me. If not, I wouldn't worry about it and enjoy your fresh brown eggs.


UGCM
 

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