Chicken losing feathers

[hazelville]

]One of our Ameraucana's is losing many of her feathers including wing feathers. She also quit laying eggs a couple weeks ago. My wife picked her up and a watery discharge came out of her mouth. She is eating and drinking though. So we separated her from the herd and have her in a box in the garage with a heat lamp near by so it's around 65 - 70 degrees Fahrenheit just to be on the safe side - we have 9 other hens. It seems odd since it's so cold out.

Is this molting and something I shouldn't worry about? We lost a chicken (her protector) to a hawk about 10 days ago and noticed she was being picked on by the head chicken so not sure if there is any relation to her losing feathers.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Any way you can post a picture? Check her for mites and lice especially around the vent, under wings and head. If she is loosing large amounts of feathers it sounds more like she is just going through a late season molt. Put her on a higher protein diet while on molt. Many people feed cat food at this time. The watery discharge could have been just that. If she had just drank then picking her up could have made it come back up.

 

[hazelville]

I'll go take a picture of her. I don't have any cat food, what about canned dog food or tuna fish? I could go buy a can... She's @ 20 months old. Back in a jiffy.

Front

Belly

Side

Butt

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Looks like molt. You can see the new feather shafts where there will be new feathers soon. Not a rush on the food, it just helps them come through molt a bit easier. Any food that has a higher protein level such as tuna or beans or even a higher protein chicken feed.
Here is a pic of one of our hens that is just coming off molt. Her feathers are about half grown back since this pic

 

[hazelville]

Thanks for the feedback. They love rice so we will add some beans as per you suggestion.
Will let her have a night by herself....

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yup, she's molting. She will get more pathetic looking before it gets better. My buttercup has regrown some feathers, but still looks pathetic.

If you have extras right now, you can give her scrambled eggs too.

 

[Kelticlady]

I have an Araucana that is having the same problem! She has lost a large patch of feathers on the back of her neck and lost her tail feathers as well as her flight wing feathers. Do they molt in December? We thought they molted in August/September however, someone told us to put a light on them to keep them laying. Could that have stopped the molting process at the normal time? Another friend told us not to keep a light on them because they need a rest and time to molt. We changed to a heat lamp instead around the last part of October or first week of November. She is the only one that looks like that and the rest of the flock looks healthy and normal. PLEASE ADVISE!

 

[gunbunny]

I've got the same problem with my 2 year old red hen losing all her feathers, she is the only one of that breed . she gets very upset when you try to handle her even when it's dark, she looks like a mangy dog. here it is december in northeastern Oklahoma I don't heat my coop so I don't know how she's gonna make it through the winter.