eczema chicken

[Xtineart]

Help, my baby gingerbeast has had the most awful eczema for a while now and it just doesn't seem to be letting up. The poor baby is so itchy and uncomfortable with huge bare patches of peeling dead and crinkly old skin that comes off in sheets (like old sunburn). I help her once a week by giving her some cuddle time with a soft loofah taking off some of the worst flaky skin, and helping ease through her new but ingrowing feathers where they've been blocked by dead skin from coming in properly. She really enjoys this time and responds by lifting her feathers for me, preening my arm and purring away so she must be so happy to help get rid of all the old leather skin. I've been rubbing a little coconut oil into the sore looking areas, but don't want to make her too oily in case it affects her feathers at this time of year. I've changed their bedding type a couple of times to try to find something comfortable for her in case it's an allergy to straw or the likes as she loves to nest instead of roost. I feel so sorry for her and I dont really know what else I can do. There are no sign of mites or bugs and the other girls are all fine.

Is it worth a trip to the vet or are there any suggestions as she must be so miserable and itchy.

 

[dawg53]

Sounds like molt which is normal for a bird over about a year old. How old is she?

 

[Xtineart]

that sound positive as she's around two years old, a rescue battery pup who had no feathers at all when I got her in early summer. most of her feathers have grown back in and she's a real beautiful baby apart from the area oboe her haunch which just looks so awful and sore.

 

[Eggcessive]

While a skin allergy could always be possible in any animal, I would look her over late at night with a flashlight for the red chicken mites that come at only at night. Sometimes they can be brought in by straw harboring the critters inside, and I have heard that you can shake a bale onto white paper to check it for mites. Crevices in the coop can be full of mite dust, and sometimes you can find them by running a paper into the cracks. Skin allergies can sometimes be treated with a fish oil capsule every day, and steroids can be prescribed by a vet in severe cases. Also, lice eggs or mite eggs can be sometimes mistaken for flaking skin. Here is some info on poultry mites:
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/laura_e_john/
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/08/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification.html

 

[Xtineart]

no its not eggs it's unmistakable peeling dead skin. I can pull it off in sheets, it's really like sunburn skin but she's happy to get it removed. there are absolutely no red mites as I know the signs as all my rescues have come badly infested do I make sure the coop is almost spotlessly clean and check all my girls every few days. it's just the area over her haunch where the feathers are still to grow back and it looks so awful. poor wee girl. otherwise she's healthy borderline fat and happy. I just wish I could fix her skin.

 

[Xtineart]

sorry meant to add thanks iI will be adding fish oil to her food