White dots on comb...have seen pictures here, but no definitive diagnosis. So, here's a picture of o

[theperdews]

Last night, Cloud had little white dots in the creases of her comb that looked like tiny little eggs. This morning, they have spread and are more like clumps of chalky stuff.

I've seen suggestions on similar pictures for pox and also favus, but nobody has posted back about what it turned out to be.

So, here we go...what do you think? We are taking her to the vet today, but vets in our area are mainly dog/cat/cattle/horse vets, so I'm not sure how much they see chickens. Honestly, chicken specialists like many of you are more familiar with them! ;-)

 

[Boiled Octopus]

Not to sound flippant, but have you tried washing the comb just incase it's matter stuck to it and not within the flesh itself? She could have been pecking at something..

 

[theperdews]

We had a veterinary appointment for a horse, so just took the chicken with us because we needed to know if it was infections due to an upcoming show. My daughter has been excited all winter/spring to take 4 chickens to the 4-H Fair, and so we didn't want to just "wait and see," and either be in quarantine or make other kids' chickens sick.

The vet thought it looked like a sebaceous excretion, but it was really "attached" and wouldn't come off easily. He got a scalpel and took a scraping to look at under the microscope. After looking, he still felt it was sebaceous and not parasitic.

He thinks that this chicken metabolized the dewormer differently than the other chickens, as she had been dewormed 2 days before onset. We knew that the other examples we had seen that looked like this also happened to be EE/Ameraucanas (pea combed chickens). So, possibly these chickens are a little different in how they metabolize dewormers from the Fenbendazole/Albendazole family. It would be interesting to know whether the other chickens we've seen pictures of with this had been recently dewormed with that.

So, we will see if it goes away in a few days when she has finished metabilizing the dewormer. He suggested putting mineral oil on her comb to see if it helps us scrape off the crud by softening it.

Toni

 

[thailand]

Any further news on this chicken please? I have a hen who has developed exactly the same thing on her pea comb. Would love to know how you ended up treating this and did it go away permanently?

 

[dawg53]

Any further news on this chicken please? I have a hen who has developed exactly the same thing on her pea comb. Would love to know how you ended up treating this and did it go away permanently?

Maybe favus, a fungus. Miconazole ointment from a "Monostat" box will take care of it.

 

[thailand]

Um...Dawg...sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is a "Monostat" box?

 

[dawg53]

Um...Dawg...sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is a "Monostat" box?

Here's the box. Inside the box is the tube of miconazole.

 

[thailand]

Thank you!

 

[coolcanoechic]

Huh? This has totally dumbfounded me. That stuff will help? Do you just rub it on?

 

[dawg53]

Huh? This has totally dumbfounded me. That stuff will help? Do you just rub it on?

Yep.