White patches/losing feathers on butt :(

[Binki]

Hello, thanks for reading this, we have five girls, one of them we noticed some feather loss around her rear (just the down feathers?) and thought it was possibly a moult - then we noticed white spots on her "ear" areas on her red comb. From what I've looking up it looks like fungus?

We checked out her butt and it looks fine unless she moves a certain way then you can see bare skin and some places it's red with irritation with the same white spots as on the "ears" so yeah - definitely not fine! The skin is dry. She doesn't seem bothered by it (doesn't scratch or preen unusually). *edit* looking at the picture again, it looks more like flakes of skin?? Her "ears" are purely white spots though - no sign of skin damage.

We have been putting monistat on her "ears" but it would be impossible to apply the cream all over her butt since she still has feathers and it covers like 1/3rd of her body. We do apply it where we can but I feel it's futile since it doesn't touch all the affected parts.

My questions are - is this fungus? Is there a liquid (preferably natural) remedy I can spray her down with to get the anti fungal everywhere?

I'm worried that it will spread to the other girls and my precious quails

Thanks, I appreciate your advice Her name is Princess and she's the biggest feathered piggy - totally driven by food hehe!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you post some photos of the ear as well?

I do see a bit of dry flaky skin, usually when feathers are missing it's due to being plucked out. Watch your flock to see if she is being plucked, especially at night while roosting.

You can apply something like Blu-Kote or Pick No More to help heal the skin and hide the redness.

Since you want something more natural, FreshEggsDaily has a recipe for Anti-Pick ointment that would have antibacterial properties (honey, lemon essential oil and blue food coloring). Any of these will stain her and you blue so wear gloves. I've found that it does eventually "wear off after a while when they dust bathe, etc.


http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/10/diy-anti-pick-antibacterial-blu-kote.html

 

[Binki]

Can you post some photos of the ear as well?

I do see a bit of dry flaky skin, usually when feathers are missing it's due to being plucked out.  Watch your flock to see if she is being plucked, especially at night while roosting. 

You can apply something like Blu-Kote or Pick No More to help heal the skin and hide the redness.

Since you want something more natural, FreshEggsDaily has a recipe for Anti-Pick ointment that would have antibacterial properties (honey, lemon essential oil and blue food coloring).   Any of these will stain her and you  blue so wear gloves.  I've found that it does eventually "wear off after a while when they dust bathe, etc.


http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/10/diy-anti-pick-antibacterial-blu-kote.html

Thanks a lot for your reply ! I am fairly certain it's not from feather picking from others or herself - she is so food driven that nobody messes with her. The bare patch is hidden under good feathers and other than that her plumage is flawless - she doesn't bully but will charge other chickens for food and peck down at them - have never actually seen her aggressive and bite or peck hard or harass anybody, just food dominance when needed.

We do have an issue with a hen mounting two other hens but it doesn't involve her, I watch their behaviour pretty closely because we have an adopted hen that went through some bullying.

I can take a picture of the white spots on her comb later today, I need help to wrangle her hehe. I'll also be checking out her vent and mouth for signs of internal fungus.

We don't have experience with this so have been doing more research and seems it's likely to be Candida? We are looking up more options to safely saturate her to get all affected areas but it might be she's affected internally as well... Would love some more input when I post her "ear" pictures and see what's going on in her mouth/vent... Ohhh she's gonna hate us

 

[Binki]

I wrote a reply yesterday but guess it didn't post, ugh

*edit* wow now it's showing up after I post this, ha!

She's never picked on and her plumage is great aside from her butt which is still hidden underneath good feathers and I watch them pretty closely so I really doubt it's picking by either her or another hen but thanks for the suggestion

Does anybody have experience with fungal infections on birds? It's looking like favas/candida and possibly internal as well?

Looking for a safe way to saturate her to reach the skin between feather shafts, like a natural anti fugal spray safe for birds?

I would like to know what it is first before we start dousing her fully... The monistat is making a mess of her butt and gummying up the feathers around there making the bare patches exposed when they weren't before. :/

 

[Binki]

Nobody has experience with fungus? I've read a few threads on here about the same thing my chicken has but people mostly responded by saying some chickens have their ear lobes turn white naturally with no conclusion.

This is not natural, she has a problem on her ears and bum and maybe internally. We don't have a vet that has experience with chickens in the area. I will try an online vet as nobody here has experience with white spots on chicken ear and flaky skin on butt.

 

[Frosthound36]

Nobody has experience with fungus? I've read a few threads on here about the same thing my chicken has but people mostly responded by saying some chickens have their ear lobes turn white naturally with no conclusion.

This is not natural, she has a problem on her ears and bum and maybe internally. We don't have a vet that has experience with chickens in the area. I will try an online vet as nobody here has experience with white spots on chicken ear and flaky skin on butt.

I've noticed these white spots before on my hens, although mainly it is harmless. Simply it's because of the color of their ears, but is it flakey? If so, then I would probably check into it. Although the butt feathers around the vent could possibly be from pecking. (Espcially at nighttime.) Hens or basically chickens will sometimes pull out feathers while they roost. Usually, it's from a hogger of space! My rooster once had redness around his sickles, so easily we simply brought him inside to observe. I might be wrong, but it could possibly be from dry weather or simply pecking.