2-week old chick with fused feather sheaths

[eelpatrick]

Hello, I have a 2-week old chick from Meyer Hatchery who has been developing some very weird feathers. Some of the flight feathers are curled out and the upper parts are still fully sheathed and fused together like cartilage over ribs. There is a slight curve to fused sections. She's being fed medicated nutrena chick starter and was given vitalpak water after I saw that her curled feathers are definitely not an odd frizzle mutation popping up. It looks Iike some of her new, smaller wing feathers are coming in normally while her tail feathers are connected at the shaft. She's running around with the other chicks, eating, drinking, and preening the same as everyone else.



Has anyone encountered anything similar? Any ideas for a remedy for those fused sheaths, or should I leave them alone and hope the "casing" around them falls off with age? If I missed something while researching and this is definitely viral or a QOL issue, I'm able to cull, but otherwise I'm waiting to see what happens as she grows.

 

[TooCheep]

Some of the wing feathers are curved a little oddly, but that may simply be a genetic thing. I have a girl that has curved saddle feathers that made me think she was a boy at first. Just a genetic oddity and she's been a good layer.

As for "fused feathers", I think those may work out on their own. Chicks naturally bite at emerging pin feathers and produce what looks like dandruff as they bite at the sheaths.

Unless you are thinking of breeding her, I wouldn't consider culling her just for odd feathers.

 

[eelpatrick]

Some of the wing feathers are curved a little oddly, but that may simply be a genetic thing. I have a girl that has curved saddle feathers that made me think she was a boy at first. Just a genetic oddity and she's been a good layer.

As for "fused feathers", I think those may work out on their own. Chicks naturally bite at emerging pin feathers and produce what looks like dandruff as they bite at the sheaths.

Unless you are thinking of breeding her, I wouldn't consider culling her just for odd feathers.

Thanks for your input! I figured the curving might be a genetic fluke since it doesn't really match the curving you see with angel wing or frizzles. Those merged sheath casings are starting to flake a bit at the bottom, so we'll see if she can eventually het them off on her own. I've seen the separated sheaths stick around on pin feathers but never an entire clumped mass like that.

She's a hatchery grade barnevelder that's only meant to be a pet/egg producer, so no worries, she wouldn't be culled for that!

 

[TooCheep]

Oh, and I forgot to say: Welcome to BYC!

Lots of friendly and helpful people here, particularly with newbies. Two recommendations:

-Please add your general general location to your profile. It wasn't relevant here, but it helps us to answer many questions where location, climate, etc. are relevant.

-You might want to introduce yourself in the New Member area. Include any info you wish about yourself, your experience level, chickens, etc.