5 week old chick is the size of a 2 week old chick.

[HotChicken623]

I'll try to get an updated photo of her today! Her feather growth is really terrible.

 

[HotChicken623]

If she seems healthy and active, and is eating/drinking/pooping normally, I wouldn't worry--some chickens just are smaller than others. If you are ever selecting chickens for breeding chickens, it's something to pay attention to, but if you just want healthy pets it shouldn't matter.

She seems healthy, but doesn't look great physically. Feather growth is ugly coming in, feathers are just naked pins and the ones that came in seem to be crooked. Maybe she's my "ugly duckling" lol.

 

[HotChicken623]

Update on chick today. Here you can really see how terrible the feathers look and there is a part of the skin that was always redder, but now looks very irritated. Poor thing. She still is eating and drinking and flitting around though.

 

[NatJ]

Update on chick today. Here you can really see how terrible the feathers look and there is a part of the skin that was always redder, but now looks very irritated. Poor thing. She still is eating and drinking and flitting around though.

That is really odd.

Any chance of her being sunburned? Or the others picking at her?

Have you checked for mites or lice or other parasites?

I can't think of any good explanations for the condition of her feathers and skin, so I'm just throwing out guesses here

 

[HotChicken623]

That is really odd.

Any chance of her being sunburned? Or the others picking at her?

Have you checked for mites or lice or other parasites?

I can't think of any good explanations for the condition of her feathers and skin, so I'm just throwing out guesses here

It's been pretty cloudy lately, today was the first day of some real sun, but possibly? That area as her feathers started growing was always red underneath and I wondered about it, but she seemed fine so I didn't worry. Now it looks so irritated. I've never seen any of the chickens or other chicks pick on it, but that doesn't mean they aren't when I'm not around. I've only seen them try to go after the chicks not raised by the broody and that's through a fence. I haven't seen any bugs or anything either when I held her and I've never seen any on any of my others birds. Not to say any of that would be out of the question. Just none of my other hens or chicks have had any of those issues. I wish I had taken more photos when she was a couple weeks old to show how odd her feathering started out. I just hoped and thought she was developing slower, but now with the way her feathers and skin are....I'm concerned.

 

[Jeanw]

Maybe some vetiricyn spray would help her irritation. Amazon sells this brand.

 

[Jeanw]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UTDXBX6/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_VB2J963HC1DA1SJARAN8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

[HotChicken623]

Maybe some vetiricyn spray would help her irritation. Amazon sells this brand.

Thanks for the suggestion! I have some on hand, but didn't think to try to use it for this. Can't hurt! I'll spray some on tomorrow.

 

[InterestingChickens]

It looks like she may have mites. Part the feathers to check. It there is a lot of dirt looking dots, she has mites.

 

[HotChicken623]

It looks like she may have mites. Part the feathers to check. It there is a lot of dirt looking dots, she has mites.

I checked for mites and didn't see any signs of any. I sprayed her with Vetricyn a few times, applied bag balm to her legs and dry skin and also gave her a couple drops of Nutridrench in her mouth and also dosed her water. She seems to be doing a lot better! Skin looks normal and I see a lot of feather growth! I'll post a photo of her soon. Thank you all so much for all of your help!