Bare bottom and belly

[Missy83617Girl]

My one year old frizzle has lost most of her tummy feathers, vent feathers and wing feathers. We have no rooster and I have not seen her being picked on by others. We recently had mites but they appeared to more on the new mama silkie and she has no feather loss nor does the polish or cerama cross, just the frizzle girl. We appear to have treated the mites. Do you know why just the frizzle has lost feathers and what can I do or do I need to treat the raw skin. No skin breaks. TIA

 

[Ebony Rose]

When you treated for mites, did you treat the coop and living area too? Your frizzle may be sensitive to the mites or the medicine, if so, a warm bath might be the answer. Could she be starting to molt? Do you see replacement feathers starting to come in on the bare patches? I'd offer your flock some ground rice & ground split peas as part of their treat ration for the hefty boost in lysine & methionine amino acids to help them (re)build strong feathers. As with all treats, needs to be less than 10% of their overall diet.

 

[Missy83617Girl]

When you treated for mites, did you treat the coop and living area too? Your frizzle may be sensitive to the mites or the medicine, if so, a warm bath might be the answer. Could she be starting to molt? Do you see replacement feathers starting to come in on the bare patches? I'd offer your flock some ground rice & ground split peas as part of their treat ration for the hefty boost in lysine & methionine amino acids to help them (re)build strong feathers. As with all treats, needs to be less than 10% of their overall diet.

We did treat the coop, run, dust bathing areas. I have not really seen any of my chickens noticeably molt so am unsure of that however we do not see new pin feathers coming in. She actually had a lot of feather loss when we first began treatment for mites which is why I thought it was related to the mites but again the other three girls are not afflicted even the one sitting on eggs with all the mites in her nest box.

 

[Ebony Rose]

Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in soon. I've been blessed in my 13 years of chicken keeping to never have had lice or mites in my flock (yet). Real easy for wild birds to 'gift' your flock with them. In the meantime, a warm bath won't hurt her and could help. Test the water with your wrist, if it's too hot for your wrist, then it's too hot for her. When you said "raw" skin, do you mean sore-looking skin like a rash, or do you mean bare skin, without feathers? Bare skin will have to wait until she does molt, and then grow back her feathers. Sore looking skin would need some camouflage to keep her flockmates from becoming too interested in what's going on there... and give her a peck or a dozen...That blue-kote, or purple larvicid spray works great for camouflage. As long as it's not red; chickens just can't seem to help themselves when it comes to picking on anything that's red. Sure hope your girl feels better soon, please keep me posted.

 

[Momma hen quack]

My chicken was being feather pecked plus she had worms that have been treated. She is growing back feathers under her apron on her back but her chest and vent area are still bare. So, maybe your chicken is being pecked by an alpha hen or maybe she has worms.

 

[Missy83617Girl]

Well it seems a nice bath is at least in order. I am still using some DE as an after mite precaution. The belly has some red or raw spots/areas, not so much in the vent area. I don't see the other girls picking on her but I am not there 24/7. She is quite a feisty little thing so the only bother she seems to have is my little Shi Tzu getting her riled.