Bare spot on chest

[Nek]

I’m hoping someone can help me. I’m new to chickens and I recently got what I believe are Rhode Island reds. One of the girls has a bald spot on her chest and also her tail feathers look wet. I’m wondering if she’s molting or if it’s something else. I’ve attached two pics for reference. Same chicken in both pics.

 

[Nek]

I should’ve noted that she seems to be eating fine and moving around not lethargic. Also since I’ve got them I’ve only been getting three eggs a day, so I’m guessing that she’s the one not laying. But as I said, I am new to chickens, and I haven’t a clue.

 

[coach723]

Looks more like a red sex link than a rhode island red, they go by many names, cinnamon queen, golden comets, ISA brown, red star, golden buff, etc. depending on where they come from. Rhode island reds are more mahogany colored.
She also looks like she has feather damage on top of her head behind the comb also, that could be rooster damage. If she was in crowded conditions then she may have been feather picked where she was. If you haven't done so already, I would give her a good going over to make sure there are no lice/mites (link below).
The wet, dirty rear is most likely from runny droppings, that could be from dietary changes, drinking lots of water, or possibly internal parasites. If you have a vet that will do a fecal for you, that will look for that. If not, since she's a new bird, I would consider worming her to be safe. You can use Safeguard Liquid Goat wormer (that is usually the easiest to find) and give her .23 ml per pound of body weight orally once a day for 5 days in a row. You can get a weight with an inexpensive digital kitchen scale. Shake the medication well before drawing your dose, it settles out. Hold her or wrap her in a towel, pull down on her wattles and put the medication in the front of her beak 1/2 ml at a time and let her swallow (reduces risk of aspiration) and repeat until the entire dose is given.
The feathers may not fill in until she molts.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

 

[Nek]

Thank you very much!

 

[Nek]

Hey Coach. Well, now I know what vent is. And she’s covered with what looks like Mike and Lice both. What do you recommend for treatment? Depending on who you ask, there’s all kinds of answers, but since you sent me down the right path, I’d like to ask you what you use. Thanks again.

 

[coach723]

The most common products, and most reasonable priced are products containing permethrin. There are a lot of brands, I will picture a couple below. Some come ready to spray, some are concentrated and you dilute with water before spraying, instructions for poultry and housing should be on the label. You can also use Elector PSP (spinosad), but it's much more expensive. You have to treat the bird (if she's with your existing flock you will likely need to treat them all or you could end up going in circles as it keeps reappearing) and the coop also. Clean out all bedding and nesting material and discard it. Spray the coop getting into all nooks and crannies, replace bedding and nesting material. You can use the spray on the birds also (usually a different dilution if you are using a concentrate) or you can use a poultry powder/dust. You can put the powder in a sock and pounce it on them, or you can use a condiment squirt bottle to get it on them, particular attention around the vent and under the wings, get it down to the base of the feather shafts. For clumps of lice nits at the base of the feathers, you can remove those manually to help get rid of them. There are good instructions and a video in the link I gave you above. You will need to treat birds and coop at least 3 times at weekly intervals, the chemicals kill the bugs but not the eggs, so you have to do repeat treatments to get any that continue to hatch, until you've gotten them all.

 

[Nek]

Very generous reply. Thank you very much. I’ll post an update in a couple of weeks.

 

[MegTheHenEggQueen]

I’m hoping someone can help me. I’m new to chickens and I recently got what I believe are Rhode Island reds. One of the girls has a bald spot on her chest and also her tail feathers look wet. I’m wondering if she’s molting or if it’s something else. I’ve attached two pics for reference. Same chicken in both pics. View attachment 3506288View attachment 3506287

Not a RIR