Chicken skin problem

[Korte38]

She's looking rough today. Not sure if its my imagination, but her skin where the yellow stuff peeled off seems redder. I have made a vet appt for her. Who needs a college fund, right?

 

[azygous]

If the skin appears red, it may be a sign of a staph infection on her skin. It's a good call to let a vet look at her. She may benefit from an antibiotic.

 

[Korte38]

 

[Korte38]

I mentioned her to my sister tonight (She's a physician), and staph infection was the first thing she said.

 

[azygous]

It happens here on BYC rarely, but staph can do as nasty a number on chicken skin as on people. It was maybe two months ago someone had a chick, maybe a month old, with hideous lesions on its legs.

A bunch of us tried to come up with a diagnosis, suggesting various treatments, when finally another old timer and I got the idea in tandem that we were dealing with one of those flesh eating staph infections.

We suggested an oral antibiotic and never got another update to the thread. No telling what the outcome was.

Staph bacteria can manifest in so many different ways, this could be what has plagued your little sweetie, too. A vet can take a tissue scraping and peek at it under a microscope, and you'll know for sure.

 

[Korte38]

They looked under a microscope, no mites and no yeast. Guessing bacteria.

We are going to treat with an antibiotic.

 

[azygous]

Thanks for the update! I wish the visit to the vet had provided more conclusive results. I take it they didn't bother with a scraping of the scales and a peek under the microscope.

Did they say what bacteria they suspected? It would have been good to know. But a broad spectrum antibiotic should take care of it.

 

[Korte38]

They did look under a microscope. They also did say they aren't chicken experts no guesses on type of bacteria but gave us a broad spectrum antibiotic. I also had fecal test done on droppings from my big girls and they found no parasites. It's weird because they have stopped laying in the last week. As in, they layed through the shortest days but now stopped. They are less than a year old. I can't find any hiding spots. I have found a few eggs in weird places (floor of coop, out in the run) that makes me wonder if I don't have a rat or some other egg theif. It's mystery upon mystery here in Chickenville.

 

[azygous]

Your results are only slightly better than what I would get from my vet. He's made it clear he doesn't know the first thing about chickens, but he would be happy to euthanize one for $5. That was a number of years ago, so the fee may have gone up.

I would not be too concerned about the laying issue. This time of year is confusing to avian hormones. The days are just coming off the shortest of the years and starting to get longer now. Some layers may be taking a short rest while they "reset" their hormones to be harmonious with the increasing daylight.

Please let us know if you see improvement in her skin after she's been on the antibiotic for several days. It should work pretty quickly.

 

[Korte38]

Yeah it warmed up here and then they stopped laying... I think they are confused lol.

I will update on Cersei as soon as I notice a difference. Poor think is constantly preening and shaking her feathers. I can tell she is itchy.