Combs: How pale is too pale?

[momma chickie]

First pic is close-up of pimple like nodules...I thought they had puss in the but when sqeezed the were hard and came off like a scab...thinking dry pox?
Other is full body pic with just a few remaining tail feathers...she has a lot of new feathers coming in and doeznt look moulty to me.
Thoughts?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

First pic is close-up of pimple like nodules...I thought they had puss in the but when sqeezed the were hard and came off like a scab...thinking dry pox?
Other is full body pic with just a few remaining tail feathers...she has a lot of new feathers coming in and doeznt look moulty to me.
Thoughts?

The nodules look like the way a comb is, possibly a little dry, since her comb flops over, I think you are just seeing the way it's made. The larger indention, could have been from a peck or other injury since you got a scab out. Sometimes dirt/debris can get into the nooks and crannies of a comb and possibly become pus like or infected. Dry Fowl Pox is usually brown (ish) scabs and there is more than one.

You can apply a little triple antibiotic ointment if you really feel like it needs something on it. Just watch it, if more scabs or "pus" appears then re-evaluate.

Chickens look very different from one another when molting. If she has lost her tail feather and you see new ones coming in, it is most likely molt. I've found that what I call "loosely feathered" birds like Orpingtons tend to be very obvious in their molting, they look very ragged, etc., birds with "tight feathering" like yours do molt and lose feathers, but sometimes it is more subtle. This is what I have seen in my flock. My Barred Rocks are tightly feather and molted, but it was hard to tell, where as the Orpingtons look like a hot mess. Just my thoughts.

Here's some info on Fowl Pox that has good photos of what it looks like:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/07/fowl-pox-prevention-treatment.html

 

[momma chickie]

I had seen some pictures of dry pox that had the yellowish look she had on the 2...we do have issues with mosquitoes so I considered it a possibility...her comb used to be bigger and brighter...the moringa oil I have put on makes it look better...she only had those 2 and I am watchi g the others....so far so good...thanks for your insight

 

[duluthralphie]

I have four hens total: one Cream Legbar and one Australorp, aged 15 months, and two 5 month-old EEs. The Australorp and EEs have beautiful red combs, but my Cream Legbar has always had somewhat of a lighter comb. At times it looks perfectly fine, but recently it has been looking slightly pale.



This is a picture of her this past July, and I thought she was looking slightly pale. And yet...


... this is her in early October, looking perfectly fine (with considerable comb growth, too!).

I know that this is the time of year where combs tend to pale slightly, but I suppose I'm worried just because her comb seems to keep going back and forth in its coloring. She hasn't laid in about 2 weeks, but health-wise she seems to be completely fine... except for the comb discoloration, but that may be normal.

Here is what she looks like now, somehow with a smaller comb once again:



And here's a comparison with my Australorp:



What are the possible reasons for such fluctuations in comb size and color? Should we be worried about what the current state of her comb may say about her health? Again, she's eating and behaving completely normally. This is probably my paranoia kicking in, but I'd love a second opinion.

I have a really dumb question. Do you have a rooster?

I have LOTS of legbars in all 3 colors, The red comb is not normal (second picture). It looks like a roosters comb. I was wondering if she was becoming the head hen that can take on rooster traits. Maybe another hen passed her on the pecking order or a rooster joined the flock.

I have never seen a dark red comb on the legbars except right at POL. Even when I polish the combs for shows they are pale like your bottom 2 pictures.


My first thought when I saw the second picture was "she got a dose of testosterone somehow..



Laying always goes down this time of year.

 

[barba]

We used to have three roosters (yikes) but rehomed them back in May. Actually, I was pretty surprised by that very deep red comb as well! I never saw it firsthand, and that picture is a screenshot from a video my brother sent to me while I was away at school - I made the same testosterone remark to my parents ("What have you been feeding her?!"). By the time I returned, it was back to its original pale color, and she stopped laying shortly after.

The Legbar has never acted like a rooster, at least not around me. In regards to the pecking order, actually, there have been some recent developments; the Australorp hen shown in the last picture has been rather aggressively mounting one of our young EE hens. As far as rooster-ish behavior, ironically, the most rooster-ish of the bunch is the one sustaining the mounting damage.