Does It look like BlueComb

[ClareScifi]

Does this look like bluecomb to you?

 

[ClareScifi]

Here is another view. The left side doesn't look as bad as the right side.

 

[ClareScifi]

Here is a view of the right side of her comb:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84553_darkcomb2.jpg

 

[ClareScifi]

Note the bit of black on the comb right above the beak:

 

[ClareScifi]

Here is a close-up:

 

[chickenlady08]

I have a rooster named JJ and he is a RIR/Red Star mix and Leghorn named Jill that on occassion gets a purplish color comb. It never lasts long and I think that where it is so humid where I live I feel that it is the humidity that causes it. They never act in distress at all or have any difficulty breathing.

your comb looks different than what I have seen. Does the hen act sick at all? Problems breathing?

 

[ClareScifi]

She acts good, I would say. Good appetite, runs, jumps up onto table. I do hear her sneeze some and once in a while I see gaping. Lots of preening, though. And whitish stuff near rear end, but I think it's from eating greens. She gets that off and on, as does her sister. I picked it off yesterday and saw no signs of lice eggs.

They do pick white specks off each other's feathers and eat them, but someone suggested they are probably grooming feather shafts off each other.

She doesn't seem to like the heat, which makes me wonder whether it's a heart problem? She eats lots of watermelon when it is hot.

She has pecked out several breast feathers. I thought she was broody, but now I wonder whether it could be a fever. She was very broody a month ago and hid under the house 5 days. Since then, she's been confined in a new coop and run and doesn't free-range anymore, so she doesn't get as much exercise. Someone suggested it might be a comb fungus from when she was under the house but strange it would show up only now? I've read that more broody chickens die of roost mites than anything else, so I wonder whether she could have mites? However, her vent looks good and I see no signs of mites and I swiped their coop and got no blood stains from mites.

A fecal smear earlier showed no sign of worms/parasites (on April 1, before she went broody under the house in early June), but I wonder whether the vet might not have used the right procedure?

Her sister's comb has a few grayish/black spots but not like this hen's, and it also seems to have gone a bit floppy (the sister hen's comb, that is) and her feathers are a bit disheveled, which makes me wonder about pests?

Back in the early spring, their combs would get bright red splotches in them, which makes me wonder whether they both might have circulatory problems in their combs.

Here is a close up of the left side:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/84553_comb6.jpg

 

[Blue]

I've never heard of BlueComb. I have some chickens that have some darker spots on their combs, but I've never worried about it since they act healthy. If she is acting healthy, I'd say it may be a circulation issue related to the heat like you suspect.

 

[ClareScifi]

I am so afraid the circulation problem will cause her to drop dead of a heart attack. She got a bit stressed when we were taking these pictures and I thought she'd might keel over dead, but she didn't. Here is a picture showing how fat she was back in the early spring. Do you think she looks too fat? I took them off scratch right around the time this photo was taken.

 

[chickenlady08]

I read up on the circulatory issues when I first noticed that my JJ had a purplish color to the tip of his comb. He acts fine and until you just said the gaping I haven't thought much of it, but he will on occassion gaping but eats and drinks and runs and he is the alpha roo. I wonder if it cause it is hot outside. Not sure if you are in a humid area as I am but people with asthma have issues in this horrid heat so maybe chickens can also.

I am sorry that I am not much help to you. I would maybe worm the whole flock for mites/lice with Ivermectin pour on and you can drop several drops onto their skin.