Egg production drop, Diarrhea, and Bare spots

[782422]

Hi,
My 1 year old Welsummer hen, stopped laying eggs around 13 days ago. For the last week, she has had very watery poop, sometimes with a white haze. She has a spot on her back that has been ruffled for the last few months, but only around 2 weeks ago, it has started to go bare. It is approximately 1.5 inches wide and 3 inches tall. It has needles coming back in but the skin still looks very irritated. She has also been losing feathers near her vent. She has been losing around 50 to 100 feathers per day for the last week. We do not have a rooster, so it is not due to mounting. I do not believe that it has to do with molting because they are on a lighting schedule.

What is wrong with her? How should I proceed?

Thank you,
Alex

 

[iwiw60]

Sounds to me from your description that she is molting. Lighting schedule or not, chickens can and do molt...it's their way of producing new feathers to replace the old ones. Here's a page that will give you much more detailed information:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/12/molting-what-is-it-and-how-to-manage-it.html

 

[782422]

I looked into molting but dismissed it when I read that it starts on the back and works its way down the rest of the body. I thought that it could be mites or lice so I bought some permethryn 10% solution. I sprayed her down yesterday, and sprayed the coop as well with the diluted solution. I thought that it could be mites because of how her back looks irritated. But, I do not know if mites or lice can make the poop runny.

Any other ideas?
Perhaps mites or lice?

 

[cafarmgirl]

This is the time of year chickens start molting. I've never noticed a particular pattern, they just start dropping a whole lot of feathers and you'll see the new pin feathers coming in. I have a lot of raggedy, patchy birds in my coop right now and feathers everywhere. Some people say year old birds don't molt but most of my fall hatched chicks always molt the next fall when they are a year old.

Worms can cause watery stool, has she ever been dewormed?

 

[782422]

I have 4 chickens and I do not believe that they have run into any worm problems so far, so I have not wormed them before. What should I look for as far as diagnosing her for worms? How would I treat them if this is the case?