Extreme feather loss, polish crested

[amkuska]

My polish crested rooster is a year and a half old now, and pretty much the best rooster in the whole world. The ladies love him, there's never a fight in the pen, and his crowing is blessedly limited.

Unfortuntely, Poof Head has the bald head that seems to frequent polish crested, and it seems to have progressed to all over his body. He is missing all his long tail feathers, some of his neck feathers, and bits of his wings now as well as his head.

We have dusted him for mites, painted his head with purple medication, and I have even pony-tailed his head as long as he had feathers on his head to pony. (He's pretty tolerant. :3)

I'm very concerned about him, and don't know what could be the cause. I've never seen another bird take a poke at him, and he never grew back even when we put him in isolation. He just gets steadily worse, regardless of what we do.

Any thoughts on what could be going on? Is this some sort of disease?

 

[Wyandottes7]

It looks like he is molting. When birds are around a year old, they experience their first molt, in which they drop most of their feathers (not all at once, though). Every year after, they molt once a year, usually in the fall. If you haven't seen any mites and the other chickens aren't pecking at him, its most likely molting. In a couple of months, he should be back to normal, maybe even prettier than ever!

 

[amkuska]

Thank you! I feel a bit silly now.

I read up on molting, but I guess I wasn't expecting a naked chicken!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Don't feel silly, we've all had those moments at some point or another! And it is rather shocking the first time you see a good hard molt and a near naked bird!