Favus, Mites? Brooding hen has crusty face

[dgirlschickens]

Our silkie hen has been sitting on eggs for awhile and we finally had one successful hatch yesterday. She has been isolated from the flock for about a month, once she started to go broody but about a two weeks ago I noticed her face getting crusty. She has also lost feathers (though she was a rescue and came to us in pretty bad shape) but the feather loss is definitely more noticeable now. I assumed it was because she was sitting on eggs, wasn't getting out/eating as much, not getting her dust bath, etc... but I'm thinking now it's something else.

Any idea what this could be and how to treat it? We need to be careful as she now has a day old chick.

 

[Eggcessive]

Have you checked for moving lice on her skin around her head, under wings, and vent? Lice eggs are white to grey. If not lice or mites, then it could well be favus, a fungus on the comb, wattles and ears. It can spread to feathered areas. Treatment is application of miconazole or clotrimazole cream daily. Monistat and Lotrimin are some brand names, but the generics are less expensive.

 

[dgirlschickens]

Have you checked for moving lice on her skin around her head, under wings, and vent? Lice eggs are white to grey. If not lice or mites, then it could well be favus, a fungus on the comb, wattles and ears. It can spread to feathered areas. Treatment is application of miconazole or clotrimazole cream daily. Monistat and Lotrimin are some brand names, but the generics are less expensive.

Thank you! Checking now for mites- we did have one other chicken that had them but we have been treating her. Will check again on this silkie. For the cream, do I just apply it directly on the affected areas? Thanks in advance for all of your help!

 

[Kiki]

Thank you! Checking now for mites- we did have one other chicken that had them but we have been treating her. Will check again on this silkie. For the cream, do I just apply it directly on the affected areas? Thanks in advance for all of your help!

If you have one bird that you've seen either lice or mites on you can pretty much guarantee that all of your birds need to be treated.

Did you treat all of your birds and the coop multiple times when you saw mites?

 

[dgirlschickens]

If you have one bird that you've seen either lice or mites on you can pretty much guarantee that all of your birds need to be treated.

Did you treat all of your birds and the coop multiple times when you saw mites?

Yes! We did treat all of them and cleaned everything out. Doing another deep clean today in case but I haven't seen anything on them in a while. Thanks for this info too!