Feather Sheaths Still Attached

[Mebrou]

Hello! I have a smaller Easter egger who displayed symptoms of illness/injury a couple weeks ago (went to isolate herself, wings looked a bit droopy, toppled over a couple times, sleepy, etc.) so my first thought was my rooster may have injured her during mating. I separated her and gave her extra treats, protein, and nutri drench. She’s back to being steady however she still seems “off” and her wings still seem a bit droopy to me. No signs of mites/lice or wounds but I noticed she’s molting quite heavily. Most of our hens are in the process of a molt but she seems to be the only one with large feather sheaths still attached all over. Hard to tell in the picture but she’s got sheaths all over her tail feathers and wings. I’m not sure if this is normal or could be contributing to her behavior. The other hens seem to discard their sheaths fairly quickly. Will hens appear ill when they’re going through a hard molt? Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[coach723]

Sometimes, yes, molt can make them feel pretty awful. It can vary bird to bird and year to year. Sometimes they don't eat well during molt if they aren't feeling good, which can leave them weak. Try to separately give her some extra protein, I give mine a scrambled egg when they are not feeling well or not eating well, once a day if needed. A B complex tablet or capsule once a day can also be helpful. Human ones you can get at any pharmacy, walmart, etc, brand doesn't matter. Just put it in her beak and push it back, she'll swallow it. The b's can become deficient if they aren't eating well. See if that helps some. Make sure droppings are normal and that her crop is emptying over night, to make sure nothing else may be going on. Hopefully it's just a rough molt and with some help she'll make it through and perk up as it finishes.

 

[Mebrou]

Sometimes, yes, molt can make them feel pretty awful. It can vary bird to bird and year to year. Sometimes they don't eat well during molt if they aren't feeling good, which can leave them weak. Try to separately give her some extra protein, I give mine a scrambled egg when they are not feeling well or not eating well, once a day if needed. A B complex tablet or capsule once a day can also be helpful. Human ones you can get at any pharmacy, walmart, etc, brand doesn't matter. Just put it in her beak and push it back, she'll swallow it. The b's can become deficient if they aren't eating well. See if that helps some. Make sure droppings are normal and that her crop is emptying over night, to make sure nothing else may be going on. Hopefully it's just a rough molt and with some help she'll make it through and perk up as it finishes.

Thanks! I’ll try the B vitamins and check her droppings. Crop is good. I offer her cat food, eggs, dried soldier fly larvae, sunflower seeds, you name it, but she only takes a few bites here and there. Something also worth noting: I let her out with the flock today and she got into two fights with two different hens. She’s low-ish in the pecking order but I don’t recall that being typical. That led me to believe something may be up. She’s separated by a chain link fence so it’s not like she was “reintroduced” or anything. Anyhow, I’ll continue to monitor her; hopefully it’s just a rough molt. Thank you!

 

[coach723]

They can be testy and stand offish during molt. The new feathers can be uncomfortable and they may not want to be touched. They will sometimes stay away from everybody and just want to be left alone. Handle her gently, it's uncomfortable. They will often complain about it when you pick them up.
If she's ill the other birds can pick up on it and pick on her or attack her, so it does bear watching. Hopefully she's just cranky from a miserable molt. I have several in the middle of molt currently, they are less active, and tend to lay off away from everyone more. If I handle them they make their displeasure quite clear. My flock has had a pretty heavy molt this year, for whatever reason.

 

[Perris]

who displayed symptoms of illness/injury a couple weeks ago (went to isolate herself, wings looked a bit droopy,

toppled over a couple times

She’s back to being steady however she still seems “off” and her wings still seem a bit droopy to me

she’s molting quite heavily

the only one with large feather sheaths still attached all over. Hard to tell in the picture but she’s got sheaths all over her tail feathers and wings

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!

I saw all of these symptoms in my previous dominant rooster, Chirk. I posted about them on Shadrach's Ex-Batts and Rescues thread so you can compare there if you want to. After a lot of searching, the best explanation I could find for the cause of his illness and weird feathers is a circovirus. If you search on 'sheath retention' you may be able to find more.