Hen molting?? Pale comb. Weird egg.

[Cierrascoop]

My oldest and most chatty lady, Charlotte, is about three. She's a RIR.
She started looking a bit shabby a few weeks ago, I noticed her comb has gotten paler, some possible white on it as well. It's very hard to capture because she is a very active hen. But she hasn't layed since looking shabby, until today. I figured she was molting, but if so she still is.And her egg is a bit odd looking...she has new feather growth coming in by her comb and face. And her feathers look awful. She looks mich slimmer. She's normally a pretty big girl. An almost daily layer, my most reliable. So this is all very odd and concerning to me. Her poop looks normal.Her crop is emptying. She's eating and drinking, still very active. She just looks awful...compared to normal. I will try my best to get photos of her now VS normally. I just want to know if you guys think this is molting, or more. The last two are her on a normal basis. I believe they were taken in October. I can post more if you need.

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

She doesn't look too bad to me, but I'd look her over closely for signs of mites/lice and also check the roost bars at night for mites since many types of mites don't live on the birds.

She might just look slimmer due the molting/feather issue. The best way to tell if she is actually losing weight is to start weighing her. You can also give her breastbone a feel for how bony and prominent it seems, and compare with your other girls for a rough baseline if needed. You can give her some extra high protein treats to help with feather regrowth if she is molting.

Looks like she had a little trouble laying an extra large egg and got some blood on it. I wouldn't worry about it too much yet, but she is getting to the age where she'll start slowing down laying and the incidence of hens developing reproductive disorders increases.

 

[LaFleche]

Chickens will often lose up to 1/3 of their normal body weight during molt, their entire metabolism will slow down noticeably, even their organs will shrink during this exhausting time.

Vitamin additives and higher protein feed will help them through it.

Older modern hybrid layer strains tend to lay oversize and often deformed eggs with rather bad shells, which is one of several reasons why in the eggs industry they are substituted by young pullets every 1,5 - 2 years.

 

[Cierrascoop]

Thank you guys for your replies! Both were super informative. I guess it is hard to capture in photos but she normally really has a very dark red comb. Its much paler then normal. With the white around her comb, from I'm thinking new feather growth, she just looks so sickly to me. I am thinking of giving them all a permetherin treatment just for precaution. I've been waiting for a nice day so I can just do the coop too. But I haven't seen any mites or anything odd during our weekly checks. Aside from her straggly feathers, comb and her weight. My other hen is nearing the end of a molt as well but she hasn't looked near as bad. I'm hoping it's all it is. I can increase protein to help. Hopefully it gives her a boost to help push through this and she comes out looking like a new woman, lol.