Hi, I have a chicken who lost some feather's & I'm not sure why..

[silverwolf]

Hi everyone,


I'm new at raising chicken's and I have 10 of them, all different breeds. One of them is not doing so good in its feather department. We have figured this one for a Roo and runty or very small. He is an americania bantam my big problem is the huge amount of feather loss. 1/3 to 1/2 of his neck feather's and the whole lower half of his body are missing feather's. We can handle him pretty well but, he is the only one out of all 10 like this. He acts normal but, seems to be mean towards all the others but one hen that he seems to favor. I do have a nice speckled sussex we are pretty sure is a roo and they have seemed to have fixed any dominant issue's but, with winter coming on I fear I will lose this roo.. Not sure why he's this way but, do know this much. I have had him since a couple weeks old and he seemed to have the most trouble molting(sorry if spelled wrong). When he lost feather's they just came in slowly, but fully feather, so we accepted that but, then we started noticing lots of feathers in the crate and only him missing them. So, we took out all the really big one's since he was way small and left another one not fully ready to be with the big ones as well. Well the missing feathers stopped but, none have grown back in to fill all the bald area's. Is there something else going on that I should be aware of.. Not one of the others is this way, they are all fully feathered and doing just fine.

Thank you for any and all help,

 

[soler]

how old are these birds?

it might be molting, it could be getting pickled on from other birds (you would witness this if you spend some time observing them), it could have some skin parasites. Have you inspected the base of the feathers and skin closely?
see some photos in these link:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search/label/mites
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/issues/2/2-5/Laura_E_John.html

Offer him some high protein food to help him regrow the feathers, like a few tbsps of good quality canned cat food, and also plain yogurt.

 

[Jazzchick]

Did not want to start a new thread on a topic in the works already but I have a similar issue. 50 percent blk english orp chick I hatched from an ebay egg, dwarfed compared to the others from other breeders hatched the same time.. and she had just the fuzzies for a long time when they had all their feathers in. now her fuzzies are gone and she has feathers on the tips of her wings, around her neck and at the joint of her legs and no where else completely goose bumped naked. feeding a fortified medicated feed all the other chicks thrived on. was the only survivor of three hatched from those eggs.

everyone else very healthy, she is isolated with 3- 4 month old silkie's that love her tiny lil butt and rush to make her a lil silkie sandwhich when she is cold and chirping they love her up and keep her warm. They are twice her size and the same age and very healthy.

 

[Jazzchick]

I just posted on that thread and read your articles u posted, I do not see any mites on her naked skin but I do have seven dust. Seven dust for the garden will not poison her? is it safe to put on her bare skin?

 

[soler]

I just posted on that thread and read your articles u posted, I do not see any mites on her naked skin but I do have seven dust. Seven dust for the garden will not poison her? is it safe to put on her bare skin?

But does it look like she has parasites? If no, i would say don't dust her yet. The other possible cause could be fowl pox, but you would see blisters on her skin. Are there any feather tips coming in or nothing at all? How long has she been bare now?

Was she part of a batch of eggs, or was she a single egg?

Feathers need a lot of protein to grow, so the first thing i would try to do is boost the protein intake for this bird - i would go straight to the canned cat food. Maybe this particular bird just needs more, i don't know!

It would be very helpful if you could post some photos.

 

[soler]

last - how old is she?

if over 12 weeks, it might be worth considering worming, though i am not sure where she would have picked them up if she is indoor in a brooder.

 

[Jazzchick]

she is 4 months old now, she was in a batch of eggs several were fertile and never hatched - 3 hatched but two died while in incubator underdeveloped.
I am not sure if I can tell if she has bugs as she has been bald for a few weeks since she lost her fuzzie hair and she gets to run around outside in the sun in california for a bit during the day so her skin is real dry and flaky. I do not know if that is a symptom of the weather and her condition or due to insects. I did see one small insect on her bare skin. it was tiny and orange and not round it was like a itsy bitsy orange catapillar... so I went ahead and dusted her and the 3 silkies she is with just in case as I read when I googled it, it was safe to do so. she has goosebumps where her quills should be and u can see black head under some of them like they may come in. Her skin is very dry and flaky no redness, she is real active and social and fearless.

 

[Jazzchick]

Worming would not hurt, what insectide should young babies be wormed with.
And thank you for responding. I have some high protien dry cat food, could I crush that up and give it to her or should it be canned for digestion sake?

 

[Jazzchick]

She does not have big congregations of insects on her though like I saw in some internet pix, she is practically completely bald so her skin is easy to look at. unless the flaky skin has insects that are white that I can not see... she is dandruffy.

 

[soler]

Worming would not hurt, what insectide should young babies be wormed with.
And thank you for responding. I have some high protien dry cat food, could I crush that up and give it to her or should it be canned for digestion sake?

mix it up with some water or milk, they like it more like that, when it's a soft mash.

mmmmmmmm maybe you just have a bald chicken!!

worming - you could use something like safeguard or valbazen, and repeat after 10 days. you can find them online in places like these:
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/wormers/camid/LIV/cc/3100/c2c/ln/
if you don't have a local livestock store.

I use eprinex pour on, which also kills skin parasites.