Is this a disease, mites or rough mating behavior? Pics included

flygirl1973

Chirping
Feb 1, 2019
104
113
96
Waynesboro, TN
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I just noticed these today on her... she’s a 6 month old black Australorp. There seem to be feathers missing by her ear on one side of her face and spots on her comb. They are difficult to see in her photos. Her behavior is normal seemingly...they free range everyday. She’s out pecking with them. The rooster is young as well, a flockmate. My neighbor said it may be just rough foreplay but he’s not sure about the spots either. There are some dark ones on the back and top of her comb and a bulge in the front. Anyone able to tell me anything useful! Am I being paranoid or is it contagious or treatable if it is something?
 
It's hard to tell what's going on. Can you gather her up, hold her and have someone take more photos?

From what I can see, the couple of small places on the comb is likely scabs from pecking.

The bald spot is a bit more puzzling...it looks spotted as well or is it scabs too?

A cockerel normally grabs the back of the neck, not the side of the face, she may have a flock mate picking at her head during roosting.
I would take a good look for lice/mites and also inside the ear, she may have something irritating her and she's scratching herself.
 
Thank you , I was thinking mites or something but then I thought they all would have it. An ear thing is interesting...now I almost hope it’s bugs. Those I can treat. May have to lock up ole Roo to get a good look at everyone.
 
I picked them all up (included curious George the Roo) and inspected them all for mites, lice, ticks and found not one bug. Fairly amazing to me, good groomers I suppose. Her ear doesn’t appear to me affected...is it just a case of another pullet picking out her feathers there during the roosting? The black stuff on the comb is also on our other Roo, I forgot and didn’t even check George’s head as it was mostly covered. He was first so I could lock him up. I may have to post these on the Australorp page to see if they know anything or notice anything weird. I’m certainly a newbie.
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The black stuff on the comb is also on our other Roo, I forgot and didn’t even check George’s head as it was mostly covered. He was first so I could lock him up. I may have to post these on the Australorp page to see if they know anything or notice anything weird.
Looks like she's being plucked a bit. I think I would use some pine tar on that. The yellowing of the skin is interesting though. Australorps have white skin, but it could be due to the sun or thickening of the skin where she's been plucked. I have an Australorp.


The comb...the one lesion looks like it could be the start of Fowl Pox, put a drop of Iodine on that, try not to disturb it too much, hopefully it will dry up in a few weeks. The tips look like dirt or could be a bit of picking.

You have to lock her cockerel up? Is he aggressive? If he has any of those lesions like she does, then it's likely Fowl Pox too - it's a virus spread by insects, mainly mosquitoes and will resolve on it's own in a few weeks.

https://the-chicken-chick.com/fowl-pox-prevention-treatmen/
 
I’ll be looking that up again, thanks for the link. She actually is our only yellow footed BA. The rest have flesh colored feet. Think that has anything to do with her skin color? I got them all from Hoover Hatchery. She “shouldn’t” be a mix.
 
I’ll be looking that up again, thanks for the link. She actually is our only yellow footed BA. The rest have flesh colored feet. Think that has anything to do with her skin color? I got them all from Hoover Hatchery. She “shouldn’t” be a mix.
Could be the cause of her skin color, if she has yellow on the bottom of the feet she might be a JG instead :confused:
 
Ok, good thing is I’ve been watching her now and she does appear to be scratching it. Since I inspected and found nothing do you guys think it could be mites? I didn’t see anything crawling on her but if its the roost mite, potentially I wont see it anyway. It could still be an ear infection but after watching her the bald spots are also on the back of her head, but only visible when she preens. Her comb today is less red, but it’s already hot out and humid. Another hen’s comb and lobes are also a lighter color with no apparent bald spots. Her poop appears to be runny, and I don’t want to mess with her if I don’t have to, she’s been the shyest since she was teeny tiny and the runt. But I wonder if I should just grab them, spray them all down anyway and clean and spray the coop with Permethrin. I clean that once a week anyway, there are only 5 big and 3 little in it. And it was just cleaned Thursday. If I do that then I’ll take pics of the colored feet.
 

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