Is this molting or is my chicken sick???

[Rhandi74]

My chicken, Big Momma, stopped laying in August and has been losing feathers. I thought maybe it was just that she was molting but she is really starting to worry me. She prefers to sleep away from the flock and just looks sick to me. She is supposedly 3 years old and I have had her since March of this year.

Here are some pics from yesterday

Here she is some from when I first got her

Any thoughts on wether this looks like a regular molt? If so how long does a molt last?

Or does she look sick?

 

[Kelsie2290]

It does look like she has pin feathers on her neck (you should be able to see them coming in better if you part the feathers and look underneath) , the back/shoulders looks like rooster damage (do you have a roo?). Molting can take quite a while on older birds, couple of months. Nice article on molting. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/217/moulting-a-natural-process

 

[Rhandi74]

It does look like she has pin feathers on her neck (you should be able to see them coming in better if you part the feathers and look underneath) , the back/shoulders looks like rooster damage (do you have a roo?). Molting can take quite a while on older birds, couple of months. Nice article on molting. http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/217/moulting-a-natural-process

Thank you, I do have a roosters but I do not see my LF roo breed her anymore. My bantam Roo is aweful about chasing her but he is a fraction of her size. Should I seperate her with a few more hens and see if she gets those feathers back?

 

[Rhandi74]

I wanted to post an update on my poor Big Momma. She started turning her neck funny and spinning circles the day after I posted this. I began treatment for wry neck because this was most like her symptoms. This morning her condition worsened she was moving her head back and forth and she was having a hard time standing and was no longer eating or drinking we decided not to make her suffer.

She was a good chicken in the short amount of time we had her and she gave us our first eggs. We will always remember Big Momma.