Is this supossed to happen? The comb on some of my hens is shrinking.

[sherry57]

Oh, and she doesn't look like she's moulting; she's still one of the bigger and puffier hens.

I'm gonna be so sad if she's sick!! She's the big bold independent one that's nosy about
everything and always comes up to me. All the other ones stick together.

 

[blondiebee181]

Glad I read this, my SLW is about 5-ish years and when I brought her home in the spring her comb was full and red and flopping in her eyes. She even layed me a couple eggs. But 2 was it and then she started dropping feathers and her comb shrank, so I guess it's the moult. Do you think she'll lay again? She is older....

 

[J-Sanders]

Hmmm... I just went out to look at my girls. All the other combs are nice and red. I noticed that the one with the shriveled comb has sunken eyes and her coat is darker than the others, kinda a black-red, with very black tail feathers. Her bum also has some poop on it, something I haven't seen since they were chicks. Do you guys think she's sick? Should I separate her from the others just in case?

I would quarantine her and see if she continues to worsen. If you have the time you could put her on a pro biotic diet and increase her intake of electrolytes. She may be experiencing sour crop and would benefit from a diet of fermented food. It also says in the article that it may have a foundation in wheat feed.

Read this article (Blue comb) and see if you can implement some or all of the recommendations. Seems that most will recover slowly but there is a 50 percent chance or better of death.