Losing feathers near comb!

[chunandsnuggles]

The feathers used to all the way up to the comb but recently they've been receeding back! It started around last month when she had a fungal infection on her comb. I treated it but the feathers seem like they're still being lost!

 

[coach723]

Do you have a rooster? That is a common place for feather loss due to the rooster hanging on with his beak when he mounts. Is the gunk in the feathers dried food, or dirt? Often, with any feather loss, they don't grow back until the bird molts. The feathers look dirty and matted, is this bird sleeping under the roosts and getting pooped on?

 

[chunandsnuggles]

Do you have a rooster? That is a common place for feather loss due to the rooster hanging on with his beak when he mounts. Is the gunk in the feathers dried food, or dirt? Often, with any feather loss, they don't grow back until the bird molts. The feathers look dirty and matted, is this bird sleeping under the roosts and getting pooped on?

There's no rooster, just one other hen who doesn't peck her much. But one time, the other did peck her really hard and her face was bleeding, so I put some vaseline on her feathers there so the other wouldn't like the taste. But I ended up separating them for a bit anyways and didn't see if using vaseline actually worked, it just ended up trapping all this dirt that I can't wash out.

 

[coach723]

Ah, vaseline explains the dirty feathers. I wouldn't worry about it too much. I have several that look like this due to roosters. As long as everything else seems ok I would just see what happens when she molts. May fill in then. If it doesn't, it really doesn't pose a problem. I would make sure that there is no pecking going on at roosting time, but I don't see anything that looks irritated or wounded from pecking in that area. A few spots farther on the tips of the comb, could be pecking or just got abraded somewhere. Dust bathing should eventually let the feathers get clean, but it may take awhile.