Mites????

[gensan70]

At first I thought this was just a bad most but now thinking she hs something else, maybe Mites? She is the only one in the flock of 7 that looks like this. I have wipe down the entire coop, use diatamecious earth in the coop and on her but each day she looks worse. She is active, and eating. I'm not sure of she is laying, 'll my girls are brown egg layers. Please educate me and let me know of I should be worrying and what I can do to help her.

 

[rebrascora]

@gensan70

It would have been less confusing if you had started a post of your own but that looks like moulting to me and assuming you are in the northern hemisphere, it is the time of year for moulting. How old is she? If this is her second winter approaching or more, then it is just a hard moult. Some chickens moult and you hardly notice, others drop nearly half their feathers overnight and look like someone plucked them. Those spikes are pin feathers that will unfurl into beautiful new feathers in a week or so. Make sure she gets plenty of good quality feed and include some high protein treats like a bit of meat of fish or scrambled eggs, a sachet of cat food, some raw or cooked liver etc
She should be looking radiant again in a month's time.

 

[Eggcessive]

That also looks like normal molting to me. It first occurs around the age of 16-18 months, and yearly thereafter. They tend to get pale combs and stop laying eggs during a molt.

 

[gensan70]

Thanks so much. This is her 2nd winter and I am in Colorado so all the right points. I was hoping that was the case and will sleep much better tonight.

 

[rebrascora]

Good to know that we have given you a little peace of mind.

Heavy moults can be scary if you haven't seen one before. There is usually an annual thread where people post their worst chicken moult pictures and we all have a laugh at them..... seems a bit cruel I know but helps to set your mind at rest when you think you have a bad one and then see some of those poor girls. I'm not sure how I would go about finding the thread for you to see them.... the search facility didn't throw it up last time I looked for it..... or rather it probably did but there were thousands of other posts that I didn't have time to trawl through to find it! Maybe someone else has it bookmarked and will post a link.