Molting chook or sick?

liddy13

In the Brooder
9 Years
Mar 30, 2010
10
0
22
Hello,
My name is Liddy and I am a new chook mother and member of this forum.
I inherited two girls-Rhode island reds, a year ago from a friend who moved to the city. The girls are about 2 and 1/2 years old.
I had been wanting to keep chooks for a while and was pleased to take care of my friends girls. I must say I have become very fond of them.
There are a few issues that have concerned me recently with one of my girls.
1. Ginger (the bigger bossy girl) has been laying eggs with red specks on them. I read somewhere that this could be a sign of a parasite red mite. So I sprayed the girls and their house with mite spray.
2. Ginger then went through a week of laying eggs with no shells. The pet shop man said give them more grit and put calcium in their drinking water. So I did this.
3. Ginger has been now off the lay for 2 weeks and has started to shed her feathers. I have read that chooks do molt. But Ginger looks positively scrapy. She has lost her tail feathers and has a big patch with no feathers at all on her back. And today I noticed she is losing a couple of her wing feathers. She also has become not as bossy as she usually is.
Is this normal or do I havae a sick girl on my hands?
Concerned Mother Liddy.
 
can you post a picture of her?

and just because the egg has spots may not mean a worm infestation. Some hens will lay eggs with speckled shells my RSL do or shells with an uneven colour pattern thats normal.

what did you use to spray for the mites?

how is her poop?

how is her eating?

how does her comb look? (pale, red, more floppy ect)
 
52738_p4010370.jpg


Hello,
Thankyou for your interest.
I am a bit of a computer dinosaur. My son had to help import the picture of my chook.
The spray that I used for the red mite I purchased from the pet shop. It was called "Lice and Mite Bird Spray" and its active ingredients was Permethrin and Methoprene.
Her poop looks a little more runny than usual with no as much dark in it.
She seems to be a little less robust in her eating patterns since she has started to loose her feathers..
But her face and her red wattle and comb look healthy and red. Her eyes are bright.
What do you think?
 
OMG
I was just about to post about two of my hens- I think they are in molt. There are feathers everywhere. One hen is half bald. Its not a good look. I hope the get more feathers as we go into autmn so they won't get a cold
 
liddy--it appears your hen is molting---nothing to worry about
So long as she continues to eat, drink & poop, shes fine. I would add extra protein to her diet right now.
 

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