MomOfBantams
In the Brooder
Hello... I'm looking for help/advice for our poor Frizzle hen, named Zoey. She is just over 1 year old. Recently we noticed that the rest of the flock (who are a year older than her and definitely the alphas in the flock) have been picking on her. Chasing her, pecking at her, stealing treats from her, disrupting her when she's trying to lay eggs, just generally making her life miserable. We try to separate them for a while when we see it happening, but we don't have a separate coop so she is still sleeping with them at night. Another factor is that 1 of our hens (actually Zoey's sister...they hatched together last summer) recently hatched 4 of her own chicks, so she is being a super protective mama. She will literally attack Zoey for no reason. Zoey avoids the new chicks at all costs, but the mama will go out of her way to attack her. Thankfully mama and chicks do have their own little coop that they stay in at night, but during the day we have to really watch them.
So that's the background. The other issue is that we started noticing Zoey was losing feathers. We thought maybe she was starting to molt, but this seemed much different than other times we've seen our girls molt. When others molted, their new feathers came in very quickly. Zoey's don't seem to be growing back. She was mainly losing feathers on her wings and her head. We thought maybe the others were pecking at her, but we never see blood. She has bald patches on each wing and her poor little head is so sparse. The feathers that remain are starting to look weird and ragged. The skin where she is bald is starting to look scaly.
We don't notice any bugs on her upon inspection. But all my google searches have me thinking we could have a mite/lice situation on our hands?? However, the other hens that sleep in the same coop are not having any issues like this. We did a thorough clean out of the coop and dusted with mite/lice powder just to see if this could help. This was just yesterday, so it's too soon to tell. I'm looking for any advice or thoughts on this matter. Does this sound like mites/lice or could it be something else? I'm on the verge of taking her to a vet, but she is the most timid girl (for obvious reasons!) and she is really hard to catch and is very skittish. Any advice is appreciated! I'm attaching a few photos of our poor girl. The last photo is from last year when she was in her full, frizzle glory!
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So that's the background. The other issue is that we started noticing Zoey was losing feathers. We thought maybe she was starting to molt, but this seemed much different than other times we've seen our girls molt. When others molted, their new feathers came in very quickly. Zoey's don't seem to be growing back. She was mainly losing feathers on her wings and her head. We thought maybe the others were pecking at her, but we never see blood. She has bald patches on each wing and her poor little head is so sparse. The feathers that remain are starting to look weird and ragged. The skin where she is bald is starting to look scaly.
We don't notice any bugs on her upon inspection. But all my google searches have me thinking we could have a mite/lice situation on our hands?? However, the other hens that sleep in the same coop are not having any issues like this. We did a thorough clean out of the coop and dusted with mite/lice powder just to see if this could help. This was just yesterday, so it's too soon to tell. I'm looking for any advice or thoughts on this matter. Does this sound like mites/lice or could it be something else? I'm on the verge of taking her to a vet, but she is the most timid girl (for obvious reasons!) and she is really hard to catch and is very skittish. Any advice is appreciated! I'm attaching a few photos of our poor girl. The last photo is from last year when she was in her full, frizzle glory!