pale comb - worry?

[hennyjenn]

I have an 11 month old Australorp hen whose comb is fading. She lazes around a lot but comes running for treats. Her feathers look a little dull and her vent feathers are covered in white stuff while her poos are small and green. She has not laid in awhile - she has/had the largest egg in the flock. Thoughts?

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Couple things come to mind - molting or lice/mites.

Molting - she stops laying, combs fade/shrink and will start loosing feathers and replacing with new.


Lice because of the white stuff around her vent - often the white stuff if lice eggs - they like the lay eggs along the feather shaft, close to the body in clumps.

Here is an article with pictures for lice/mites. http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

 

[Birdgirl]

age? getting sun light? grass, food water?

 

[hennyjenn]

She is about 11 months old. I had her in isolation in the dark for about a week, and she showed some improvement, so I let her range in the afternoons and she had solid poos so I put her back in the coop. They have litter in the coop, get to run around in a fenced yard during the day (it is hard dirt), and free range when I am outside. No feather loss. While she was in isolation, I was giving her garlic and acv in her water, and yogurt.

 

[MotherJean]

Why was she in isolation?

ETA: And, why was she in the dark?

 

[hennyjenn]

I put her in isolation because I wasn't sure why she was sick and didn't want to expose the rest of the flock more than necessary. I also wanted to be able to monitor her food and water intake, and see what she was voiding. She was not eating much, but drinking well. Her poo changed from dark green to normal over the week. I also put her in the dark (well, she had a heat lamp in the room) because I hadn't ruled out the she was egg bound (even though I couldn't feel anything) or was an internal layer.

 

[hennyjenn]

HorseFeatherz, that's a great link. Shadow, my hen in question, had white on her vent feathers no doubt from diarrhea. It was all down the length of the feathers, and we'd seen her void several times. Eventually, her poo turned more green than white.