Road rock with a skin condition

[Iow chickens]

Can anybody help? I have a chicken which has virtually no feathers on one of her legs and the skin is very red in areas with only tiny shoots of feathers in occasional places. on her back her feathers are soft like baby feathers (not the ones that would normally be covering her) and she also was missing feathers Around her head. She has occasional sore small patches amongst her feathers on her wings. She is eating well, laying eggs walking normally doesn’t seem to be being attacked by any of the others. I increase the protein in her diet as thought she was just molting at first but it is not improving. The bedding in boxes are kept pretty clean and there are no mites to be seen.( I use diotom earth ) All the other chickens are fine and healthy, so whatever it is is not spreading… any ideas? PS I did try some antifungal cream on her leg but it just seemed to make it even more inflamed.

 

[DLA]

Can anybody help? I have a chicken which has virtually no feathers on one of her legs and the skin is very red in areas with only tiny shoots of feathers in occasional places. on her back her feathers are soft like baby feathers (not the ones that would normally be covering her) and she also was missing feathers Around her head. She has occasional sore small patches amongst her feathers on her wings. She is eating well, laying eggs walking normally doesn’t seem to be being attacked by any of the others. I increase the protein in her diet as thought she was just molting at first but it is not improving. The bedding in boxes are kept pretty clean and there are no mites to be seen.( I use diotom earth ) All the other chickens are fine and healthy, so whatever it is is not spreading… any ideas? PS I did try some antifungal cream on her leg but it just seemed to make it even more inflamed.

Can you include a close up picture of the affected areas? If you have ruled out mites or lice then it sounds like pecking/feather plucking either from herself or other flock members or both.

 

[Iow chickens]

Can you include a close up picture of the affected areas? If you have ruled out mites or lice then it sounds like pecking/feather plucking either from herself or other flock members or both.

 

[Iow chickens]

Thank you for taking a look

 

[DLA]

I can't see any mites or lice in the picture. If you've checked under the wings and around the vent and aren't seeing any pests and no one else is being affected then this really seems like feather pecking. Looks like there are certainly feathers that have been damaged. The red skin is probably drawing them to continue pecking. I would Blue Kote those areas and keep a close eye on the flock, see if it's one chicken in particular that's doing it. Sometimes they start that because they're not getting enough protein but then even when protein is increased it has become a habit. Or it could just be a bully that started it and the others followed along. If the blue kote doesn't stop it and you can't find the offenders then you could try separation, see but no touch, to try and break the habit. Those feathers won't grow back until molt so you may have to reapply the blue kote to those bare patches. And if you do use the blue kote wear gloves unless you want purple hands for days - LOL.

 

[Iow chickens]

I can't see any mites or lice in the picture. If you've checked under the wings and around the vent and aren't seeing any pests and no one else is being affected then this really seems like feather pecking. Looks like there are certainly feathers that have been damaged. The red skin is probably drawing them to continue pecking. I would Blue Kote those areas and keep a close eye on the flock, see if it's one chicken in particular that's doing it. Sometimes they start that because they're not getting enough protein but then even when protein is increased it has become a habit. Or it could just be a bully that started it and the others followed along. If the blue kote doesn't stop it and you can't find the offenders then you could try separation, see but no touch, to try and break the habit. Those feathers won't grow back until molt so you may have to reapply the blue kote to those bare patches. And if you do use the blue kote wear gloves unless you want purple hands for days - LOL.

 

[Iow chickens]

Thank you so much will try this..and the gloves