Scorched looking comb and wattles?

[MyChickenHouse]

We have a number of hens and our rooster, all 5 months old) with scorched looking areas on their combs a wattles. I'm curious if anyone knows what this is?

I looked around the other day, as they have little black marks. I found that they were scabs from them pecking each other.

What I'm concerned about now is that they have largsareas that are black loooking like they have been scorched by a fire, on the tips and other areas of their combs and wattles.

If no one knows what this is off hand and easily, I'll try to get some pictures. I'm just hoping that someone can say, "Oh, that's easy. That's from .... ". TIA for any help!

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Sounds like Pox but you should post pics if you want some intelligent feedback. I just like to jump to conclusions

 

[MyChickenHouse]

I discovered upon closer look that it is dirt!

We gave them a whole watermelon chopped in half, they got themselves dirty after getting all wet and sticky from the watermelon.

O.K., next question. Should we attempt to clean them? A couple of them are particularly dirty and caked w/ watermelon juice. Is being dirty like that bad in any way, i.e. breeding ground for pests, etc? If we should clean them, any suggestions on how?

TIA!

 

[LoreenH]

Quote:

I was going to suggest that. The same thing happens with mine when they have melon or whole apples. It kind of scared me the first time too. I've not cleaned mine but they aren't really that dirty, and since they are getting a lot of melon and apples from neighbors right now I don't see the point.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Tia, glad to hear they they are just "on the juice" so to speak. If they are still dirty in a day or two I would clean them up.
~Julie