Should I be worried about these black marks?

[ralleman]

Worms?

 

[Aunt Angus]

Hahaha! I meant mites!
You mentioned she might have those.

 

[STACEYH]

Maybe favus.

 

[carlaashdown]

This may be a long shot and not applicable to you, but I wanted to put this out there and share my experience. Do you use wood ash or anything caustic in their dust bath, nest boxes, or coop? One of my hens had similar spots, and it turned out to be burns from the wood ash. We live in the southeast Georgia near the coast (US) and have very humid, damp weather. Wet ash is caustic. I’ll check to see if I still have a picture.

 

[ralleman]

Hi carlaashdown. Not at my place, but I've only had the bird for a couple weeks and they were almost certainly present before I bought her. As I mention initially, the breeder was keeping his birds in pretty squalid conditions and I have no idea what sort of issues might have arisen from this.

Staceyh, interesting suggestion. I checked the photos on google for this and they don't look the same. It looks like favus is accompanied with white crusty stuff which this hen doesn't have.

 

[ralleman]

Hahaha! I meant mites!
You mentioned she might have those.

Yeah, I think I'll use option 4 from this https://the-chicken-chick.com/scaly-leg-mites-in-chickens/. Just need to find the equivalent of A&D cream here in Oz.

 

[STACEYH]

Hi carlaashdown. Not at my place, but I've only had the bird for a couple weeks and they were almost certainly present before I bought her. As I mention initially, the breeder was keeping his birds in pretty squalid conditions and I have no idea what sort of issues might have arisen from this.

Staceyh, interesting suggestion. I checked the photos on google for this and they don't look the same. It looks like favus is accompanied with white crusty stuff which this hen doesn't have.

I thought I saw white on comb in your pictures. Could be these old eyes.

 

[ralleman]

Updated pic. Still no change on the black marks, but the scabs have settled.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Updated pic. Still no change on the black marks, but the scabs have settled.

Weird... I'm glad she's doing well otherwise. Wish that either a) we all knew what it is, or b) it would go away quietly.

 

[ralleman]

Update - I've put this bird back with the other chooks. The black marks haven't changed but there is no more scabbing. The bird is quite energetic, but very flighty still. I won't let me near it. I've had leghorns in the past, but they've been been this scared of people. Anyway, given the marks have not changed, I'm concluding that they're scars of some kind. The bird may have been badly picked on before I picked it up, leaving permanent bruising.