Sick Chickens?

[tracyork]

I have two older hens that have been off for months now. I posted a while ago asking for advice and the common response was extended molt, so I have been sitting and watching and waiting. Well several months later and we are in the same boat. The hens have different issues:

Hen #1 Rhode Island Red, lays well, seems to eat well, scruffy looking, feathers in disrepair, bald head. Her head has been bald for a while now and I just figured it would grow back if she was molting but it has not and she doesn't seem to be improving.

Hen #2 Barred Rock, lays ok, eats ok, bosses everyone else around. Feathers are a mixture of faded brownish old feathers and new bright black ones (you can't really see this in the photo). The feathering or molting or whatever seems to have stalled halfway through the process. The part that is most concerning is that she also sounds a bit like she has laryngitis or something and has kind of a wheezy cluck.

Treatments I have tried to help them out: increased protein, vitamins in the water, lots of free range time.


Other hens that were slow to molt in the fall, came through just fine in the end and look good again. The only good thing I can say about these too is that they weren't laying and now they are.

Any assistance or input would be appreciated.

 

[Buster's Banties]

Do you think the RIR is getting beat up? I have a scrappy little japanese banty that can kick the tar out of birds MUCH bigger than her by jumping up and pecking them right where your birdie is bald.

 

[tracyork]

I don't think so. I have observed them for long periods and never seen any signs that she is gettng picked on.

 

[chookchick]

Do you have a rooster? Have they ever been wormed and with what? What is their usual diet?

 

[tracyork]

I have a couple of young cockerels, but they have only been coming into their own so to speak in the last couple weeks. These girls have been looking rough for much longer than that. I have never wormed any of them. They are fed organic layer pellet, scratch grains and whatever they can find around the yard.

One thing I forgot to mention last night, I treated all of them for external parasites in the fall with DE. The chicks had lice. I didn't see any on the adult hens and they were housed separately but I thought it was best to be careful. I haven't seen any signs of recurrence on any of them. I also changed bedding from straw to pine shavings.