- Sep 16, 2011
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My white Silkie has 'crusty' jowl folds on either side of her face. Normally this silkie has blue jowl folds, but these are blackish grainy and crusty. They do not look like they are oozing or bloody, but they definitely look black and crusty, more like scabs. Other than crusty 'jowls' she seems to be very normal. She's eating well, drinking water, is laying eggs, and wants to brood (as usual). At first, I was wondering if I perhaps missed other birds picking on her, because she loves to hog one of the favorite nesting boxes and the hens are always pushing each other around to get that box! Perhaps the other girls damaged those folds of skin on either side of her face. But, there is no blood, and it is both sides. I did notice for a couple of days that the Silkie was kicking at her face, like scratching at a flea or a bug or something while I was down feeding the flock, in retrospect, I am sure these skin folds were bothering her. That's why today I really looked at her and when I spotted the extent of the jowl situation, I immediately removed her from the rest of the birds. Most of the chickens are in full molt right now and the other birds look very pathetic due to the molt, but the Silkie seems to be the only one that has this crusty jowls problem.We live in Florida and it's been terribly nasty hot and humid, even though the birds are in nice accommodations, I think they are still stressed. I cleaned out the coops and placed a layer of Diatamaceous Earth under everything before making sure everyone has fresh hay. I am trying to keep everything as clean as possible right now - but it's difficult with all the torrential rain we've had lately. Maybe insects can really do a number on them now between the weather and the molt. Because of the wet conditions we've had the past couple of months, I thought maybe mites are possibly the silkie's problem, but I don't see any evidence of those either, or maybe I don't know how to properly identify that. Meanwhile I've carefully given her a bath, and carefully washed those jowls and have separated her into her own cage with fresh hay. She seems quite lively. I just don't want her poor jowls to become seriously infected and I am wondering if there is any ointment or antibiotic cream or something along that order that I can put on them to help heal them up or if I should just let it try and heal on itself??? Has anyone else out there experienced anything like this?
