Skin Issues in an 11 Month Old Olive Egger

[SacChick05]

Hi all,

My olive egger, pepperoni, recently started to lose feathers around her face and neck. Additionally, her combs started to shrink a bit and her ears went from white to red. I checked her skin and she doesn’t seem to have lice but I couldn’t tell about mites. Where her feathers are falling out, it seems the skin has almost plaque or skin growing around the base of the feathers. She and her sisters live in a decent size run and coop which I clean regularly. I also sprinkle DE everywhere, even in food, regularly. Since it is winter, she hasn’t been laying really and I don’t supplement light at all. I’ve attached photos for you all (the flash makes the ears look white again). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all!! Ps. We live in Northern California, no snow, not super cold, mild weather.

 

[DiYMama540]

Looks to be molt to me as well. Those are new feathers coming through, the skin gets a little dry and tough when exposed like that.

 

[SacChick05]

@DiYMama540 thank you! I was wondering that but the combs and the kind of odd looking skin threw me off. Would molting explain the combs too?

 

[SacChick05]

@DobieLover thank you!!

 

[DiYMama540]

Yes, it could. Molting depletes a lot of their nutrients when trying to make all those new feathers, so sometimes you'll see pale combs. You can try supplementing a higher level of protein feed until she gets through the worst of it.

 

[DobieLover]

Looks like a normal molt to me.