strange feathers

[RoxyLocksy]

Hi all, I've had chickens since 2000.They are loved and of course spoiled rotten. Three of my five have a strange problem. Back feathers just forward of tail lighter in color, dull and tangled. It started about four months ago on my Bard rock (Penny). For two months she was the only one, so I thought she just had a custom hairdoo.Then my Copper Moran (Roxy) started the same feather problem. A month ago, my Lavender Orpington (Lily) started the same thing. It has since spread to the rear bottom feathers and just behind the back of the neck. The three that have it have stopped laying completely. I know the days are short, but they are only one and a half years old. They have a large run, dry dust baths, get on green grass daily and I change the bedding every day. Has anyone seen or heard of this? Please help my girls.

 

[nuthatched]

Do you have a roo?
What is their diet?
How big is their area?
Have you treated for mites?

 

[RoxyLocksy]

Do you have a roo?
What is their diet?
How big is their area?
Have you treated for mites?

Hello Nuthatched, I have no rooster. They have Layena pellets all day, a small handfull of Layena scratch grains in morning and evening. Their run is 12 feet by 50 feet. Every night I let them out in my back yard to play for an hour. This is when I give them treats, usually chopped up spinach with some dried worms, somtimes chopped tomatoes, broccoli, kale, cooked beans, ECT. I looked several times on the birds and in their house with a jewlers loop but I can't see any Mights, lice or eggs. My feed store said it mite be lice. So I treated their house with an oil water mix. Then I treated my girls twice with Pure Planet Poultry Spray just to be sure. Also, they don't seem to scratch or itch themselves. After 25 years of care and loving my birds, I have never seen this. I can tell their not feeling up to par. Any help would be appreciated

 

[nuthatched]

Hello Nuthatched, I have no rooster. They have Layena pellets all day, a small handfull of Layena scratch grains in morning and evening. Their run is 12 feet by 50 feet. Every night I let them out in my back yard to play for an hour. This is when I give them treats, usually chopped up spinach with some dried worms, somtimes chopped tomatoes, broccoli, kale, cooked beans, ECT. I looked several times on the birds and in their house with a jewlers loop but I can't see any Mights, lice or eggs. My feed store said it mite be lice. So I treated their house with an oil water mix. Then I treated my girls twice with Pure Planet Poultry Spray just to be sure. Also, they don't seem to scratch or itch themselves. After 25 years of care and loving my birds, I have never seen this. I can tell their not feeling up to par. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks for the information.
What oil did you use?
I think you might need something stronger than the pure planet spray.

 

[RoxyLocksy]

Thanks for the information.
What oil did you use?
I think you might need something stronger than the pure planet spray.

Hi, as I can't find any bugs with a magnifier and a brite lite. The curly matted feathers started on Penny over three months ago and two chickens have no signs at all. If it was bugs after all that time living sleeping and eating together, wouldn't there be an infestation? Clove and cottonseed oil. I don't want to treat them for something they don't have. Have you ever seen feathers look like that? I sent pictures to my vet and she has not seen this.

 

[picklestheduck]

Unfortunately I have no idea

 

[RoxyLocksy]

Thanks for looking.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Hi all, I've had chickens since 2000.They are loved and of course spoiled rotten. Three of my five have a strange problem. Back feathers just forward of tail lighter in color, dull and tangled. It started about four months ago on my Bard rock (Penny). For two months she was the only one, so I thought she just had a custom hairdoo.Then my Copper Moran (Roxy) started the same feather problem. A month ago, my Lavender Orpington (Lily) started the same thing. It has since spread to the rear bottom feathers and just behind the back of the neck. The three that have it have stopped laying completely. I know the days are short, but they are only one and a half years old. They have a large run, dry dust baths, get on green grass daily and I change the bedding every day. Has anyone seen or heard of this? Please help my girls.

I have a similar thing with a few birds in my flock, I think. Their soft downy feathers around their hind end are matted. One looked like she was growing dreadlocks, haha! Is that what is happening with yours? I can’t find a cause. It seems to be primarily my fluffy-butted birds. I’m in my 5th year as a chicken tender, and I only noticed it first on my lavender Orp. back in the summer when she’d just turned a year. She recently molted and no longer has the matted feathers. Hopefully they don’t come back. Now my chocolate Orp pullet born this spring is getting it, too. I have a fluffy cockerel that seems to be developing
it, too.

No birds have any symptoms of being sick. No signs of mites. I have 25 birds in this flock, and only these couple have matted feathers. My run and coop are at capacity which I don’t love (we’re expanding the run and intend to move some hens to a secondary coop soon) but when the first bird developed the matted feathers in the spring, I only had 13 birds. So I don’t think crowding is the cause. I’m wondering if they’re just extra floofy and need baths?

Have you had any success finding anything out for your birds? I’ll look for pics of mine to see if they’re the same as yours.