Stubby chicken feathers on head only

[hayley3]

I'm assuming this one chicken has lice or mites. I have always had a chicken dust bathing spot but just now got it back so they have been without a really good dust bathing area for a year...
I checked her vent area and not signs of anything there but she has little white spots on her feathers...my daughter said it looked like dandruff.
I was worming them and discovered it.

My daughter told me she was molting so I didn't investigate til today. How do I know for sure if she has mites or lice?

 

[nuthatched]

Can we see pictures?

 

[hayley3]

I posted this on the wrong forum....lol, yeah I took a picture of her head...let me see if it is clear enough.

 

[hayley3]

I posted this on the wrong forum....lol, yeah I took a picture of her head...let me see if it is clear enough.

So to answer my own question, I think she is molting even though it's only here head. I read a chicken's comb can shrink during a molt too.

 

[Alaskan]

Looks like healthy molting feathers.

And her comb is a good bright red.. so I would think no parasites (or at least only a very light load)

 

[Sally PB]

Mine are or were molting in that very same spot. First time I noticed, I thought the chicken's head had shrunk.

 

[hayley3]

Looks like healthy molting feathers.

And her comb is a good bright red.. so I would think no parasites (or at least only a very light load)

It felt so awful touching her head, I feared the worst. I do remember a chicken that was molting and she felt like that but you could see she was molting all over.

 

[hayley3]

Mine are or were molting in that very same spot. First time I noticed, I thought the chicken's head had shrunk.

The interesting thing is her comb was much smaller than her sister's...so I assumed she was sick but then I read that during molting the comb can shrink. I was so relieved!

 

[Sally PB]

I read that during molting the comb can shrink

Yeah, all my girls' combs are smaller and paler than when they were laying last summer.

On the plus side... 6 days to the solstice! Then the days get longer and maybe, maybe, they will start laying again....

 

[hayley3]

Yeah, all my girls' combs are smaller and paler than when they were laying last summer.

On the plus side... 6 days to the solstice! Then the days get longer and maybe, maybe, they will start laying again....

Mine are still laying, but they have a night lite. Not because I want them to lay...I really don't but we had rats and I wanted the ducks to be able to see if a rat came close by. I'm pretty sure the rats are gone now...but I hate to not give them a light. I will have to give them their red light back, which makes it darker. Forgot about that.