What is Wrong With This Hen?/Please Help

BrittleViolets

In the Brooder
May 25, 2025
17
21
29
IMG_0343.jpeg

What is wrong with this hen? Her feathers are missing in some areas and she doesn’t look like the other hens. I’m not sure what is wrong with her. Any suggestions on what could be wrong? I recently changed the hens’ food to a more protein rich feed because their feathers weren’t looking like they usually did, and egg production had dropped because they were eating their eggs. Since the feed change, they’ve stopped eating their eggs and feathers are back to normal on everyone except that one hen. She doesn’t seem too interested in food or water either.
 
Do you have a rooster? Have you checked for mites and lice on her skin? How much room do they have? What is her diet? It could be feather picking from overcrowding, not enough protein in the diet, boredom from not getting out to roam around, or bullying. Has she molted recently?
 
Is she a hybrid? Is her belly swollen? Does she have any yellowish discharge or yellowish liquid in her poop. Send poop pictures. Have you noticed any lash eggs or lash material?
She seems to be having diarrhea. She’s an Indio Gigante. I haven’t noticed any lash eggs or material on her
 
Do you have a rooster? Have you checked for mites and lice on her skin? How much room do they have? What is her diet? It could be feather picking from overcrowding, not enough protein in the diet, boredom from not getting out to roam around, or bullying. Has she molted recently?
She has plenty of room to run around and gets to go outside often. I don’t have a rooster. She molted in December
 
Her belly is not swollen. She doesn’t seem to have any lice or mites either. Their feed is a high-protein feed because I noticed they weren’t getting enough of it. I changed their feed pretty recently though.
 
Her vent looks feather picked as well. Feather picking can sometimes lead to vent pecking and cannibalism. BluKote spray a blue dying spray with gentian violet can be used to color the red areas on her skin, to hopefully stop the pecking. If a bully can be identified, you can use, sometimes pinless peepers may prevent them from taking aim. Here is a link about pinless peepers:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/pros-and-cons-of-pinless-peepers.1629317/
 
Her vent looks feather picked as well. Feather picking can sometimes lead to vent pecking and cannibalism. BluKote spray a blue dying spray with gentian violet can be used to color the red areas on her skin, to hopefully stop the pecking. If a bully can be identified, you can use, sometimes pinless peepers may prevent them from taking aim. Here is a link about pinless peepers:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/pros-and-cons-of-pinless-peepers.1629317/
Thank you! I will get some!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom