whats wrong with her? graphic pics

[gallo34]

how are things working out now?

 

[comp-time]

so here is an update. i have taken advice from a few and come up with a strategy. I have place the wounded hen in isolation in a large dog crate inside the coop with her own food and water, treated her with iodine and salve. placed a parrot toy inside the coop with a bell, rope ball and wooden block, burred some seeds in the run and scrambled some of the surplus eggs. so far the isolation is working out. she isn't going crazy but its only been 1 day. i used a spray bottle to apply the iodine and that worked well. thanks for all of the help and if anybody has any other suggestions, let me and others watching know!! Thanks.

 

[Schultz]

Just thoughts on what you sayed:
"I dont think mytes could live here this time of year. I have some spray that I apply in the warm season. I could spray the coop down." -comp-time



Although that doesn't look like mite damage, just know that mites in our area (Indiana) are alive and well even this time of year. I just found some on our hens yesterday and treated them. Our girls have a heated, insulated coop as well and that may give the mites the conditions they need to survive the winter. They might survive in non-heated coops too idk. I just treat them with poultry dust when I see the mites on them which works very well for us. The mites are lite in color which makes them a little harder to see on our Buffs, you just have to look them over real good. A little poultry dust in their bedding is good in addition to treating the birds as well.

 

[daisychick]

My whole group had their tail feathers looking like that and it was from them picking feathers off each other. I searched on here for picking feathers and found lots of ideas to get them to stop. They all looked terrible for a while but have started growing the feathers back. They needed more room and more protein. I fixed it.

 

[twotmama]

Your coop is awesome. If you put in a rooster you can raise chicks; and in my opinion it adds flavor to the eggs if they're fertile and it will take care of the boredom issue. The rooster usually keeps his hens in line and keeps the bullying of other chickens down. Good luck! One question is their only one hen with this problem? If so its more survival of the strong and a bully in your coop, not parasites. And by your pictures you have no rooster, they are usaully larger and have a large red comb, and of course crow alot you would definetly know if you have one.

 

[maymiegirl]

The wound definitely looks abcessed. You may want to try giving them all a Probiotic powder with their feed. This could add some immune support and help them with processing their food. Just in case there may be a mite involved the food grade Diatomaceous Earth should take care of anything from the outside and it is always good to add it to their diet every day at about 2% of feed volume. Believe it or not, some types of lice begin getting active in cooler temps than we realize. You might want to look into giving them something to replenish red blood cells also, since the eggs they lay are not pure white.

ALL the previous advice is very good advice also. Kudos everyone!

 

[SeaChick]

We've been battling with the feather pecking for 2 years now. Other local friends have the same problem, even with coops and runs whose dimensions far exceed the recommended..... (I think ours is under control now, knock on wood).

From my own experience, I think it starts from boredom and protein deficiency. Then once the habit gets started, it's really hard to break... and other hens pick up on it. We re-homed two of the worst offenders, but the others kept it up somewhat.

We tried everything: hot-pick, vaporub, blue-kote, etc... nothing worked.

it's definitely worse in the winter, when they are not out foraging.

here's what we do now, which i believe helps: every morning we bring a bowl of kitchen scraps, including vegetable peels, wilty lettuce, parsley stems, and, most importantly, meat and fat scraps. if I don';t have meat and fat scraps for a couple of days, I'll open a can of tuna for them. This morning treat gives them something to scratch around for (scattered in the run) plus extra protein.

Then, when I go out to check for eggs in the afternoon, I sprinkle a cup of black oil sunflower seeds in the run. Again, something to do, plus extra protein.

When the hay in the run starts getting matted and they've picked all the seeds out, I add another armful; usually once a week. Something fresh to pick through...

I really beleive this has helped.

Also- when we have an ailing hen, we always give AviaCharge 2000, which is a wonderful immune booster. It also contains lots of amino acids and micronutrients which hens aren't getting from insects in the wintertime, so we occasionally give it to the entire flock (in their food or water) to combat protein/nutrient difficiency.

Good luck. Try to nip it in the bud before it gets really out of control. My friend's entire flock got so bad that they NEVER had any tail feathers!

if you can figure out who the main culprit is, you might want to consider finding another home for her....

Best wishes
Stacey

 

[CTChickenMom]

If you are able to find out the culprit, take her out of the flock for a week or so and then reintroduce her at night. You will have taken her from her previous position in the pecking order and started her at the bottom again. She must be getting too big for her britches and is getting extra bossy. Do you have a dominant hen?

Check out this post...this might be a solution for you: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=134266&p=1

 

[chickenbuddy]

Somebody said this on another post. DON'T PUT IODINE WITH PAINKILLER ON IT! VERY DANGEROUS FOR CHICKENS!!!! (Thank you whoever posted that originally I didn't know that)