White stuff on my chickens heads !!!??? Are they molting ?? HELP !!!

[HennyPenny13]

Thanks for taking the time much appreciated

just have to make sure the girls are fine lol

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Your welcome!

 

[LaynaDon95]

Closer up that does look like molting or pecking. The reason I asked about lice/mites is because I just had a hen get a bad case of mites. I couldn't even tell by looking at her, but she started pulling her feathers out. They started to spread to her neck, looking a lot like your fist pics, but still no irritated skin or obvious feather loss. If you spread her butt feathers they all scattered and you could see them. though.

Very glad to hear that's not the case in your girls.

 

[HennyPenny13]

There is a pecking order going on but she sure isn't on the bottom or anywhere near lol

 

[yawningreyhound]

I'm a complete chicken noob, but it looks like nothing more than new feather growth to me, and the 'white stuff' looks like the white sheath that surrounds feathers before they "fan out". I've taken the liberty of posting your pictures with the area in question enhanced. That definitely looks like new feather growth - but what caused the loss in the first place I don't know. I would guess it's an easy molt rather than pecking...doesn't appear to be pecked to me.

Thanks so much for this observation! I saw this on one of my birds today. Once at another coop I cared for I grabbed one hen because I swore she had things walking on her feathers like dandruff and there's a topical parasite in dogs/cats (don't know if goes to chickens, didn't look up since it wasn't it) that I was worried about but that bird just had white tips to her feathers coming out.

This bird has dark feathers, so I thought it couldn't be color...then I grabbed her up (that sounds bad...I actually kind of corner them, squatting at their level, and then come down gently on their wings...they do that squat like they do for the 'Roo when he's up to no good and THEN I grab them...nicely gently but firmly, wait for the inevitable wing escape and flap, then they settle ok with murmuring) and checked it out...it's so apt that the thread starter called it dried yogurt like...I was at a loss to describe once I got past dandruff. But it's like something spilled on her and dried...I had a frostbite wattle on sulfadiazine (looking GREAT today by the way, happened last Friday) and for a second I thought maybe she'd rubbed against that hen when the topical was soft...but it disappears on the wattle, I'm sure it would disappear on feathers...and it's been since Wednesday's last application...so THAT couldn't be it. Could it?

So I got her again today and I just stroked the feathers and pulled some of the matter off and brought it in for the microscope. (I'm not a nerd, but I am a Certified Veterinary Technician, so I have toys like that) It's definitely not a parasite, it's not anything that appears alive (like bacteria or anything). It looks like epithelial cells skin cells...So GOOD CALL CLUCKY CHARMS!!!!!! New feather growth makes so much sense. These girls are coming into their own now that they're at their own coop, away from 22 other birds and (nice sweet polish but still a) 'Roo, MickJagger, and what a sweetheart. They offered him to me but with only 5 hens, I thought they'd have their hands full, nice as he is.

They've had naked tails since the floods of September in Colorado...the last bird is finally filling in (with the help of Peck No More; discovered HERE) and it just makes perfect sense that this little one is coming into new head feathers (where the others aren't, apparently, cuz no one else has these feather sheaths,

I learn something every day on this blog. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

 

[Kathryn Stewart]

My four hens have white something in their red cone on the top of their head and down some on their head my other chickens don’t have it. These four are the same kind of chicken Most if my chickens are not the same kind Median size bird