Whitish Comb

[amyfitz100]

Two of my chickens have combs that are whitish. They are both eat 20% protein layer feed and always have plenty of water. The white hen is 16 months old and has not laid an egg since 7/29. The brown one is 7 months and has been laying about a week (her 4 eggs have had a little blood on the outside, but I assume that's because she's new). The front half of her comb is fine, but the back half looks kind of white. I will try to post pics. Any suggestions?

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

First a few questions:

Have you wormed recently? The EE looks like she could have low blood count, which could be due parasites.

Have you dusted them for lice? With the cold weather I wouldn't think this would be an issue but weirder things happen.

Another thing I found is a fungus infection called favus. It causes a white flakey growth on the combs and ears.

 

[amyfitz100]

I have not ever wormed them (what do I do?), and have not noticed lice on any of them before. I posted on a different thread that we also noticed a couple of black spots on my BR's legs, and don't know if that is anything. I've never had any health problems with my chickens before (other than one bout of frostbite on a comb last year), so I guess I've been lucky until now. What should I do first?

 

[dawg53]

It looks like favus. Miconazole will treat it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1953587

 

[amyfitz100]

Okay, good, something we can fix. Do I buy that at TSC?

 

[amyfitz100]

Oh. I looked it up. So I can buy that kind of thing anywhere, I guess. Lol.

 

[ChickenPox]

Yup! Walmart carries it. And thanks for posting this, I have seen it in the past and always wondered what it was. So I learned something!