Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[Joanne]

My Miss pepperpot, Daisy, has lost all the feathers on her breast, along the inner sides of her legs and over her abdomen!!??

 

I have checked her over and can find no sign of mites/lice. Maisy, our Ginger Nut, still has all her feathers in tact.

 

Over the past few weeks, I thought there were a few soft feathers lying around, but only noticed the bald patch today when I was watching them dust bath.....she looks ready for a butter rub and roasting dish??!!!

 

I have read about moulting, but the general theme seems to be that they loose the neck feathers first and then along the back and go on from there..

 

could she just be doing it backwards??

 

Since taking up 'omleteering' in late July, Daisy has been my trouble chook, firstly having a bad foot and needing to be treated by the vet after only five days of ownership, then she started laying eggs while on antibiotics so we couldn`t eat them (that`s gratitude for you), then she went broody and I had to dunk her in cold water to break it which was repaid by withholding eggs for over a week

 

Now this!! What a little

 

I do love her though

 

What do you think?? Could she be moulting??

[Egluntyne]

Could be.

 

One or two of mine are a bit oven ready. I wonder if it is the vigorous dust bating they do?

 

They are fine in every other respect.

[Janty]

You mention that she has been broody. My pekin, Mrs. Beeton goes completely bald on her chest and undercarriage when she is broody. Has the baldness come on since or do you think it might have been caused by the broodiness?

[Joanne]

They are fine in every other respect, laying eggs, eating and going to bed ok. They do like to dust bath a lot and won`t always use the nice soft dust bath I have alllocated them but will find a bit of bare ground and roll about on it, but they tend to do this together.

 

The baldness seems to have come on since the broodiness. When she was broody I dunked her rear and abdomen in cold water as recommended on this site somewhere, and it did work. I didn't notice any bald patches then.

 

Anyway, this evening I decided to rub them boh in a bit of diatom powder, (I always put it into the eglu and bedding as a precautionary measue) and they did NOT appreciate it at all...they complained in a very vocal manner and now aren't talking to me!!

 

Hope it's just an odd way of moulting