Solitary chicken - need advice

[Luca89]

Hi Guys I have come here in need of some help.

I am concerned about a few of my chickens. As a few of them have lost quite a few feathers leaving bare patches either on their neck, chest or under carriage.

 

I assume your first thoughts are they are moulting. Now here is the dilemma. These bare patches have been there for MONTHS. Not just a few weeks.

 

We then considered it to be mites, as it seems to be moving around the chickens gradually one by one. As also we were getting a lot of soft shell eggs and a low egg count.

 

Dilemma again we found no mites, even so we then powdered them all and sprayed the coop. But now another one of the chickens has lost a lot of chest feathers. So we really do not know what it could be.

 

The chickens free range around the garden every day all day. Could it be something in the garden which is effecting them?

 

Below are photos of the birds. Thank-you in advance for any help or advice you can give as it is much appreciated.

 

 

This is the first chicken which showed signs of lost feathers a few months ago around the neck.

 

 

This was the second chicken we noticed problems with as you can see a loss of feathers.

 

 

 

This is the most recent, as you can see there is a loss of chest feathers, but also she has lost all her tail feathers. (The links directly below were taken about a year ago this is to show comparison between then and now)

 

 

 

Finally one of our ginger chickens has started to lose chest feathers too, but also has a bare undercarridge (I do not know if this is supposed to be like that), with part looking very red and raw.

 

 

I apologise for all the links I would have added them directly to the thread but it seems that part of the code has been disabled so i cannot re-adjust the size of each photo(could just be me though)

Edited October 11, 2009 by Guest

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I'm wondering if it's feather-plucking . I've no first hand experience of it so may be completely off track but it seems odd that they all have it but just in small areas (and all different) .

 

Might it be worth putting bumper bits on all of them to see if the feathers grow back normally?

 

Welcome to the forum, by the way . I only just noticed it's your first post .

[Luca89]

Thanks for the welcome . I did consider feather plucking, but I thought the areas were too dense as I would have thought it would be clumps here and there? And also wouldn't feather plucking involve the entire feather being pulled out? this is leave like stumped feathers. Correct me if I am wrong

[katieD]

hi there

 

one of mine has also lost feathers either side of her neck- like your pic 1 and a small patch under her neck?

 

thought it might be the start of molting also but she has been like it a good 4 weeks now and she hasnt lost anymore? shes about 10/11 months.

 

would be interesting to hear thought on it ive never seen mine feather plucking?

[debbie26pet]

mine is excatly same, but i now think a slow moult as mine was laying but has stopped now, mine back of head has gone tatty and new feather coming through.

but be interested in what others say,

i have bought hte anti pecking spray (black stuff and stinks tastes ) hubby can confim this, as we was doing the chicken she ducked and he got it

[Luca89]

hi there

 

one of mine has also lost feathers either side of her neck- like your pic 1 and a small patch under her neck?

 

thought it might be the start of molting also but she has been like it a good 4 weeks now and she hasnt lost anymore? shes about 10/11 months.

 

would be interesting to hear thought on it ive never seen mine feather plucking?

 

This sounds like molting to me. The age of the bird is correct. (First molt is about 1 year old) and molting can take up to 8 weeks is what I have heard. Average I think is 4-6 weeks.

 

And @ Debbie What sort of time periods are with your birds and how many are being effected? (Age, loss period)

[debbie26pet]

hi there

 

one of mine has also lost feathers either side of her neck- like your pic 1 and a small patch under her neck?

 

thought it might be the start of molting also but she has been like it a good 4 weeks now and she hasnt lost anymore? shes about 10/11 months.

 

would be interesting to hear thought on it ive never seen mine feather plucking?

 

And @ Debbie What sort of time periods are with your birds and how many are being effected? (Age, loss period)

 

 

they are are about 13-15 mth old black copper maran. as you can see her sister is at the bk and is going same way.

i have a rir who is about 20mths old, been like this now about 2-3 weeks. couple warrens looking bit thin but not bold. but they are gonna be nearly 2yrs.

when i picked them up other night, i checked them over couldnt see anything, i even checked there house late at night when dark to see if any red mite, nothing i even wiped over there perches with a white tissue all clean. the back of heads looked very thin on feathers and had the stumps for new coming through. but as you can see on pic none on the neck bit. no were else on bird like this.

eggs have gone down from 18 to 12 was laying but did stop we now getting dd egg again of them.

any ideas?

the black coppers i got about 2-3 mths ago and was riddled in lice, and not laying.

but was treated for that and worms.

[Luca89]

they are are about 13-15 mth old black copper maran. as you can see her sister is at the bk and is going same way.

i have a rir who is about 20mths old, been like this now about 2-3 weeks. couple warrens looking bit thin but not bold. but they are gonna be nearly 2yrs.

when i picked them up other night, i checked them over couldnt see anything, i even checked there house late at night when dark to see if any red mite, nothing i even wiped over there perches with a white tissue all clean. the back of heads looked very thin on feathers and had the stumps for new coming through. but as you can see on pic none on the neck bit. no were else on bird like this.

eggs have gone down from 18 to 12 was laying but did stop we now getting dd egg again of them.

any ideas?

the black coppers i got about 2-3 mths ago and was riddled in lice, and not laying.

but was treated for that and worms.

 

 

It sounds quite similar to my case. One other thing I have noticed. They really dnt like being handled anymore. When before they would pretty much let you juggle them if you wanted. (Disclaimer....Not literally )

[psapie]

Good afternoon,

 

I found this post, as I was searching for help on a feather loss concern.

 

We have one Miss Pepperpot and two Ginger Nut Rangers, all three are about 18 months old and this is the first time we have seen any loss of feathers.

 

The loss of feathers is just on the Miss Pepperpot. We are concerned because she is being pecked at by the other two. But we don't know if it is normal molting, that is just being made worse by pecking from the others, or if it is all because of their pecking. Some of the areas of feather loss look read and sore.

 

The Miss Pepperpot has lost some feathers around her neck, most have gone from beneath her chest and some from her tail end.

 

She is being attacked quite a bit by the other two, so we are thinking we should separate them.

 

Is there any way we can tell if this is normal molting, and do you have any suggestions about how we can protect her from the attention of the other two?

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Dave

[sandyhas3chucks]

OMG I am starting to sound like someone else only not asking if you have wormed

Have you read the thread on depluming(shaft) mite.

they are not visible, live under the skin, and 2 optiopns seem to have been used with I think equal sucess . neem oil, and flowers of sulphur. (although I had the neem oil for other uses) I think purely from the smell point of view that I prefer the FOS method (mixed with cream and applied direct to sore patches.)

I don't know for sure but wonder if the mite having eaten a patch moves on?

Although only having ex bats I have not seen a "normal" moult yet, and I beleive that does go in sort of waves with some rasther than total feather loss.

but is worth considering, esp on the red patches.

Also do not know if redness/sore looking is normal for a moult patch (mine weren't)

[psapie]

Hello Sandy,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I have now read the suggested post "depluming(shaft) mite" and I think we'll probably take your advice.

 

As a first step to stop the others pecking her, we used some of the smelly stuff that is sprayed on. While this has certanly stopped them pecking her, she does not seem very happy herself.

 

It's a bit tricky, as we don't know what normal molting behaviour looks like.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

Dave