Chicken ears are missing feathers, look a bit off

[porokelle]

Hello,

Wondering if anyone can give me clues as to what's going on with our biggest girl's ears? Or what we should try to be preventing. (Images below).

She recently dropped from 2nd to last to last place in the pecking order. She's a blue Orpington and 13-14 months old.

She's had previous sneezing issues before (still sneeze more than the others), but is now standoff-ish, won't let me approach with snacks (but will hang out with mom and sisters and my husband), is now missing some ear feathers on both ears, the area around the ears and face looks a bit 'off', and is acting a bit 'off'. It's summer here in NZ, and I think she's only gone broody once this summer and that was a few weeks ago. We treated them all with 2 rounds of invermectin for lice/mite infestation in early spring.
She is our messiest hen, willing to stick her head in anything, and swallows everything whole. Appetite hasn't been amazing this week but still eating.
Laying is normal.

Maybe some pecking issues we haven't seen or favtus fungus? Possibly moulting? The photos show she's a bit more raggedy in general on the face, and maybe under the eye white specks where pin feathers could be coming in?
There's no yawning, head shaking, or other indication of a possible ear infection.
Her left ear is worse than her right.

Wondering if we should pre-medicate with some miconazole fungus cream or clean with betadine antiseptic ointment? I have some equate triple antibiotic ointment, but haven't tried them with it yet.

Sorry for the many photos - it's so hard to get one that looks like what we're seeing in real lighting.



This one has flash, so looks wrong, but you can see into the ear.


And this was her 4 weeks ago with proper feathered ears:

 

[nuthatched]

It's like there's been a hole made in the ears covering, I'm not sure what do about it

 

[Eggcessive]

Is that yellow gunk in the left ear canal? Have you checked for lice or lice eggs, or mites around her head and other parts of the body? You can use hydrogen peroxide in the ear canal, and QTips to clean any gunk. Then plain Triple Antibiotic Ointment can be used to fill the ear canal. That would treat bacteria and mites or lice inside the ear. Viruses, bacteria, or mites can cause ear infection, sometimes called ear canker. It causes itching/scratching. If treating with the Neospori/Triple Antibiotic does not work, an oral antibiotic might be prescribed.

 

[porokelle]

Is that yellow gunk in the left ear canal? Have you checked for lice or lice eggs, or mites around her head and other parts of the body? You can use hydrogen peroxide in the ear canal, and QTips to clean any gunk. Then plain Triple Antibiotic Ointment can be used to fill the ear canal. That would treat bacteria and mites or lice inside the ear. Viruses, bacteria, or mites can cause ear infection, sometimes called ear canker. It causes itching/scratching. If treating with the Neospori/Triple Antibiotic does not work, an oral antibiotic might be prescribed.

I think the yellow gunk was just a flash discoloration in the photo.
No mites or lice I can see . We did 2 rounds of invermectin 4 months ago but could try another round to be super sure.

She's doing fine, and the feathers have almost grown back quite quickly. Almost certain the pin pricks of white on her face are all pin feathers coming in, so maybe she's doing a weird moult only on her face.

Thank you for your reply!

 

[arazla]

Know this was 2 years ago, but this is the only thing I could find online that is close to what's going on for my hen. She even has similar coloring. I can't find anything anywhere that specifically references an open ear. It's like there's just a gaping hole there. Maybe it's always there, but usually covered with feathers, but would love to know whether I should be concerned. Sort of looks like a mini molt and there are feathers all over the run, but hell of a time to be molting. It's been in the hight teens sometimes at night.