Hiya -
My background - We are in our 4th (5th?) year of having chickens, we have had NH reds, currently have barred rocks & white leghorns. We keep them for eggs, company, entertainment, teaching the kids to care for animals. They live in a coop w/attached run designed to hold up to 10 birds. They get to forage in the fenced in yard the last 2 hrs before sunset almost every day. We interact with our girls every day. We also have ducks, snakes, a dwarf bunny a parakeet, and more than a few kids.
Current situation - a client is moving to another state and we were informed that they'd already moved out of the house and had someone "checking on the chickens" (none of their animals are moving with them
). We got permission to pick up the birds, and went immediately to get them. 6 RI reds were out of water, low on food, and in a very dirty and dusty coop, with an automatic door that gave them access to a run that was all hard-caked mud (no area for dust bath). They were not used to humans, very skittish. Got them home to inspect - color was good overall, eyes clear, combs short (perhaps young? growing in?), behavior frightened but otherwise not concerning, no visible caking of their vents (the family that left them claims they were collecting eggs a few times per week, no real way to know), legs dirty but no visible disease/issue/injury, all can flap wings, walk/run fine, jump up - but 2 have major missing tail feather problems, one worse than the other. In my preliminary research, here, mostly, and a friends homesteading FB research, we think it could be mites/lice along with a "soft molt" from stress, etc (pic below). Many internet pics for mites seem to match, and I've caught the one hen pecking at the other's behinds a bit, but I thought it'd be best to post my pics here and see if others agreed or had anything to add. We've got them quarantined in an outdoor tractor (in a large dog cage overnight, surrounded with wood panels & concrete blocks for predator-proofing), and besides treating for mites, my main goal at this point is to let them realize that there will always be water & food available here. On Day 3 here they are slightly less skittish around us and have already learned the routine of entering the dog cage in the evenings. Dinner Bones' (the 5 yr old named her... 
) tail damage looks better already and has some tiny feathers growing in, so it's definitely not getting any worse. Treatment so far is DE in a dust bath along with wood ash, a poultry powder for mites/lice from TS (don't remember the name), and Iverlux in their water. Oh, and based on how their combs look, I'm guessing they are about 1 yr old, but not really sure. No one has laid on egg so far, but not surprised based on their condition when we picked them up plus the stress of being moved and all that. Don't know how long they were out of water, but these girls drank for 30 minutes straight on Day 1 
.
Sorry for the novel, hope I gave enough info, see what you think from the pics and I'd love suggestions on anything else we should be doing. The plan is once they are fully treated and quarantine is over, we'll keep 4 and our friends will take 2.
My background - We are in our 4th (5th?) year of having chickens, we have had NH reds, currently have barred rocks & white leghorns. We keep them for eggs, company, entertainment, teaching the kids to care for animals. They live in a coop w/attached run designed to hold up to 10 birds. They get to forage in the fenced in yard the last 2 hrs before sunset almost every day. We interact with our girls every day. We also have ducks, snakes, a dwarf bunny a parakeet, and more than a few kids.
Current situation - a client is moving to another state and we were informed that they'd already moved out of the house and had someone "checking on the chickens" (none of their animals are moving with them
). We got permission to pick up the birds, and went immediately to get them. 6 RI reds were out of water, low on food, and in a very dirty and dusty coop, with an automatic door that gave them access to a run that was all hard-caked mud (no area for dust bath). They were not used to humans, very skittish. Got them home to inspect - color was good overall, eyes clear, combs short (perhaps young? growing in?), behavior frightened but otherwise not concerning, no visible caking of their vents (the family that left them claims they were collecting eggs a few times per week, no real way to know), legs dirty but no visible disease/issue/injury, all can flap wings, walk/run fine, jump up - but 2 have major missing tail feather problems, one worse than the other. In my preliminary research, here, mostly, and a friends homesteading FB research, we think it could be mites/lice along with a "soft molt" from stress, etc (pic below). Many internet pics for mites seem to match, and I've caught the one hen pecking at the other's behinds a bit, but I thought it'd be best to post my pics here and see if others agreed or had anything to add. We've got them quarantined in an outdoor tractor (in a large dog cage overnight, surrounded with wood panels & concrete blocks for predator-proofing), and besides treating for mites, my main goal at this point is to let them realize that there will always be water & food available here. On Day 3 here they are slightly less skittish around us and have already learned the routine of entering the dog cage in the evenings. Dinner Bones' (the 5 yr old named her... ) tail damage looks better already and has some tiny feathers growing in, so it's definitely not getting any worse. Treatment so far is DE in a dust bath along with wood ash, a poultry powder for mites/lice from TS (don't remember the name), and Iverlux in their water. Oh, and based on how their combs look, I'm guessing they are about 1 yr old, but not really sure. No one has laid on egg so far, but not surprised based on their condition when we picked them up plus the stress of being moved and all that. Don't know how long they were out of water, but these girls drank for 30 minutes straight on Day 1 . Sorry for the novel, hope I gave enough info, see what you think from the pics and I'd love suggestions on anything else we should be doing. The plan is once they are fully treated and quarantine is over, we'll keep 4 and our friends will take 2.
