- Aug 10, 2017
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I have a 10 month old gold lace wyandotte rooster with a patch of skin on his belly that is bright red, swollen, and wrinkly. I have never seen skin like this before. I’ve attached three photos. They were taken at night, as my chickens are not tame enough to allow themselves to be picked up during the day.
I discovered it because my chickens have northern fowl mites and was examining everyone’s butts thoroughly. I got ahold of Exzolt and gave them their first dose last week. Four days later, I had time to go out to the coop in the evening and was using scissors to cut off any feathers with poop or mite eggs stuck to them.
Two hens also had some mildly inflamed skin above their vents, toward their bellies. One of them had a scab with cut skin beneath it - I don’t know if that has to do with pecking at the mites, or is a coincidence. I put Neosporin on it. Otherwise the rest of her affected skin, and that of the other hen, was mildly red and inflamed but in a normal way, not swollen or wrinkled or AS red as the rooster’s.
He had a lot of feathers with mite eggs on them, which I cut off prior to taking the photos. I then cut off more feathers to better examine the area. Separately, there were also feathers where the skin around the shaft was somewhat red, just in a small ring right around the base. There was one other bigger spot where the skin was more red (though not as bright red) and swollen, but smooth rather than wrinkled. That is shown in the third photo.
Anyone know what is going on with him, and how to help him out? Vet is not an option.
Other info: we’re in Northern California, between the Bay Area and Sacramento. The weather lately has been above freezing, rainy and windy on some days and sunny on others. Their bedding is sand on one side of the coop, and completely broken down horse stall pellets on the other. One side has poop boards below the roosting bars. They roost on painted 2x4s, on the narrow 1.5” side. They eat Modesto Milling organic soy free layer pellets, plus oyster shell or baked egg shells refilled here and there, and kitchen scraps. There are 30 hens and 1 rooster.
I discovered it because my chickens have northern fowl mites and was examining everyone’s butts thoroughly. I got ahold of Exzolt and gave them their first dose last week. Four days later, I had time to go out to the coop in the evening and was using scissors to cut off any feathers with poop or mite eggs stuck to them.
Two hens also had some mildly inflamed skin above their vents, toward their bellies. One of them had a scab with cut skin beneath it - I don’t know if that has to do with pecking at the mites, or is a coincidence. I put Neosporin on it. Otherwise the rest of her affected skin, and that of the other hen, was mildly red and inflamed but in a normal way, not swollen or wrinkled or AS red as the rooster’s.
He had a lot of feathers with mite eggs on them, which I cut off prior to taking the photos. I then cut off more feathers to better examine the area. Separately, there were also feathers where the skin around the shaft was somewhat red, just in a small ring right around the base. There was one other bigger spot where the skin was more red (though not as bright red) and swollen, but smooth rather than wrinkled. That is shown in the third photo.
Anyone know what is going on with him, and how to help him out? Vet is not an option.
Other info: we’re in Northern California, between the Bay Area and Sacramento. The weather lately has been above freezing, rainy and windy on some days and sunny on others. Their bedding is sand on one side of the coop, and completely broken down horse stall pellets on the other. One side has poop boards below the roosting bars. They roost on painted 2x4s, on the narrow 1.5” side. They eat Modesto Milling organic soy free layer pellets, plus oyster shell or baked egg shells refilled here and there, and kitchen scraps. There are 30 hens and 1 rooster.
