[Bennett]

One of our four chickens, an isa brown, has a red fleshy growth where the wing feathers meet the body, on both sides of her body.  Some of the wing feathers are losing the down, going back to just the bare quill.  Otherwise she is fine, does not appear to be in pain and is laying daily.
Any suggestions?
Thank you
Peter

[Foxy]

Hello Bennett,

sounds odd, I wonder if posting a photo might help?

[Bennett]

Here are two pictures of the chicken.  I hope you can make something of this.

Thank you

Peter

[SnooziSuzi]

Hi Peter,

they just look like chicken elbows to me, albeit a bit red and possibly swollen.

Have you checked them for mites?  there's a few threads on the site about what to look for, just do a search on mites and you'll see plenty of posts on them.

If it is mites then she'll be pecking the feathers out in frustration at not being able to 'scratch' where it itches and that's not a habit you want them to get into.

Give them a good dusting of Diatom and some vitamins in their water and clean out their coop thoroughly with jeyes fluid to disinfect, Poultry Sheild to kill any bugs in crevices and dust the house down with diatom too.  If you have a huge bucket of Diatom I would suggest getting a funnel and an old washing up liquid bottle.  Fill the bottle using the funnel with the Diatom, replace the cap and you have a handy 'puffer bottle' which will direct the powder to where you need it to go; on the birds, under their feathers, wings vent and back and also in the corners and crevices of your now cleaned and dried henhouse.

Diatom can be used as a wormer too, so a little puff in their pellets (5% of the feed volume) will help them to get over any internal parasites too and it's completely natural so no nasty chemicals.  Gets on your chest when you are puffing it though, so make sure you open the coop doors / windows etc and step away to take a few deep breaths til it's settled down.

Hope this helps

[Bennett]

Hi Suzi,

Many thanks for your comments.  In the absence of anything else, you might be onto something.  The only thing that bothers me is that I have not seen her scratching as if trying to get to mites, and I spend a fair amount of time in the run area.  Like today, I have been close by for much of the day and there has been no sign.  She just gets on with laying eggs, feeding, dust-bathing and generally rootling around the run with the others.

I did not see anything on her when I was holding her to have the photos taken, and she seems fine otherwise.  Might it be something else?

Thanks again
Peter

[Roughlee Handled]

Firstly there is no medical evidence of diatom as a wormer. In my book its an old wives tale. Use Flubenvet for worming chucks. 
Have you a cockerel with your chucks as this could be signs of heavy treading.