Why does my rooster have a couple little dark spots on his comb and wattles?

Question

He is a white cochin rooster, so his comb and wattles are a bright red. I noticed that on his comb there are a couple of dark spots on his facial features (lol). I did have an outbreak of mites/lice a couple months ago from my ducks that I rescued, but I sprayed everything with mite killer and there are no more now. Trust me, I looked. All the mites are GONE. Is this just a side effect? They look like scabs.

He isn't sick, is he? I am taking him to the county fair as a Cochin Standard breeding pen, but I don't want to take sick birds. He is my only rooster, so he is my only option. A few of my hens have this also, but it isn't as obvious, because their combs are much smaller.

P.S The county fair starts Wednesday, and I am NOT TAKING HIM TO THE VET! So don't just suggest that please. That is not an answer. Sorry.

Answer 1

Is it possible that it could be old frostbite scars?  I'm not sure where you live but here it's early summer.  So he would have had the spots for awhile now.  They could also be scabs if a hen pecked him or something.

Answer 2

Probably scabs from a slight scuffle as mentioned by the other answers. Leave them alone and pick them off right before the show. They should just look like slightly discolored spots by then. At most they would only count against you for conditioning, but only if the cochin class were really close, and I doubt that would be the case.

The other possibility is dry pox. It's contagious and it would be irresponsible of you to take your bird to the fair if that were the case. Please check these two links to be sure.

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/disv...

http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtop...

Answer 3

I would come more to thinking that these are spots that have been pecked by the hens.

A couple of weeks ago I had 2 roosters and though I would keep them seperated because left to their own devices they would rather fight to the death verses gaining dominance. . . some roosters are this way,they don't want another rooster around PERIOD!  

I now only have one because I got tired of seperating them when they did manage to get out of their pen because they would even fight through the fence.

I elected to get rid of the older rooster. . .after the age of 2 they lose their effectiveness for breeding/mating.

The remaining rooster still has healing spots that look like scabs and I would suspect that this is because of the severity of the last fight.

I have seen my hens peck at the comb and waddles of my rooster and sometimes I think this is the hen's way of showing attention to her perspective mate.

Your spots may not be healed by Wednesday but Good Luck!