jeff2413
Hatching
- Jun 5, 2016
- 1
- 0
- 9
Good evening to all you chicken people. Eventful day here at hour house.....a little background.
We've had chickens for the past five years and with last springs purchase of 8 chicks we ended up an additional rooster. Not a big deal. Speckled Sussex. Beautiful rooster. Very gentle. He and the 4 year old Buff have gotten along just fine until today. The 12 new chickens from this spring which are now about 12 weeks have caused some serious fighting (all day) between the 2 roosters. I hope they can get something established without one ending up seriously injured or dead. I separated them today multiple times and the second one is loose the fight begins. Guess they will work it out.
Anyway, I was very much up close to the Buff this evening cleaning him up from his fight and I was able to get a good look and some pics of his legs. He started losing feathers a couple of months ago and I first thought it was just an odd molt or something but then noticed the skin being really red. And sometimes hot to the touch (ruber). My research led me to believe it could be mites. I cleaned out the coop really well and sprinkled DE around and in the nest boxes. Covered his legs with vaseline (this is about impossible). I also would dust him when he was on the roost as he really didn't appreciate me touching him. This did nothing. I then tried Blu Kote. This did nothing but make a mess and make my rooster look like a freak with blue legs. I recently tried permethrin dust under his wings at night being very careful not to create a cloud for him or the other chickens to breath. I did this every other night for nearly 2 weeks. Nothing. He has made zero improvements. He hasn't gotten any worse but no better either.
With this being said I've pretty much ruled out mites as none of the other chickens show any sign of feather loss or mites/parasites of
any kind.
Any ideas of what might be causing this and how it can be treated?
Thanks so much!
jeff
We've had chickens for the past five years and with last springs purchase of 8 chicks we ended up an additional rooster. Not a big deal. Speckled Sussex. Beautiful rooster. Very gentle. He and the 4 year old Buff have gotten along just fine until today. The 12 new chickens from this spring which are now about 12 weeks have caused some serious fighting (all day) between the 2 roosters. I hope they can get something established without one ending up seriously injured or dead. I separated them today multiple times and the second one is loose the fight begins. Guess they will work it out.
Anyway, I was very much up close to the Buff this evening cleaning him up from his fight and I was able to get a good look and some pics of his legs. He started losing feathers a couple of months ago and I first thought it was just an odd molt or something but then noticed the skin being really red. And sometimes hot to the touch (ruber). My research led me to believe it could be mites. I cleaned out the coop really well and sprinkled DE around and in the nest boxes. Covered his legs with vaseline (this is about impossible). I also would dust him when he was on the roost as he really didn't appreciate me touching him. This did nothing. I then tried Blu Kote. This did nothing but make a mess and make my rooster look like a freak with blue legs. I recently tried permethrin dust under his wings at night being very careful not to create a cloud for him or the other chickens to breath. I did this every other night for nearly 2 weeks. Nothing. He has made zero improvements. He hasn't gotten any worse but no better either.
With this being said I've pretty much ruled out mites as none of the other chickens show any sign of feather loss or mites/parasites of
any kind.
Any ideas of what might be causing this and how it can be treated?
Thanks so much!
jeff
