Chicken Feather Disease

[azhnasa]

Hello Everybody,

I have 15 chickens and it seems that they start getting some sort of feather disease. It started with only one of them, around 6 months ago, but now almost half of them got it.

Please see the attached six photos. Does anybody in this forum know what this disease is, whether it is dangerous or not and how I can treat it ?

All the chickens are perfectly fine, they mostly lay egg and they all look healthy otherwise. The only problem is with their feather, otherwise they look and act perfectly fine.

Also, to mention that this is NOT seasonal. And their feathers aren't growing back. This started almost 6 months ago and still the first one who got it has not grown new feathers.

If I want to describe it, at first it starts with feathers that look wet, even though they are not wet ( like the yellow chicken in the first and second photos ) and then after a few weeks they start losing those wet looking feathers.

Thanks ,

T

 

[Perris]

have a close look at the feather shafts, and take photos of those areas and the bare patches please.

 

[dawg53]

Overcrowding can be an issue. Does your birds have enough space between them inside your coop? Chickens need about 2-3 square feet in the coop and about 8-10 square feet for outdoor enclosures. If they dont have enough space inside the coop, it's time to expand.

Do you keep a light "on" at night inside the coop? If so, shut it off.

Do you have multiple roosters? One for a flock of 15 is enough. Roosters can rough up hens, especially young ones.

Ensure they are fed a good quality layer feed containing at least 16% protein. Eliminate all the goodies and treats.

I saw the broken feather shafts. If the broken feathers arnt on the ground, where are they? If you dont see feathers on the ground, it means they are being eaten which suggests a diet deficient in protein. You can provide gamebird feed for them to eat for one month. It is higher in protein than regular layer feed and will encourage feather regrowth. After one month, slowly wean them back to regular layer feed.

Broken feather shafts also means there are possibly feather pickers in your flock. It all started with one bird, then the others copy catted. Hopefully the higher protein content in the gamebird feed will stop the feather picking. If not, the feather pickers will have to be eliminated.

Finally, I'm sure you've already closely inspected your birds. Therefore if you had seen external parasites (lice/mites) you wouldve mentioned it. Take a look around the vent area and see if there are lice eggs attached to the base of the feather shafts.

Personally, I suspect there's possibly overcrowding inside the coop causing problems in the pecking order and the results are in the pics.

 

[LaFleche]

They look as if they were affected by Ornithonyssus sylviarum rather than Dermanyssus gallinae.

 

[azhnasa]

Thank you for your responses. They have over a 1000 sf space available and they eat high quality layer feed . I also don't leave any lights on at night. And I have no roosters. Only 15 chickens roaming around freely in a 1000 sf enclosure. Yes, I see feather on the ground and no, there is no feather picker among them.

 

[azhnasa]

Thank you LaFleche,
Assuming it is Ornithonyssus sylviarum or Dermanyssus gallinae, how should I treat it ?

 

[azhnasa]

They look as if they were affected by Ornithonyssus sylviarum rather than Dermanyssus gallinae.

Thank you LaFleche,
Assuming it is Ornithonyssus sylviarum or Dermanyssus gallinae, how should I treat it ?

 

[azhnasa]

Overcrowding can be an issue. Does your birds have enough space between them inside your coop? Chickens need about 2-3 square feet in the coop and about 8-10 square feet for outdoor enclosures. If they dont have enough space inside the coop, it's time to expand.

Do you keep a light "on" at night inside the coop? If so, shut it off.

Do you have multiple roosters? One for a flock of 15 is enough. Roosters can rough up hens, especially young ones.

Ensure they are fed a good quality layer feed containing at least 16% protein. Eliminate all the goodies and treats.

I saw the broken feather shafts. If the broken feathers arnt on the ground, where are they? If you dont see feathers on the ground, it means they are being eaten which suggests a diet deficient in protein. You can provide gamebird feed for them to eat for one month. It is higher in protein than regular layer feed and will encourage feather regrowth. After one month, slowly wean them back to regular layer feed.

Broken feather shafts also means there are possibly feather pickers in your flock. It all started with one bird, then the others copy catted. Hopefully the higher protein content in the gamebird feed will stop the feather picking. If not, the feather pickers will have to be eliminated.

Finally, I'm sure you've already closely inspected your birds. Therefore if you had seen external parasites (lice/mites) you wouldve mentioned it. Take a look around the vent area and see if there are lice eggs attached to the base of the feather shafts.

Personally, I suspect there's possibly overcrowding inside the coop causing problems in the pecking order and the results are in the pics.

Thank you for your response. They have over a 1000 sf space available and they eat high quality layer feed . I also don't leave any lights on at night. And I have no roosters. Only 15 chickens roaming around freely in a 1000 sf enclosure. Yes, I see feather on the ground and no, there is no feather picker among them.

 

[dawg53]

Did you inspect them for lice and/or mites as LaFleche mentioned?

 

[LaFleche]

Thank you LaFleche,
Assuming it is Ornithonyssus sylviarum or Dermanyssus gallinae, how should I treat it ?

Treatment is not easy, here you have some info from the website https://thepoultrysite.com/articles/northern-fowl-mite-management :

"Treatment Options Limited

*
"Treatment options are limited and may be only partially effective, which makes prevention even more important."

Treatment for mites is difficult, expensive, and may be only partially successful.


Unfortunately, mites have developed at least partial resistance to many of the chemicals used to treat an infestation. Furthermore, new promising substitute products for mite control will probably not become available anytime soon.


Sulphur was used as a miticide in the past and is being used again in certain parts of the US with some degree of success (Clark, 2013). Compared to many other products, sulphur is inexpensive and relatively easy to apply but it has to be done correctly and even then, may provide only partial suppression of mite infestations.


Unfortunately, however, many growers are allergic to sulphur or they use it wrongly. They may “dust” it in with a backpack blower and their fans but this gives poor coverage on the birds (Hubbard, 2013). Some growers simply open several bags of sulphur in the house and expect the chickens to “dust themselves” but this is also ineffective. In addition, the dust formulation method of treatment may not place the active ingredient directly on the birds’ skin where it will do the most good.


Products used to kill mites do not kill the eggs, so you have to come back in a few days and treat again (Hubbard, 2013). The seven-day life cycle means that if you wait more than about seven days before treating a second time, a whole new generation of mites have developed from hatched eggs that were unaffected by the initial treatment. Growers often only treat once when it may take at least three treatments strategically spaced close together to get all the mites from recent hatchings.


Another product that has yielded varying degrees of success is diatomaceous earth (DE). Diatomaceous earth is believed to be a natural insect control powder. It is obtained from deposits of diatomite, which are the fossilised sedimentary layers of tiny phytoplankton called diatoms. DE is a form of amorphous silica that can kill insects by absorbing their oily or waxy cuticle layer (Jacob et al., 2011). When this thin, waterproof layer is lost, the insect loses water and dies. In addition to its desiccant action, DE works abrasively to rupture insect cuticles. However, like sulphur, when used as a dust, it may not reach the birds’ skin where the mites live. Also, a single treatment will likely not get all the mites that hatch after the initial treatment so the infestation may quickly re-establish itself unless multiple treatments are used at strategic intervals.


In some breeder flocks where nothing else seems to work, extra-label use of ivermectin has proven an effective method of control for the northern fowl mite. Like other products, it appears to work best when at least two treatments are made a few days apart. It is expensive but may be cost-effective depending on the severity of the problem, especially if other options have been exhausted with little or no results. It can sometimes be difficult to keep in solution and has to be used with propylene glycol but even more important, ivermectin is not labelled for use on poultry (Hubbard, 2013). This means you must get a prescription from a licensed veterinarian before using it on breeder flocks."