Feather growth after depluming mites?

[Hopeful homesteader]

I'm a little late in identifying it but I believe my chickens have depluming mites and since I have no avian vet nearby to confirm, I went ahead and got ivermectin pour on and gave them the first treatment last Wed and will do a second treatment next week. Within 2 days the feather picking stopped and I haven't seen any new feather loss since. The down feathers are coming back already so I'm glad their skin has some coverage but I'm only seeing sparse pin feathers coming in on 3 of them so far. I covered most of the run with shade cloth and give them scrambled eggs every Sunday for the last 3 weeks to help with feather growth. I've read they can be bald until fall molt but I'm hoping some will grow in to protect their backs from the summer sun. Is there anything else I can do to help? How long does it take to see new pin feathers if any do grow? Some feathers look like sticks with no hairs on the shafts so I'm assuming those will stay like that until molt and only a chance of growth from the ones that were plucked.

 

[dawg53]

You can put aprons or saddles on your birds to protect their backs from the sun. Here's where you can buy them:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265575876072?hash=item3dd58e45e8:g:2fwAAOSw65FXsfID

You can feed your birds Gamebird feed which has higher protein content and will encourage feather regrowth. Feed them the Gamebird feed for one month, then wean them off the Gamebird feed back to regular layer feed.

 

[Saveria]

You are right, if they broke feathers off at the base, but there is still some feather shaft in their skin, those will come back when they molt in the fall. The only feathers that come back immediately are the ones that they took out completely.

Wow, I never thought about them getting sunburned. The pin feathers should be grown out in about a week from my experience. It is pretty fast.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

You are right, if they broke feathers off at the base, but there is still some feather shaft in their skin, those will come back when they molt in the fall. The only feathers that come back immediately are the ones that they took out completely.

Wow, I never thought about them getting sunburned. The pin feathers should be grown out in about a week from my experience. It is pretty fast.

Only 1 of them is getting sunburned so I made her a thin cotton saddle from old material. Her skin would turn bright pink and then it would heal looking almost like a paper thin scab but it was still smooth like the rest of her skin and then fall off after a day or 2 and happen all over again. She's the only one I've kept in the saddle, the other chickens I've left alone and just check their skin daily so I can put one on if they get sunburned but none of them show even the slightest pink so I'm not sure why she burns so quickly. We ordered a roll of shade cloth for my garden and I have 100 ft left over so I'm enclosing the top and west facing side of the run and planted malabar spinach to vine up and give more coverage. We live in the Arizona desert so I'm not sure if sunburn is something people have to worry about in cooler climates.

 

[Saveria]

The mites will make the skin red, too, but I have never seen skin peel from it. Arizona sun is very different from Vermont sun, though, since it rains here so often. The shade sounds like a great idea, even without the mites

 

[sunnie7]

I'm a little late in identifying it but I believe my chickens have depluming mites and since I have no avian vet nearby to confirm, I went ahead and got ivermectin pour on and gave them the first treatment last Wed and will do a second treatment next week. Within 2 days the feather picking stopped and I haven't seen any new feather loss since. The down feathers are coming back already so I'm glad their skin has some coverage but I'm only seeing sparse pin feathers coming in on 3 of them so far. I covered most of the run with shade cloth and give them scrambled eggs every Sunday for the last 3 weeks to help with feather growth. I've read they can be bald until fall molt but I'm hoping some will grow in to protect their backs from the summer sun. Is there anything else I can do to help? How long does it take to see new pin feathers if any do grow? Some feathers look like sticks with no hairs on the shafts so I'm assuming those will stay like that until molt and only a chance of growth from the ones that were plucked.

How long did you have to treat for? Did yours look like this? I’ve done 2 permethrin 10 treatments a week apart and going to 3rd tomorrow but this is what mine still look like…

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

How long did you have to treat for? Did yours look like this? I’ve done 2 permethrin 10 treatments a week apart and going to 3rd tomorrow but this is what mine still look like…View attachment 3109742

Their last treatment was April 26th and none of them ever had build up like this around their feathers, only slight flaking skin at where the feather meets the skin. I'm talking about depluming mites that burrow into the feather shafts and aren't visible. They don't lay eggs and only have live young so it's easier to get rid of without eggs reinfecting from dirt or coop etc. They were "grooming" themselves excessively as if they were trying to get the itch until they plucked themselves bare on their back that progressed to bald spots on their stomachs and a few feathers they didn't pluck look like sticks. Within 48 hrs of the first treatment they completely stopped and feathers started growing in. I did 2 treatments 2 weeks apart, 5 drops of ivermectin on the back of their necks. From what I have read, ivermectin is the only effective treatment for this type of mite because they burrow so powders won't penetrate where the liquid will absorb into the skin and kill them off when they feed, kinda like the avian version of scabies. The bottle says it will treat every type of mite and parasite internally and externally. There is a recommended egg withdrawal but I haven't bothered with it because I see no point in wasting a month worth of eggs but I stopped giving them out until 2 weeks after the second dose.

 

[Harmoni]

How long did you have to treat for? Did yours look like this? I’ve done 2 permethrin 10 treatments a week apart and going to 3rd tomorrow but this is what mine still look like…View attachment 3109742

I know this is an older post, but those look like lice on your bird.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

For an update, I still have not treated my flock again since April and that was 2 treatments 2 weeks apart and there has been no reinfection. All but 1 of my birds have grown back all their feathers. The dark brahma hen is the only one left with a bare back and I've seen maybe 2-3 new pin feathers come in each month and since she's a slow feathering breed I assume she will remain mostly bald until fall molt which I really expected all of them to be bald until fall but half of them went broody the following month and successfully hatched 12 chicks and I believe that break from egg laying was the biggest contributor to healthy feathers growing in so fast.

 

[Harmoni]

For an update, I still have not treated my flock again since April and that was 2 treatments 2 weeks apart and there has been no reinfection. All but 1 of my birds have grown back all their feathers. The dark brahma hen is the only one left with a bare back and I've seen maybe 2-3 new pin feathers come in each month and since she's a slow feathering breed I assume she will remain mostly bald until fall molt which I really expected all of them to be bald until fall but half of them went broody the following month and successfully hatched 12 chicks and I believe that break from egg laying was the biggest contributor to healthy feathers growing in so fast.

I'm glad the ivermectin worked. That is what I have treated my birds with recently since I am pretty sure it is depluming mites based off the severe feather loss and no visible bugs on the birds. I'm hoping after a good molt my birds are better.