chick lossing feathers and not growing new ones

[PigionLover112]

I need help, I have a chick that is now about three moths old and it is loosing feathers like crazy. But when it looses its feathers it does not grow any back. it has mostly fuzz whitch all chicks have and then a few prim feathers on the tips of its wings. Can anyone please help me.

 

[mesafox101]

do the feathers fall out when you touch them?????

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post some pictures? Many times feather picking is a cause of feather loss, but sometimes lice or mites can be the cause. How much room in your coop, and do they get outside daily to roam? What do you feed your chickens? Look his skin over around the vent, under wings, and the neck for tiny moving bugs. Here is a good link about lice and mites:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/08/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification.html

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

At 12 weeks the pullet is too young to be molting. She should have finished feathering out at about 6 weeks...

You'll need a strong light source, and if you don't have great vision like me, you might need magnifying glass too.

You have to thoroughly examine the pullet, wrap her in a dish towel to restrain and calm her. Sit in a chair and set her on your lap under a strong light.
If she is not used to you picking her up, stroke her wattles and reassure her with soft voice.

When she is calm, start looking carefully through her feathers and down. Search the neck, back, under wings and the legs.

You are looking for mites and/or lice. The mites will be on the skin and feather and lice prefer to live on the feather as they munch away at the barbs. Also, look at the base of the feathers where these bugs will lay eggs or nits.

If she is infested, which will cause feather loss, you'll see them. Gross...but you can do it.

Examine the skin while you are at it. Does it look healthy? No patches of irritation, scabs, white or gray discolorations?

Next, check the legs. The scales should be smooth and not lifting or crusty looking.
Mites will get up under the leg scales which is very painful for the chicken.

If she is clean, then, it could be a nutritional deficiency, sometimes even a combination of nutritional and parasitic.

Hopefully you will solve this mystery, until then, feed her some extra protein. A couple of teaspoons of meat protein that you may have in the fridge will do. If you don't have meat available, some freeze dried meal worms will help.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Let us know what you find or don't find.

Then, we'll go from there.

Another poster may have even more advice.

That's the great thing about BYC, they say two heads are better than one...well, you'll have many reading and posting to you here.

God Bless!

 

[sylviethecochin]

At 12 weeks the pullet is too young to be molting. She should have finished feathering out at about 6 weeks...

You'll need a strong light source, and if you don't have great vision like me, you might need magnifying glass too.

You have to thoroughly examine the pullet, wrap her in a dish towel to restrain and calm her. Sit in a chair and set her on your lap under a strong light.
If she is not used to you picking her up, stroke her wattles and reassure her with soft voice.

When she is calm, start looking carefully through her feathers and down. Search the neck, back, under wings and the legs.

You are looking for mites and/or lice. The mites will be on the skin and feather and lice prefer to live on the feather as they munch away at the barbs. Also, look at the base of the feathers where these bugs will lay eggs or nits.
View attachment 1166958
If she is infested, which will cause feather loss, you'll see them. Gross...but you can do it.

Examine the skin while you are at it. Does it look healthy? No patches of irritation, scabs, white or gray discolorations?

Next, check the legs. The scales should be smooth and not lifting or crusty looking.
Mites will get up under the leg scales which is very painful for the chicken.

If she is clean, then, it could be a nutritional deficiency, sometimes even a combination of nutritional and parasitic.

Hopefully you will solve this mystery, until then, feed her some extra protein. A couple of teaspoons of meat protein that you may have in the fridge will do. If you don't have meat available, some freeze dried meal worms will help.

And if it is mites, here's some reassurance: Happily, chicken mites can't spread to humans.
Also, dog spray (the seven-day stuff that kills mite eggs too) has never hurt my chickens. I spray the roost and boxes down every time I clean the coop.

 

[junebuggena]

Pictures?

 

[HeidiEmbrey]

And if it is mites, here's some reassurance: Happily, chicken mites can't spread to humans.
Also, dog spray (the seven-day stuff that kills mite eggs too) has never hurt my chickens. I spray the roost and boxes down every time I clean the coop.

yipe that seven dust is so toxic ''seven dust is toxic to humans and pets alike, Sevin is highly toxic to bees, aquatic invertebrates, and mollusks. Groundwater contamination and subsequent runoff affects the entire food chain. It also increases the toxicity of another common yard chemical, 2-4-D or Scotts Weed & Feed or Miracle Grow'' https://foodtruthfreedom.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/sevin-dust-is-not-your-garden-friend/

..wood ash and dichotomous earth will get rid of them and wont risk killing you and everyone else on earth while you're at it. 6th mass extinction and all that.

Wood ash is a completely all natural way to rid chickens of lice and mites. In fact, you can even rub your chickens down (to the skin) with wood ash and a little dusty dirt rather than using DE. It will naturally kill mites and lice. Make sure there is plenty of wood ash in the dust bathing area for the next 4 weeks.Apr 3, 2015 https://www.motherearthnews.com/hom.../how-to-naturally-treat-chicken-lice-zbcz1504

 

[sylviethecochin]

yipe that seven dust is so toxic ''seven dust is toxic to humans and pets alike, Sevin is highly toxic to bees, aquatic invertebrates, and mollusks. Groundwater contamination and subsequent runoff affects the entire food chain. It also increases the toxicity of another common yard chemical, 2-4-D or Scotts Weed & Feed or Miracle Grow'' https://foodtruthfreedom.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/sevin-dust-is-not-your-garden-friend/

..wood ash and dichotomous earth will get rid of them and wont risk killing you and everyone else on earth while you're at it. 6th mass extinction and all that.

Wood ash is a completely all natural way to rid chickens of lice and mites. In fact, you can even rub your chickens down (to the skin) with wood ash and a little dusty dirt rather than using DE. It will naturally kill mites and lice. Make sure there is plenty of wood ash in the dust bathing area for the next 4 weeks.Apr 3, 2015 https://www.motherearthnews.com/hom.../how-to-naturally-treat-chicken-lice-zbcz1504

It's not Sevin. I use a dog flea and lice spray (Hartz), which soaks into the wood of the nesting boxes and then is covered in hay. It stays in the coop, where the toxic chemical buildup kills my parasites. The chickens are then locked out of the coop for the day, where they can dust-bathe in the wood ash we keep under the porch.

And numerous studies have shown DE to be a supplemental parasite control at best. There's a reason people have engineered sprays and there's no reason to avoid them if I use them responsibly.

EDT: I did once spray an elderly RIR rooster directly with the spray after a severe infestation (he ran off the the Amish neighbor's barn for a few months and caught all sorts of lovely things) Given the severity of infestation, and the fact that it was mid-winter and he'd lost several pounds and a lot of feathers, I think it saved his life.

 

[HeidiEmbrey]

It's not Sevin. I use a dog flea and lice spray (Hartz), which soaks into the wood of the nesting boxes and then is covered in hay. It stays in the coop, where the toxic chemical buildup kills my parasites. The chickens are then locked out of the coop for the day, where they can dust-bathe in the wood ash we keep under the porch.

And numerous studies have shown DE to be a supplemental parasite control at best. There's a reason people have engineered sprays and there's no reason to avoid them if I use them responsibly.

EDT: I did once spray an elderly RIR rooster directly with the spray after a severe infestation (he ran off the the Amish neighbor's barn for a few months and caught all sorts of lovely things) Given the severity of infestation, and the fact that it was mid-winter and he'd lost several pounds and a lot of feathers, I think it saved his life.

They developed those things because they didn't know any better, and best case scenario and it doesn't poison you and your chickens and give you all cancer it still gets into our ground water and ecosystems and I think we should be more responsible than that.
I did say use DE as a supplement to wood ash. Just because toxins work doesn't mean you should use it, doesn't mean you won't see long term bad effects, and doesn't mean there aren't many non toxic ways of doing the same thing.

Here is the schedule and the products you should use to treat chicken mites and lice {completely all natural}.

1. Examine all chickens. Lice will be visible on the skin of the belly and around the vent. They will be nasty and crawling quickly, so look thoroughly. Assume that all of your flock could potentially have lice or lice eggs on them. Lice eggs will be seen (pictured above) at the base and on the shaft of the feather. Separate chickens that look anemic or lethargic from the rest of the flock. For chickens that visibly have lice on them, dust (to the skin) cautiously with food grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE). Wood ash is a more natural option if you are against DE. However, DE works just fine on our homestead and we have absolutely zero issues using it.

2. Create a large bathing area for your chickens if you do not already have one. Fill it with fresh wood ash. Wood ash is a completely all natural way to rid chickens of lice and mites. In fact, you can even rub your chickens down (to the skin) with wood ash and a little dusty dirt rather than using DE. It will naturally kill mites and lice. Make sure there is plenty of wood ash in the dust bathing area for the next 4 weeks.


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3. Thoroughly clean out coop and give a good layer of DE to the entire coop, including roosts and nesting boxes. Do not put bedding down for 1 hour. Do not allow your chickens back into the coop for 2 hours so that the dust settles. Lock them in their run or allow them to free range without coop access for 2 hours, total.

4. Lice eggs hatch every 7 to 10 days. So, you will need to inspect them again in exactly one week after the first treatment, and until the eggs hatch and complete their cycle (we suggest treating for 4 weeks). The wood ash dust bath, in and of itself, should kill all of the newly hatched lice from your regular flock. However, if you actually see lice (not just eggs) on your chickens in one weeks time, reapply DE or wood ash directly on the chicken down to the skin once more. The same with week #3. By week #4, there should be zero lice (in most cases, there's no lice after week #2). Continue to make sure there is plenty of wood ash in their dust bathing area, or bathe them in the wood ash instead of the DE.

5. For your more delicate chickens who may have become anemic, you'll need to pamper them a bit more. You will need to put the wood ash or DE directly on their skin and give them a nice rubdown for the next couple of weeks since they will be too weak to bathe themselves. You will also need to get their iron levels back up. This will require giving them plenty of raw red meat (which they will love) and other iron rich snacks and meals. After the 4 week healing period, they will most likely be ready to go back in with the rest of the flock. However, if you have roosters, you will need to make sure your ladies are strong enough to support being mated. If not, wait until they are strong enough before putting them back in with the flock.

If you prefer a more gentle way than rubbing your chickens down with DE or wood ash, a nice warm bath with dawn dish liquid will work just fine. But you'll need to make sure it's done on a warm day or that they are blown dry so that they do not get cold. Also, I just can't imagine giving anymore than 4 chickens a bath!