Depluming mites and treating the RUN

[Tracyree]

I'm dealing with the same issue so found this thread. We have had our girls separated all summer from the roosters in the hopes they could regrow their feathers in time for winter, but some girls just seem to be getting worse and worse, despite no mating, to the point where it's somewhat embarrassing.

However, I don't see how feather picking and mites are necessarily separate issues. If they're picking their feathers, they may be doing it because they are uncomfortable or in pain. If you do a simple google search on depluming mites for example, here's what you get "parasitic mites that burrow into the feather shafts and surrounding skin of chickens, causing intense itching and irritation that leads birds to pluck out their own feathers, resulting in broken and sparse plumage."

Also, when I look at your pictures, I do think I see some specks. I have a rooster that likes to get pets on my lap and I noticed tiny little specks, no larger than a pencil dot, moving up and down his legs occasionally. At first I thought perhaps it was scaly leg mites and that maybe they are more visible in some cases. But then I followed one of the dots all the way up and sure enough when I parted his tail feathers, I found several of these dots or specs hanging out around his vent.

Thanks. I have looked and looked for mites and never found one. Depluming mites arent visible to naked eye from what I understand. There’s no mite poop at the base of feathers, so i dont think it’s mites. I treated today regardless.

 

[Henhouse Harlot]

I’m following this with great interest, and I’m now on the edge of my seat! Please let us know if the deep clean & PSP worked!

 

[Tracyree]

I’m following this with great interest, and I’m now on the edge of my seat! Please let us know if the deep clean & PSP worked!

Well it’s looking good. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence and this girl finally went into molt, but check this out!! A back FULL of pin feathers. I cried when I saw them.

Today is day 7 after the deep clean and dip, so I dipped the poor things again to get any eggs that might have hatched since last week.

I never saw ANY evidence of mites aside from bald vents and this one with a bald vent and back. No dirty feather bases, nothing. I looked under microscope at feathers and inside feather sheaths. Nothing. But either they did have depluming mites or this is a coincidence. Either way I am THRILLED to see improvement.

The others just have bald vents, not backs. No pin feathers on those yet. Hoping to be back in a week with good news about them.

 

[tamdeva]

Having problems with Depluming mites, and I have not seen any. And I did skin scrapings and feather plucking to look under microscope too. But it has to be Depluming mites. They are destroying the freathers on my chickens!
The Depluming mites are like Sarcoptic mites, they burrow under the skin killing feathers on birds or hair follicles, if its Sarcoptic on animals with hair. They cannot be seen with the naked eye. Have to do scrapings. and look under a microscope. A good kids microscope works fine. Ivermectin Pour on, is the only treatment that into the skin/body and kills the mites. But I have treated mine, and now are coming back. also did my coop and run, and racking the feathers up weekly. And spraying coop and run too. Going to now treat in their water with injectable ivermectin. Put in one waterer, and so they have to drink it, and remove others. Treat for 2 days in a row. Repeat in 14 days. And clean and spray coop and run AGAIN. About to pull out my own hair myself over this.

 

[Chicken-newb]

Having problems with Depluming mites, and I have not seen any. And I did skin scrapings and feather plucking to look under microscope too. But it has to be Depluming mites. They are destroying the freathers on my chickens!
The Depluming mites are like Sarcoptic mites, they burrow under the skin killing feathers on birds or hair follicles, if its Sarcoptic on animals with hair. They cannot be seen with the naked eye. Have to do scrapings. and look under a microscope. A good kids microscope works fine. Ivermectin Pour on, is the only treatment that into the skin/body and kills the mites. But I have treated mine, and now are coming back. also did my coop and run, and racking the feathers up weekly. And spraying coop and run too. Going to now treat in their water with injectable ivermectin. Put in one waterer, and so they have to drink it, and remove others. Treat for 2 days in a row. Repeat in 14 days. And clean and spray coop and run AGAIN. About to pull out my own hair myself over this.

Im confused by this. You said you did scrapings and still didn't see any mites but you are still treating with Ivermectin? Why? I'm just curious because I thought a scraping should show dep. mites if they have them.

 

[khind]

I would suspect feather picking since that is more common than feather mites. Feather picking is a learned habit that is hard to break and can take place while chickens are on the roost or just standing around. Boredom from not getting outside, too little protein or imbalance in the diet, too much light or heat in the coop, or not enough roost space can be possible causes. Some breeds are more aggressive as well. You could ask your vet or a friend with a microscope to look at feathers under a microscope for tiny mites. When feathers get pulled out, they may not come back in until the next yearly molt. Elector PSP is a good product to use on mites and lice. Ivermectin pour on (5 mg per ml) could also be used at a dosage of 0.1 ml for every 2 pounds of weight on the back of the neck over the spine once and again in 10 days. A thorough coop cleanout and spraying with the Elector PSP or permethrin would be helpful. Hopefully, you can get this figured out. If you see some blue feather shafts growing in after a molt, watch to see if they are pecked out. Reddened skin from irrtation or pecking can lead to more pecking.

Can I ask you a question? I'm about to add a few adult chickens to my flock (which I ordinarily don't do) because a dear friend passed away suddenly and I want to be able to provide a good home to at least some of them. They live just a couple acres over, and they all seem healthy otherwise and he took good care of them, but... many have bare backs which I suspect is feather picking (although I'm willing to treat for depluming mites if needed). They didn't have as much space in their run as mine do. If it is feather picking, have you ever dealt with that? You say it's a hard habit to break [insert sad, concerned face]. My small flock has never had a bare back or behind. I think as a precaution from my birds paying undue attention to the areas, especially if feathers end up starting to come back in, I could put mating saddles on the newbies (if it would help). I plan to section off a part of the run which includes a roost area and have them in it, if I do treat them as a precaution. Either way, once they're acclimated to the coop and run (after 5 days of staying inside, I think?) they'll be able to have even more room in the chicken yard almost daily, than just in the coop and run, which, again, will be more space than what they've been used to.
* I'm wondering whether affording them more space, from what you know, might be able to stop a picking habit, if that's what it is.
* Also wondering if the whole space will need to be treated; I've read that's not necessary with depluming mites because they live on the body exclusively.
*Finally, if it would be better to start a new thread with this, I can copy and paste and do that.
Thank you.

 

[Chicken-newb]

Can I ask you a question? I'm about to add a few adult chickens to my flock (which I ordinarily don't do) because a dear friend passed away suddenly and I want to be able to provide a good home to at least some of them. They live just a couple acres over, and they all seem healthy otherwise and he took good care of them, but... many have bare backs which I suspect is feather picking (although I'm willing to treat for depluming mites if needed). They didn't have as much space in their run as mine do. If it is feather picking, have you ever dealt with that? You say it's a hard habit to break [insert sad, concerned face]. My small flock has never had a bare back or behind. I think as a precaution from my birds paying undue attention to the areas, especially if feathers end up starting to come back in, I could put mating saddles on the newbies (if it would help). I plan to section off a part of the run which includes a roost area and have them in it, if I do treat them as a precaution. Either way, once they're acclimated to the coop and run (after 5 days of staying inside, I think?) they'll be able to have even more room in the chicken yard almost daily, than just in the coop and run, which, again, will be more space than what they've been used to.
* I'm wondering whether affording them more space, from what you know, might be able to stop a picking habit, if that's what it is.
* Also wondering if the whole space will need to be treated; I've read that's not necessary with depluming mites because they live on the body exclusively.
*Finally, if it would be better to start a new thread with this, I can copy and paste and do that.
Thank you.

I have heard free ranging isn't a guaranteed solution to picking. I was told to isolate the picker and then in 3-14 days (I know, it's quite the range), the hen will go down in pecking order and usually is not a picker anymore. Might also have to do something to hide the bare skin from unwanted attention, which I haven't managed to do with my hen.