Do my chickens have mites?

[Friendofchix]

Hello everyone, I have a mixed flock of 8 hens and 1 rooster. Five have bare bottoms and four do not. I don’t see mites on them but I am relying on pictures on the internet for identification. They have been this way for months. They are all happy, bright eyed, eating and laying well. They have a dust bath with a combination of DE, wood ash, and sand. DE is sprinkled in the coop as well. Is this mites or feather picking or something else?

 

[Debbie292d]

Hello everyone, I have a mixed flock of 8 hens and 1 rooster. Five have bare bottoms and four do not. I don’t see mites on them but I am relying on pictures on the internet for identification. They have been this way for months. They are all happy, bright eyed, eating and laying well. They have a dust bath with a combination of DE, wood ash, and sand. DE is sprinkled in the coop as well. Is this mites or feather picking or something else?

Have you been pretty religiously sprinkling DE in their dust baths and the coop? We are, and never get mites albeit the SLM (scaly leg mites.) I'd guess feather picking perhaps if that's the case.

DE is a preventative though, so if you find out it's mites, you may want to get some Permethryn powder and dust your chickens and the coop with it.


Here's a good article on mites, lice, etc. from a friend of mine, @TwoCrows

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-fleas-dealing-with-external-parasites.74599/

 

[Friendofchix]

These are the bare bottoms on otherwise healthy girls.

 

[aart]

Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?

Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.

Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).

Good post about mite ID by Lady McCamley:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-chicken-has-mites-now-what.1273674/page-2#post-20483008

 

[Friendofchix]

Have you been pretty religiously sprinkling DE in their dust baths and the coop? We are, and never get mites albeit the SLM (scaly leg mites.) I'd guess feather picking perhaps if that's the case.

Yes, use DE in the coop and dust bath with no change.

Have you been pretty religiously sprinkling DE in their dust baths and the coop? We are, and never get mites albeit the SLM (scaly leg mites.) I'd guess feather picking perhaps if that's the case.

DE is a preventative though, so if you find out it's mites, you may want to get some Permethryn powder and dust your chickens and the coop with it.


Here's a good article on mites, lice, etc. from a friend of mine, @TwoCrows

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-fleas-dealing-with-external-parasites.74599/

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Friendofchix]

Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?

Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.

Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).

Good post about mite ID by Lady McCamley:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-chicken-has-mites-now-what.1273674/page-2#post-20483008

I wiped the roost bars with a paper towel and didn’t see anything on there. I looked at the bare bottoms and under a few wings ( the rooster was not happy about the disturbance) and didn’t see anything there either. Any other suggestions?

 

[aart]

Bare butts are often due to feather picking.
IME, sometimes it just happens, bothers the keepers more than the birds.