Feathers Being Eaten - Mite?

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@Billy83 remember, the mites are only killed when they travel from feather to feather via the skin. That is why this takes so long. Unfortunately this is the only way to treat these mites.

However as with any illness, if you don't see improvement after a certain period of time on medications, this could always be something else. With feather mites, you will only see less breakage in the feathers. It won't be till a good molt will they replace these ratty feathers with smoother ones. If you have a lot of aggression in your flock, these feathers will break very easily as they chase and nip at feathers.
 
It depends on the situation, but not that ridiculous to cull birds that can't be completely cured. There are many things that have no effective cure.
It is one of those things that affects birds whereby the only known way to completely control is disposal of affected birds and thoroughly cleaning the housing.
A couple examples:
Tuberculosis for one requires culling, removing the top 4 inches of soil and keeping new birds off the same range for 4 years. In that case, most people would be out of the chicken business.
Cholera requires culling and keeping housing vacant for 3 months after disinfecting.
 
ChickenCanoe said:
It depends on the situation, but not that ridiculous to cull birds that can't be completely cured. There are many things that have no effective cure.
It is one of those things that affects birds whereby the only known way to completely control is disposal of affected birds and thoroughly cleaning the housing.
A couple examples:
Tuberculosis for one requires culling, removing the top 4 inches of soil and keeping new birds off the same range for 4 years. In that case, most people would be out of the chicken business.
Cholera requires culling and keeping housing vacant for 3 months after disinfecting.
Click to expand...
Very true....some diseases are so devastating that culling is the only answer. Adding birds to contaminated ground is never wise, neither is keeping horribly sick birds alive.

Some issues can be treated, others not so much. Keeping chickens has a huge learning curve for every keeper. We learn so many new things along the way. What works for one keeper, may not work for the other. So we do what is best for our own situation.
 
Just an update - tomorrow will be the 4th or 5th ivermec treatment. It has slowed down, although this week I've seen it fairly active again on just a couple of birds.

They've stopped preening so much - but it's still not dormant. I can live with the eaten feathers until a moult but I'd feel happier if it wasn't still increasing on a couple.

Fingers crossed it will get better
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I had a terrible case of these mites on 3 of my 25 birds. My leghorns were the worst. I didn't want to use chemicals so I went the wholistic route. I gave them scoby chunks to help with their probiotics once a week, and fed them food grade DE and let them dust bathe in it as well. It took about a month and a half and they've seemed to have gone dormant. The de clings to their skin as the chemicals do so when the mites emerge every 17days they come into contact with the de it kills them. It worked beautifully for our flock and I now keep de around for them all the time, they've also learned to love the scoby chunks. Just another option that may work.
 
[VIDEO]It doesn't, but it would help with any internal parasites that could be comprimising their immune systems. I only mentioned it because it was part of what I did. Like previous comments mentioned, most chickens have these mites, it's only when their immune systems are stressed that they can overwhelm a bird. I figured since I was already supplying it I may as well let them eat it too. It can't hurt them as long as you get the food grade, I just put a small bowel out near their food and they ate it like the oyster shells.
 
Experts like u make the world a better place ... I too was experiencing the same ..treatment is under way thanks to this post and help from 1 of our BYC members, who directed me to this. I was puzzled of what was going on cause u can definitely see it spreading
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thank u. I now under stand.. Makes perfect sense
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