Hen is pretty much eating herself... Help!! *PICTURES POST 7*

[Judy]

Here is a publication on lice and mites. They are very hard to see. Some kinds can only be seen at night with a light, as they get off the chicken during the day.

What about molting? Some chickens look pretty raggedy during a full molt. How old is she? Has she ever molted?

People often use DE as a preventive, but it is said it will not kill them if there is an infestation. For that you need Sevin 5% garden dust or ivermetcin or some other products. You also need to treat the coop and other chickens. I'll give you a link to a thread about that, too.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6006304#p6006304

 

[MattalynsBarn]

Okay, so here is more detailed information about the situation:

We have 5 Easter Egger hens, 3 Speckled Sussex hens, and 1 Speckled Sussex (extremely friendly) roo. They are 9 months old now. Sometime during the fall of 2010 a few of our chickens started losing some feathers. We're pretty sure it was a mini molt because it stopped after a few weeks. However, Vivian got worse and worse. We have never dusted because we couldn't get enough information on the process. Their egg production has been really bad since January due to egg eating, not laying in the boxes, and some other unknown cause. We have never had a broody hen and this is our first batch of chickens. Only one chicken has died and that was when they were 3 days old. None of the other chickens are showing any displays of itchy-ness for are they pulling out all their feathers. Vivian seems to be right in the middle of the pecking order. They are in a fully enclosed, 20 by 20 dog pen 24/7 and go into a hen house at night with plenty of room. I can't really think of anything else that would be relevant... They eat Purina Layena... Um yeah I think that's it. We had some frost-bitten combs but this started long before then. Anything else ya'll need to know, please ask

I want to get her better...