Ivermectin is the next step

[Kacey's Krazee's]

I am having problems with my girls feathers. They are losing them. They are pecking each other and pulling them out and eating them. I have also, a large amount of outer feathers laying around the ground and inside the coop. This started around the middle of March. They don't seem to be attacking each other, as in pecking sores on each other. I first thought it was mites. I looked and looked and couldn't find any bugs on any of them. Mites or lice. Hmmm. Maybe too many treats? So I cut them almost entirely out. They get BOSS in the morning, 2 cups for 23 girls. I am not giving them any scratch, occasionally will pick some grass/weeds and put it into their run with them. They do not free range, and have plenty of space for the size flock. The coop is 8 X 16, and they have a 16 X 24 run attached to it. They are on Layena, crumbles, and I free offer oyster shell. My DH and myself, dusted the girls on March 29, with Poultry Dust,using the powder puff method. Still not seeing any bugs, but they are still losing and eating feathers. I do see that some of the girls are regrowing new feathers, but others are still losing them. Some areas where there is feather loss, the skin is reddish, and chapped looking, but others, it's just skin.
Now that I have that all out, my next step is to try the Ivermectin. I have Ivermectin pour on for Cattle, 5 mg.
I would appreciate if someone would explain how to administer this to the girls. Do I just find a spot under their feathers and administer the meds? Meaning, do I apply it like you would Frontline on a dog or cat?
1 other question, I have full size chooks. What would the dose be?

Thanks so much ahead of time for your help. I know this is long winded.....

 

[leeandtina]

bumping up for you since you didn't get a reply yet...wish i could offer some insight. we're still fairly new w/identifying things. i do know there was a great thread on the steps for worming and the doses...it was awesome. i did subscribe to it but now i can't figure out how to get to the topics that i subscribed to i know there has to be a way, right?! we kind of went through the same thing w/our girls. we kept looking for mites/lice everywhere but never found anything. those poor girls and our roo got powdered 3 x's over a period of time. i was wondering if it was our roo being a bit rough? but he had a spot himself too? he would peck at a certain spot and then it got sore then healed. now they are all growing their feathers back. but we notice some loss here and there. even wondered if it might be molting but they never did a complete full body molt. anywho, sorry this is long winded too and not much help. we didn't get as far as worming here but have that planned for this friday or saturday. it stinks to have the loss of eggs for 2 wks then. and everyone is laying an egg a day at times i wonder if they need the worming because they seem healthy except for the feather loss....running about, laying everyday, eating/drinking fine. guess it needs to be done even if they aren't showing signs hope someone can help you out or at least find the link!!!

 

[purpletree23]

If they are loosing feathers and new ones are coming in (small pointy quills) then they are molting. They need extra protein to get them through this difficult time. It takes a lot of good nutrition to get those beautiful feathers to grow.

If they are EATING the feathers then they have a protein deficiency in their diet. Add more protein. Offer them...

scrambled eggs, leftover cooked meat run through a food processor or my favorite bake a roaster chicken for dinner for the family, take off the extra meat for another meal and give the chickens the carcass to clean up.

 

[Kacey's Krazee's]

Thanks Purpletree for your input. I am going to go out tonight, after dark, and check to see if I can see any bugs. If I still can't see any, I am going to concentrate on the diet. Someone PM'd me about Nutra Drench, and I am going to look into that further. I wasn't sure myself which way to go, diet or pests. I really hope I don't see anything tonight, and I can adjust to increase the protein and other minerals they may need. I was going to spend time watching the girls today too, but that hasn't happened yet. I was going to watch for a mean hen, just randomly picking on the others. We don't have a 'roo in our flock, so I know that rough mating isn't an issue either.

Leeandtina, thanks for the bump today. If you want to find your subscribed topics, when you are on the index page, scroll all the way to the bottom, and you will see in the bottom left hand corner, new posts, subscribed topics, unanswered posts etc. Select the subscribed topics, and you should find them there!