Missing neck feathers - help!

[kimanndurr]

My sweet girl Ruthie, an easter egger of unknown age (but laying consistently) has been missing her neck feathers for many months. We got her as a rescue in the spring and her feathers were intact. About a month after she had been with us, she lost her neck feathers and only has what looks like feathers growing in. I was hoping maybe after her fall molt they would grow back in, but they didn’t.

We did treat her with Elector PSP two months ago in case it was mites/lice causing the issue and last month I switched the flock to a 20% feather fixer food to help the flock with the molt and in hopes it would help Ruthie, too.

She is the only one in the flock with this issue. Otherwise she seems happy and healthy!

I would love some guidance on what could be causing this and how we can fix it. Thank you so much!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Have you tried pulling the sheath off to see if her feather is there? She might just be taking a long time to molt by the looks of the rest of her feathers. If not, she may have what's called depluming mites. I treated one of mine that seemed to have a depluming mite issue using a few rounds of ivermectin and garden sulfur powder (dusted my chicken with it). Depluming mites, you won't see as they live in the shaft.

 

[SkyAJK]

I have an Isa Brown hen feather like that, I can not see any mite/lice and I treated her with Pestene Insect Powder, it does not seem to make any different. This is the first time I hear of Depluming mites, I will check this out. Thank you.

The active ingredients for that are : Sulphur & Rotenone (from cube roots)

 

[kimanndurr]

Have you tried pulling the sheath off to see if her feather is there? She might just be taking a long time to molt by the looks of the rest of her feathers. If not, she may have what's called depluming mites. I treated one of mine that seemed to have a depluming mite issue using a few rounds of ivermectin and garden sulfur powder (dusted my chicken with it). Depluming mites, you won't see as they live in the shaft.

I have not tried pulling the sheath off- I didn’t realize that I could!

Regarding depluming mites- I did treat everyone with equimax which contains ivermectin back when I first got them. Would that not be a high enough dosage for depluming mites? Also, none of the other girls are experiencing issues. Is it common for them to just stay on one? Again it has been about 5 months now since she lost her feathers.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I have not tried pulling the sheath off- I didn’t realize that I could!

Regarding depluming mites- I did treat everyone with equimax which contains ivermectin back when I first got them. Would that not be a high enough dosage for depluming mites? Also, none of the other girls are experiencing issues. Is it common for them to just stay on one? Again it has been about 5 months now since she lost her feathers.

With depluming mites, they only come into contact with skin briefly so it takes more treatments to catch them all. The information I found treated them with 3 rounds (every 7 days). It said to also, treat longer if needed. I will see if I can find it again - I believe it was here on byc. I'm not familiar with equimax or if you repeated the treatment which is needed for treatment of the regular pests. I also think treating them with sulfur is key. I'm not sure why, but sulfur is recommended often when treating depluming mites. Usually when you have a feather issue that doesn't resolve and it's only one chicken, it turns out to be depluming mites. I've had 2 chickens in the 8 years that have had it and the treatment worked. These two chickens were years apart and never even met one another. It's not going to hurt to treat her.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Also, just be gentle when pulling the sheath, it's like preening her. You should see a sheath - not just the barb.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Here is the thread. It's an old one and it looks different as it's showing as a whole quote, so click on it to read it. Two Crows is very highly regarded on byc for chicken rearing. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/depluming-mites-and-how-to-treat-hens.674172/post-16525674
Another sign of depluming mites is the length of time that the feather issue continues and doesn't resolve with a molt.