Mites causing illness and death?

[deedles]

Please see my other post "My stupidity killed my chicken" under feeding and watering for the background.

One chicken dead, 5 eating huge amounts and losing weight.

I notice black spots on their combs just now. Mites? Can mites cause illness and death?

 

[deedles]

bump for help

 

[AngelzFyre]

Hi! Is there anyway you can you post a picture of them?
How old are they? What breed are they? What have you been feeding them? How long have you had them? Have you had them checked for parasites and/or de-wormed them?
Are they in a coop/run or free range?

The black spots can be frostbite.
If they are severely debilitated and not eating the mites could add to their demise but they usually do not cause death. Relatively easy to get rid of mites with either DE or Sevin Dust. You'll need to treat the coop and their run as well.

Hope someone else can help more!

 

[sammi]

describe the droppings..color and consistency.
are you able to take a fecal sample to a vet for worm and protozoa test?

where are you located..what is the weather/climate?

sometimes heavy infestations of mites can be a sign that your birds are vulnerable due to health issues..
if your birds are debilitated, mites can further weaken them..as above post suggests..

as above post..
what all do you feed?
have they been wormed?
if so, when? and what was used?

depending on your location, the black spots could be Pox, or frostbite..
or possibly peck marks from other birds pecking at mites.

have you treated them for mites?
if so, what did you use?

 

[deedles]

I'll try to answer your questions>

I can post a pic later on today.

They will be one year in March.

4 silver wyandottes and 1 amauracana. My australorpe died yesterday.

I was feeding a commercial organic feed that was more finely chopped. They were thriving as far as I could tell.
I switched about 4 weeks ago to a different organic feed by countryside naturals. Much coarser grained.

I've just noticed all this yesterday when my australorpe died. I've not had time to check them for worms and today is Sat. I can certainly take a sample Monday... if I have any chickens left, that is.

We keep the coop heated when it's bitter cold so they never gotten below thirty. I didn't notice the black dots earlier and I've read now that mites crawl out at night and suck the chickens blood. I'll look in the daylight today and see if there are black spots stillthere.

I haven't noted that the droppings have changed that much... but again, I just realized I had a problem yesterday and am a real newbie at poultry.

I am in Wisconsin, cold, snowy.. about 30 so far at 4:00 (couldn't sleep, worrying about my girls)

Marks don't look like pecks... look like medium ground black pepper speckled on their combs. As I said, I didn't notice that earlier yesterday in the light. I haven't treated at all with anything... just realized I had a problem yesterday.

They seemed fine other than seemed really hungry and going through almost twice the food since switching them to the new stuff.

I'm starting to lean heavily towards worms....?

 

[nzpouter]

bit strange that you still have mites in cold weather... but never know with heated coop, possibly...

Heavy mites infestation can cause birds to be anemic... and with less blood cells carrying nutrients, your bird will be losing condition fast....

 

[nzpouter]

feed them some dog roll for a week to bring up their condition....

 

[deedles]

Dog roll? Do you mean canned dog food?

 

[nzpouter]

yep, that'll work too...

 

[JennsPeeps]

You'll be able to see mites if you lift their wings and blow feathers aside until you see skin. They're tiny black dots that move quickly. If you see this, you'll need to treat it. I've been using Seven dust 5% on my banty cochin who always gets mites.