Mites? How to fix?

[guest226]

My chicken is very healthy but she has been preening her neck excessively for a year or more. She lives in a stress free environment with plenty of enrichment. Her feathers are generally less kempt than her sisters. I’ve dewormed her regularly and she has normal vent feathers.

I cannot see visable dustiness, eggs, or any moving bugs. The skin just seems to be dry. It is not red. She doesn’t shake her head and she dustbathes almost every day.

She seems to have broken off her feathers at the root, not rippled them out. She is NOT molting.

Are these mites or just a quirk of hers? How do I fix it with the most harm free method?

The images below are when I lift up her neck feathers. Some pin feathers are growing in.


@Eggcessive
@Wyorp Rock

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have a rooster who may be pulling out her feathers when mating? She has some pin feathers growing in.

 

[guest226]

Do you have a rooster who may be pulling out her feathers when mating? She has some pin feathers growing in.

I do not have any roosters! And she is kind of the top hen, she picks on my other girls.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would not treat for mites unless you see them moving on her, or you see where they have been hiding in the coop during the day under roosts, etc. Permethrin garden dust used in a sock to dust the chicken, or the permethrin spray can be used. Use it at least twice at 7 day intervals.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I cannot see visable dustiness, eggs, or any moving bugs. The skin just seems to be dry. It is not red. She doesn’t shake her head and she dustbathes almost every day.

She seems to have broken off her feathers at the root, not rippled them out. She is NOT molting.

Hard to tell the location.

I agree, I see some new pin feathers coming in amongst the broken ones. Broken feathers will be replaced once she starts to molt.

If you see no bugs, then I wouldn't treat.