mites? Lice? theyre bald!

[Shawna89]

Noticed my hens are bald on their backs, thought it was my roo breeding them but tonight as I was blue-koteing their poor backs i saw little bugs crawling on one girl so I checked the others and sure enough, little bugs!
So here's my questions.
1) mites or lice? or just bugs in general???
2) the bald spot are red, like almost sunburns, any other stuff I need to put on their backs?
I hate to think, but the poor girls are porbably miserable! burnt, raw, missing feathers, mites....poor ladies!! Otherwise they act completely normal and go about their day of chickenness!

 

[chickengoober]

Well, I found out my girls had lice a couple days ago and a quick pat-down with some seven-dust and the number of bugs on them has dropped ALOT...although there are nits still around thier necks and well will have to continue treatment

. Alwell, they are looking better. The lice looked like tiny little red bugs. Longer than they were fat and the bottom half of thier bodies were more red that the rest. Hope what you have isn't mites

I hear they're a nightmare to deal with.

 

[Emily1220]

I had six that were exactly like that!!! Clean, clean and clean again in the coop and dust every surface with sevin dust. Dust the chickens thoroughly. Repeat in 7 days. But it wasnt til after I bathed mine and did an adams flea dip that I finally got a remission in the mites. I battled them for 6 months. Finally, the feathers are growing back and the sunburn looking areas are looking normal. Oh, and I also put neosporin and or vaseline all over the red areas to soothe the skin. But put it on at night so the heat of the day doesnt make it melt and run off so much. Good luck!!! You CAN win the battle of the mite!!!!

 

[dawg53]

Since you saw them crawling, most likely they are lice. Mites tend to stay in place and are slow movers. I recommend you use sevin dust on all your chickens. You will need to dust the inside their house, nests, and roosts. Redust your chickens and inside their house again in 10 days to kill lice hatched from eggs since the initial dusting. Sevin dust costs $4.97 at Lowes for a 1 pound canister. Edited: consider purchasing chicken saddles/aprons for your chickens with bald backs.

 

[Shawna89]

Oh poor girls! I'm moving my coop around and spray it out good! And the girls will get their dust baths! Is red dust the same as 7dust?

 

[Tracydr]

A little ivermectin can also help, along with the Adams flea spray and dusting the coop. Make sure you check egg withdrawal times if you decide to use the ivermectin.
Keep an eye on their comb and wattles, they can get very anemic and even die from severe infestations.
Good luck, this is pretty common but needs to be treated fast. Use diamectacous earth as a preventative in the coop from now on, as well as a good sand/ DE dust bath for the girls to roll around in.

 

[Shawna89]

They roam around outside all day free, they dust bathe in random places. Theyre okay to dust the acual chicken?

 

[dianaross77]

You can and should dust the actual chickens. I had some mite or lice problems but only on my Silkies. I used a microfiber cloth to dust them. I just sprinkled the dust on the cloth and patted them all over, like a powder puff. I tried a flea bath first but didn't get them all. The poultry dust worked great.

 

[Shawna89]

*UPDATE*
Mites are gone!!! My hens are happily growing their feathers back, thanks for the help everyone!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Very good. I'm sure your hens are very happy.