Mites on one chicken

[bighandchicken]

Out of 30 chickens, 1 hen has a bad case of mites. I found her collapsed in the run but still alive. I brought her in our house and within a few hours, realized she was COVERED in mites. She has been quarantined and has been sprayed with Pen and Poultry (Permethrin) she has also been bathed in an apple cider vinegar/dawn dish soap bath to removed the dead mite and mite poop reside. She is looking much better, but still kind of lethargic. Ive checked all the others and have seen nothing on them and they are all acting normal. I havent seen evidence in their coop of mites. Is it possible that only 1 hen is affected? Its winter here and we deep litter bed. Do i need to remove everything and burn it? Do i need to spray down the coop and all of the other birds?

 

[Shadrach]

Out of 30 chickens, 1 hen has a bad case of mites. I found her collapsed in the run but still alive. I brought her in our house and within a few hours, realized she was COVERED in mites. She has been quarantined and has been sprayed with pestene. She has also been bathed in an apple cider vinegar/dawn dish soap bath to removed the dead mite and mite poop reside. She is looking much better, but still kind of lethargic. Ive checked all the others and have seen nothing on them and they are all acting normal. I havent seen evidence in their coop of mites. Is it possible that only 1 hen is affected? Its winter here and we deep litter bed. Do i need to remove everything and burn it? Do i need to spray down the coop and all of the other birds?

You need to examine the coop for mites. Luckily it's usually only red mite that live in the coop on a permenant basis. Red Mite probably won't look red when and if you find them in the coop. They are a translucent pale grey. It's the blood they suck from the chicken that makes them go red.
If the coop is infested with red mite and your coop is large with many end grains in the wood exposed you're going to have problems getting rid of the mites.

If the mites are living on the hen the Northern Fowl mite is the most likely option. They can and will if left untreated kill a chicken.

Don't bath the hen in water. Find yourself a half inch wide fairly stiff art/painters brush and brush out what you can. Assuming the hen makes a full recovery, she will rid herself of the dead mites in a dust bath and grooming. While the dead mites aren't pleasant they are no longer biting.
I don't know how effective Pestene is but Permethrin is still very effective for mites.
You will need to treat the hen more than once with whatever pesticide you use more than once. I would suggest, once now and be very thorough, once again in a week to get the new hatching mites and again in a further weeks time just to make sure you get all the mites.

I would recheck all your chickens carefully.

 

[bighandchicken]

You need to examine the coop for mites. Luckily it's usually only red mite that live in the coop on a permenant basis. Red Mite probably won't look red when and if you find them in the coop. They are a translucent pale grey. It's the blood they suck from the chicken that makes them go red.
If the coop is infested with red mite and your coop is large with many end grains in the wood exposed you're going to have problems getting rid of the mites.

If the mites are living on the hen the Northern Fowl mite is the most likely option. They can and will if left untreated kill a chicken.

Don't bath the hen in water. Find yourself a half inch wide fairly stiff art/painters brush and brush out what you can. Assuming the hen makes a full recovery, she will rid herself of the dead mites in a dust bath and grooming. While the dead mites aren't pleasant they are no longer biting.
I don't know how effective Pestene is but Permethrin is still very effective for mites.
You will need to treat the hen more than once with whatever pesticide you use more than once. I would suggest, once now and be very thorough, once again in a week to get the new hatching mites and again in a further weeks time just to make sure you get all the mites.

I would recheck all your

You need to examine the coop for mites. Luckily it's usually only red mite that live in the coop on a permenant basis. Red Mite probably won't look red when and if you find them in the coop. They are a translucent pale grey. It's the blood they suck from the chicken that makes them go red.
If the coop is infested with red mite and your coop is large with many end grains in the wood exposed you're going to have problems getting rid of the mites.

If the mites are living on the hen the Northern Fowl mite is the most likely option. They can and will if left untreated kill a chicken.

Don't bath the hen in water. Find yourself a half inch wide fairly stiff art/painters brush and brush out what you can. Assuming the hen makes a full recovery, she will rid herself of the dead mites in a dust bath and grooming. While the dead mites aren't pleasant they are no longer biting.
I don't know how effective Pestene is but Permethrin is still very effective for mites.
You will need to treat the hen more than once with whatever pesticide you use more than once. I would suggest, once now and be very thorough, once again in a week to get the new hatching mites and again in a further weeks time just to make sure you get all the mites.

I would recheck all your chickens carefully.

Thank you! And the spray was Permethrin, not pestene (i changed it). That stuff worked on contact! That's a great idea to try the paint brush. I tried to remove them with my fingers and a comb. The gross butt was what i was concerned about and the reason for the bath. Should i keep her quarantined for a few weeks?

 

[Shadrach]

Should i keep her quarantined for a few weeks?

That is a very difficult question. There's a problem.
You describe your hen as sick and weak. Mites and lice tend to attack sick hens. If only one of your hens has Northern Fowl Mite I would think she was sick before the mites moved in. I may not be right but my experience of healthy chickens suggest they are much less prone to mites that live on them. Red Mite in the coop is different and rarely fatal.

I have also found that chickens kept apart from their group do not recover at anything like the speed of a recovering chicken with the flock. Obviously you don't want to spread the mites, but you do want the problem with the single hen resolved as quickly as possible. With 30 chickens I would quarantine very reluctantly. 30 chickens is a lot to check properly on a regular basis.

Treat her with the Permethrine again now and keep her seperate from the others for a couple of days. If you inspect her, and there are no live mites, let her out with the others, but still treat her again after a week.

The quicker she gets to rejoin the group, the less stressed she will be and even if there is an underlying problem as I suspect, she will at least be with her friends.