MITES

[earlybird]

I have two banty hens missing feathers. I treated them for mites as suggested on this website, but they still look terrible. Can't I expect the feathers to grow back?

I actually treated them for mites several months ago and really never saw an improvement. How long and how often should I treat them? I bathed them in warm mild soapy water, then kept them in a large clean dog kennel, but of course released them back to the run the next day. I also cleaned the coop and dust in occasionally with DE. Should I be doing more? To add to the dilemma, none of my other chickens are showing these symptoms. But they are able to fly better and sleep up high on the roosts, rather than on the very low roost my husband built for these little gals. I read on another post about pulling dead or damaged feathers. That was in relation to showing chickens, but I don't really have to do that do I? That just seems to add insult to injury. They already don't trust me after I bathed them.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thank you.

 

[nccountrygirl]

Mix 5% Sevin Dust in with your DE and powder them and the nest boxes, the coop and the run with it really good. Sevin will kill them quicker than DE alone.

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
Yeah, what she said.

 

[earlybird]

Cool! Thanks for replying so quickly. should I try bathing them again? then treat, or just dust them?

 

[earlybird]

Oh and is there a withdrawl period after treating with Sevin?

 

[nccountrygirl]

Don't bath them again it will dry their skin out to much, Just dust them with the mixture making sure to get their vent area and under their wings really well. There is no withdrawal time with sevin dust. Use the search feature and type in Mites, there are dozens of post about this topic.
This topic is in Predetors and Pest. Good Luck

 

[moonlitfarms]

I too have this problem and have been working with it all summer, i finally found DE so i cleaned the coop, dusted everything, added shavings, dusted the shavings, dusted the birds. I still had mites. So i have since dusted them with straight sevin dust and so far so good but now i have all these goofy looking featherless birds. Some are just small spots of missing feathers but by buff orph has no feathers on her back or butt, just tail feathers from the wings back. She does not seemed bothered by this but when will her feathers come back. I am worried about winter. Will she feather back out before then????? Poor bird she looks all crazy.

 

[mypicklebird]

Long post on lice/mites and feather regrowth:

When you are inspecting your birds- you can actually see most of the lice. They are small, but not too small to see. Big exception is scaly leg mite which hides under the scales on the legs. The lice that live around the vent are pretty large, plus in heavily infested birds you can see grey globs of eggs at the base of the feathers. The pyrethrin (poultry dust) and carbaryl (sevin) dust are insecticides- found in some brands of flea powder and garden dust. They are topical and supposedly do not absorb systemically. They do not kill the lice eggs, so you have to apply every 2 weeks or so, both to kill them as they hatch, and or to control new infections- the critters came in with chickens brought in from elsewhere or from wild birds.
If you see masses of eggs, pluck the feathers to decrease the parasite load that will be hatching out in the upcoming weeks.

There are other reasons for feather loss besides mites and lice-- regular molting, rooster damage, frizzle genes, ect.

Also keep in mind most lice live their entire lives on the chicken and can be killed by treating the chicken, some mites live their entire lives on/in the chicken. Some mites live in the nooks and crannies on the coop and get on the bird at night to feed. You will NOT see those guys by inspecting your bird during the day. Spot them by going out at night with a flashlight (red dots walking on perches and chicken feet). Kill them by treating your coop.

Feathers will grow back when they would normally grow back during the molt. It may be a few weeks, or 6 months. If the feather follicle is healthy, the feather will grow back. If base of the feather is still in place, it will take longer as the follicle 'thinks' there is still a feather in there- why grow a new one? When a hen or rooster breaks off a feather- it will take a LONG time for it to grow back, as the end of the shaft will fall out when it normally would- when the bird molts that area. If it is plucked out, it may grow back sooner. This is why trimming a birds wings will be good for several months- the base of the shaft is still there. A bird that lost feathers due to predator attack (whole feathers pulled out)- will often have nice new feathers growing in after 2 or 3 weeks.

With mites/lice usually the feathers are picked at and broken off, not pulled out. So tincture of time for them to grow back.
jess