Moulting, Mites, Lice, Protein Deficiency or Mice? Photos Included

thailand

Crowing
12 Years
Hi,

I need some help please deciding exactly what the problem is with my chickens. I know they have a mite problem (I've seen them running around in the nestboxes etc., but not on the chickens).

But....is this all that's going on?

The way some of the feathers are broken off, almost looks to me like they're being eaten? Do I have a mice/rat problem or could this just be not enough protein in their diet and/or moulting? If it is mice/rats, I did have a problem with rats a while back but I thought I had killed them all. I haven't seen any further evidence of rats for some months now.

They currently are eating 19% ff in mornings, 19% grower in the afternoons, sprouts (couple of times a week), raw hamburger 2-3 times a week, BOSS, eggs occasionally, mackeral occasionally, vitamin supplement and fresh greens. They are also free-ranging everyday for about 8 hours a day. Is it possible this could still be a protein deficiency?

Course of action taken so far:

1. Cleaned out coop from top to bottom.
2. Sprayed insecticide everywhere like a crazy person.
3. Dipped all chickens.
4. Used Cydectin pour-on (Moxidectin) on all chickens 13 days ago.
5. Provided woodash/sulphur/dirt/sand mix 24/7 for chickens. Chickens don't seem to be using this,
but they are dust-bathing everyday elsewhere.
6. Upped their protein to above.
7. Yesterday (12 days later from above) sprayed more insecticide in chicken coop.
7. Considering Cydectin for all chickens again tomorrow (14 days later). Anyone know if it's ok to re-
medicate with Cydectin 2 weeks after first dose?

Thoughts please?

Photos below.


Notice the bare patch on his chest. He has had a big scab on his belly too, and his vent is still quite red. This is mites right?





The next photos are of a different chicken...same coop. Not all chickens are suffering with whatever is going on....only some.


On photo above, notice the 'v' shape at the end of some of her feathers now. What is this?






Here you can see how the ends of her feathers appear to be 'chewed'?

All help greatly appreciated :)
 
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You need to follow up spraying for mites and lice with repeat treatments every week for a few weeks to make sure you get them all. They may not look normal again until after they molt.
 
The red areas on your rooster combined with feather loss indicates some sort of irritant like mites or lice. If it is lice or mites, treating once will not work. It will take several repeat applications to both birds and coop before you eliminate the adult bugs and the bugs that hatch out of the eggs that those adults laid.
 
Ok. So, clearly I have just not yet been persistent enough. I'll immediately being spraying coop, nestboxes etc, on a weekly basis. I'll also use a bug powder and work it into the sand bedding on the coop floor, and maybe even a Mortein spray with Permethrin on roosts too. It's now the beginning of the rainy season here which brings high humidity, and obviously lots of bugs. Thanks for your advice. :)

Just in case, I've set 3 rats traps up around the perimeter of the coop tonight. We'll see if I've caught anything in the morning.

The bitten looking feathers and those with a 'v' shape at the ends.....this is mites/lice too?

Do you happen to know if it's ok to use Cydectin (moxidectin) pour-on every 2 weeks on chickens? I don't want to overdose them, but I'm concerned whether or not I should be dosing them more regularly to get on top of this problem.
 
De-pluming mite!!!!! After doing a fairly extensive google search I'm pretty sure they have de-pluming mite. Everything seems to fit exactly. Photos on the web are a 100% match. So now, tomorrow I'll be applying a flowers of sulphur paste on their red and raw scabby patches. I'll update here for others on the results of this treatment.

I decided to go ahead with re-dosing today...14 days after the initial dosing with Cydectin. Not sure if this will effect the de-pluming mite but it looks like I might need an arsenal of stuff to rid them of this pest!

Thanks everyone for your help, so appreciated.
 
De-pluming mite!!!!! After doing a fairly extensive google search I'm pretty sure they have de-pluming mite. Everything seems to fit exactly. Photos on the web are a 100% match. So now, tomorrow I'll be applying a flowers of sulphur paste on their red and raw scabby patches. I'll update here for others on the results of this treatment.

I decided to go ahead with re-dosing today...14 days after the initial dosing with Cydectin. Not sure if this will effect the de-pluming mite but it looks like I might need an arsenal of stuff to rid them of this pest!

Thanks everyone for your help, so appreciated.

Thailand, I've been through the mites and lice problem. I tried so many different things before I was able to find what worked for me. I don't know what is in your country but I didn't have any luck until I bought a gallon of long acting flea/bug solution that I sprayed in every crack,non-crack,chickens, etc. I don't like using chemicals but if I hadn't gotten rid of the mites and lice I would have burned everything down.
old.gif


Anyway look for something with I.G.regulator in it or buy it to mix with what you have. This is what I'm talking about if you can find it : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0024E5YE2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1WDGLWW0OC6PY&coliid=IMRS0B7IRDNE0.

Good luck to you...I've been there. rebel
 
Hi Rebel,

Thanks for that. I spent yesterday bathing everyone in a pyrethrim based dog shampoo, and after that giving them a soak up to the wattles in a mite dip. Oh my - today they look LOVELY! All shiny and pretty again. They spent the night in a make-shift coop....banned from their usual one until I can spray that tomorrow.

It's a huge effort but will be worth it. Thank you for the link too. I didn't realise you could buy I.G. regulator like that. Hmmmm....I may have to look into that further. Reading the writeup about it, it sounds totally worth it.

I'll keep posting here about how things are progressing. I think mostly, I just haven't previously been consistent enough and that's why I have this problem now.
 

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