Scaly face mite

[Jeninoz]

Hi there

After doing some research I think my newest chicken has scaly face mite due to flaky skin on face getting worse. It's not the feather cuticle and it's not powdery like mold or fungus and I can't see any bugs (but I read that scaly face mite are very tiny).

I have had her for 3 weeks now. She is eating/ drinking and she has vitamins and probiotics in drinking water and is otherwise looking fine. The coop is hosed down each morning (so no coop mites). She's a bantam 3-4 months old and weighs 720g.

We are in Australia and I bought 1000µg/mL Ivermectin (Avimec). The dose is stated as "Birds less than 30g body weight apply 1 drop, Birds between 30-100g body weights apply 2 drops. Repeat application weekly for three doses." Has anyone used this for poultry and does anyone know how many drops?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Pictures?

 

[Jeninoz]

Pictures?

Here is a close up of the flaky skin on her face. I took the picture then put coconut oil with a cotton bud this evening which she seemed to like. I chose ivermectin drops as I didn’t want to put powder or spray on her face of course. She has a bit of flaky skin under her wings too (not be feathers), and at the base of her feathers on her neck. I have also found two brownish lice or mites on her body this evening (but not near the flaky skin).

Thanks so much.

 

[Eggcessive]

Ivermectin is a good treatment for face mites, lice, and body mites. The avimec 5 micrograms per ml sounds like you will need to use a lot to achieve the dosage. They say to use 2 drops for 30-100 grams of weight. If your chicken is 750 grams, that hard for me to figure. You might want to check with your vet or the manufacturer if you should give 7 drops or less. I am more familiar with Ivermectin 5 miligrams per ml for cattle, a very concentrated version, where dosage is 0.1 ml for every 2 pounds of weight in chickens.Ivermectin is not approved for poultry in the US, but might be good for certain parasites. An egg withdrawal time should be observed, and I would toss eggs for at least 14 days.

 

[Jeninoz]

Thank you,
Yes it seems the dosage is hard to find out, but at least at low concentration it would make it easier to avoid giving her too much, poor thing.

 

[Eggcessive]

For lice and mites a permethrin spray or dust is very helpful used at 7-10 day intervals. For scaly face mites (as well as scaly leg mites) petroleum jelly can be used to smother the mites.

 

[Jeninoz]

For lice and mites a permethrin spray or dust is very helpful used at 7-10 day intervals. For scaly face mites (as well as scaly leg mites) petroleum jelly can be used to smother the mites.

I’ve got pyrethin dust as I dusted the ground when we first got her so Yes I can dust her and use Vaseline on her face then instead. I was worried that it wouldn’t be as effective. She did seem to enjoy the coconut oil yesterday, she even started ‘trilling’ or ‘purring’ it was unbelievably cute

 

[Jeninoz]

Update - unfortunately I had this all wrong. The coconut oil helps her skin look better but in this case didn’t solve the underlying issue. She also had white debris on her feathers that I thought was damage from a lice infestation. The place I got her from only said, ‘not aware of any problem’. Eventually I sought the opinion of a vet who suggested it wasn’t damage due to lice but due to malnutrition when she was a chick . She’s now on high-protein feed and supplements . Things I’ve learned is choose registered breeders or rescue chickens, check chicks/ chickens properly and see a vet sooner rather than later. This community has been invaluable support and I hope that by sharing this it might help someone else .

 

[Sally PB]

Sending positive waves for a speedy recovery. And hugs for both of you. Thank you for taking such good care of her.

 

[TomNY]

I am not near any of my reference materials so this is from memory. I think there are 22 drops per ml. It may be easier to draw the correct dose in a small syringe and spray it on the bare skin under the wing.