Skin/Feather Concern

[kward135]

Hi everyone! I just got some lavender orpington chicks yesterday. We’ve never had this breed so I’m just a little unsure. Im afraid they might have mites or lice and they were purchased with four other chicks of different breeds so they’ve all been together for the past 24 hours. Tonight I noticed this chick with skin like this and the other Orpington has similar looking feathers. Are their feathers typically like this or do you think they might have some sort of bugs? What would I do for it since they’re all chicks? There are 6 in the same area together right now. Thank you!

 

[Debbie292d]

It's unlikely for them to get mites/lice when not exposed to the outdoors.

Were these shipped to you from a hatchery or did you go somewhere to buy them? If the latter, did you see where they kept them?

I've had a couple of freshly hatched ones that had areas a little red and like the feathers were rubbed off from being in the egg or how they hatched. It would go away in a couple of days.

The very right photo I see black dots which could be mites but it's too hard to tell and I just am thinking it's something else right now.

I guess if I somehow had young chicks get mites, I'd take them out of the brooder to another brooder/box, then clean the one they were in. Then I'd sprinkle a small amount of permethrin dust on them. Be careful not to sprinkle that on their bedding as chicks that age eat everything. You might want to try horse bedding pellets, which is all we use, as that keeps the coop/brooder bone dry, and mites/lice can't live in that, nor can coccidiosis.