uh oh...another sure sign of bad mites.....

[77horses]

oh great! I just found out that mites can cause loss of feathering on the back, too! our old hens have scaly leg mites, but I never knew that they might be the reason one the hens, Abby, has a bare back and like no tail feathers,

poor girl! Plus, she has the rooster who seems to like her a lot.

What do we do to help her grow her feathers back???? we are gonna put Vaseline on her legs, but what about her back??? It's really not pretty....she has ONE large feather sticking up and that's it!

And it sometimes looks raw and sore and sometimes, around the feathers, her skin bleeds or turns red colored. I feel so bad that we never thought that the mites were doing it! Boy, I never knew chickens would be THIS hard to care for.

First, our two new chicks have lice and they are sneezing. then, our old hens have scaly leg mites that we never knew of. Now, one of those same hens may have mites eating her feathers off her back!

My dad got the lice powder for the chicks, and he has Vaseline, but now we still have to treat the hen for her back AND treat the baby chick's watery nose.

Really panicking here!

could someone please give me some advice???

Thanks so much!

 

[Chicabee19]

hey agent77... it sounds like you guys are treating your chickens appropriately!

The only advice I can give, as someone who has no chickens living at home, is to keep a close eye on them so it doesn't ever get this bad again!

Keep up the good work

 

[Wynette]

I don't know how much you can do for the hen who has feather loss on her back. You can feed a bit of extra protein to help speed the feathers coming in, I think...when mine are in molt, I throw them a few handfulls of dry cat food (it has high protein). But you don't want to overdo it, for sure.

If your roo is giving her too much attention, adding to the problem, you should consdier a chicken saddle:

http://www.mbldesigns.com/chicken_aprons.html

Hang in there...you'll get it all worked out, and your girls will be happy and healthy!

 

[Cetawin]

You can buy poultry dust specifically for dusting on them and the bedding for mites. I have a spray that I can use on the coop, the bedding and the bird....it is called "Poultry Protector" it is all natural and will not hurt the birds...just avoid spraying their head and face....I use my fingers to apply it so it dows not get in their eyes.

Here is a link to it so you can see what the bottle looks like and get soem info on it

http://www.randallburkey.com/prodinfo.asp?number=10702

 

[Mrs MIA]

I have a hen that was pretty bare for a long time too... don't know where the mites found a place to hide!

But I used Ivermectin (a few drops above the tail) and it cleared them up. It took a couple of months, and extra protein in the diet, but she's getting her feathers back slowly but surely. She was even bald on her head! Bare back, bare butt - and red. She looks like she's almost finished molting now. I even made saddles out of black fleece for the girls that had bare backs from the roos... Just a square of fleece with the corners rounded, and slots for their wings. Keeps them protected, warm, and allows the feathers to come back. For extra protein, try feeding them their own eggs boiled. We boil our extra quail eggs and feed them to the layers. The next few days the egg production is up, too.