UPDATED PICS: Possible Parasites?

[SurferchickinSB]

Now I'm thinking it's mites. Ew. I sprayed my pullets with permethrin according to package directions. So much for being organic. But I found pics online that look like this. I will take any advice. I will do my very best to clean out the whole frigging coop tomorrow and spray everything down.

Poor Iris. Wish I'd seen this sooner. I look them over every day, but I somehow missed this ugliness. And my coop is pretty darn clean. I may just dip her, too. She's a hot mess.

And I've got my broody in there, too. She's just a sitting buffet for the %#=^*& things.

Well, hopefully you get rid of those things! I am always afraid I am going to get mites, constantly checking for those things.

 

[aart]

That could just be dirt clinging to the 'oil' around the gland.

Bug Blurb:
Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?

Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.

Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).

 

[Aunt Angus]

That could just be dirt clinging to the 'oil' around the gland.

Bug Blurb:
Have you checked them over real well for mites and/or lice?

Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.

Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.

Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).

I did check them over, and I honestly didn't find anything, but I figured that was due to my ignorance of these things. The only one who had any issues was Iris. Her tail feathers are all scraggly looking, and there is that hideously dirty spot around her uropygial gland. What I am looking at in her feathers looks suspiciously similar to what another picture showed of a Northern Fowl Mite infestation.

I am willing to accept that it might just be dirty. Heck - I'd be overjoyed if that's all it is. If that is the case, does it signify anything sinister is brewing? She hasn't laid but once this week. She had that shelless egg a while back - maybe she's just not "herself" again yet? She dust bathes daily. Can she just not reach it? Should I bathe her? Oh so many questions.

She already avoids me like the plague! Can't say I blame her after the shelless egg incident. I violated her with a gloved finger, after all!

 

[Aunt Angus]

@aart I am still having trouble with Iris. She went into the nest box a couple of times over the past 2 days and still hasn't laid. I checked for an egg again, and couldn't find one. She's eating, drinking, scratching, walking, roosting, dust bathing, etc just fine. Her abdomen isn't swollen. She doesn't seem to be straining. Any idea what I'm dealing with?

 

[aart]

Any idea what I'm dealing with?

A bird that is not laying?
Have had birds on 'sabbatical' that still visit the nests.
If everything else seems fine, it probably is

 

[Aunt Angus]

Thanks for being so patient with such a noob. I really appreciate it.

 

[Kris5902]

If you’re at all worried about “dirty hens” I should go get you some pics of my poor little white sapphires! I pulled their tractor over a cow pattie yesterday thinking, “maybe they will luck out and get flies to eat”, we got rain and they all stepped in it, including my cockerel, and now I have a bunch of girls with green brown smeared backs! Ewwww. And I have a high poop tolerance

Hope your Iris feels better soon! She’s still very pretty, tattered feathers and dirty glands and all.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I think she's fine. I'm the one who is a mess! Lol! I get so worried because I am new at this. And the internet is a great and terrible thing: great because you have so much information at the ready, and also terrible because you have so much information at the ready. When you're a noob, it's tough to tell the useful info from the cr*p.

 

[Aunt Angus]

See?
I'm paranoid.
What a noob.

 

[Kris5902]

Being a chicken mama is nerve wracking business! You’re doing great... you even still have grass in your yard