What is causing this? PICS

[texaschickmom]

A few of my BSL hens have been looking pretty rough as you can see. Could this be from some kind of pest? As you can see the skin is very red. Out of 10 there are 3-4 that look like this. I don't see them picking at each other, but I guess that could be happening. Anyone have any ideas? Should I be regularly treating for mites/lice because I never have. They don't seem to be feeling bad in any way. Laying, eating, drinking, pooping is all normal. Any ideas? The purple you're seeing is the remnants of Blue Kote that I have been putting on their skin to deter picking if that's what this is. It doesn't seem to be working. I removed the rooster that was in with them about a month ago and this has gotten worse since then.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[texaschickmom]

Any help out there?

 

[erinnyes]

Well, I'm still new to chickens myself, but the rough saddle area looks kind of like what my chickens looked like when they got feather lice. Have you done a close inspection to see if you can see any eggs or lice?

 

[akashia26]

overbreeding will pull all the feathers out of the lower back. that looks like lice or mites though. check around their vent for small bugs.

 

[texaschickmom]

overbreeding will pull all the feathers out of the lower back. that looks like lice or mites though. check around their vent for small bugs.

Do I need to wait until night to check? And how small are they? And if they are there, what do I do to get rid of them? Thanks for your help, BTW.

 

[akashia26]

your birds will be more docile at night and less stressed by the experience but you don't have to do it at night. my husband dumps the ash out of his grill into the run for them to dust in (he uses hickery or cherry). the natural lye in hardwood ash is enough to kill most bugs. i have always been told not to use charcoal or evergreen ash, not sure why. this is to prevent the problem. you could also just buy some DE for them.

to fix it you might want to get some sevien(sp) dust. dust the chickens and coop. then again after a week for 2 or 3 weeks. never had the problem myself ounce of prevention and all that.

do a lice and mite search on the forum. should give you all the info you need. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-predators-pests-how-to-protect-treat-your-flock go here and look under mite and then lice. should tell you what to do.

 

[Nicole01]

It looks like feather picking. I have 2 hens that feather pick the flock. I'm in the process of making saddle pads for the ones pecked. I start from the lowest of the pecking order up. Mine do not have mites. I pretreat with DE and Sevin. I have an EE and Wyandotte that needs a lesson. Once my 3 new ones grow out of the brooder, the EE will go into jail. The Wyandotte is going to be re-homed if I can find one. I'm not getting any eggs from her. I have plenty of space and they free range daily.

 

[texaschickmom]

Thanks all for the help. I am using saddles on some of the picked hens and that does help on the back. But not on their butts. Ha! I'll try applying wound spray back there. I will do some more research on dealing with pests and go from there. Thanks again!

 

[Sunflower]

Thanks for posting the pics, one of my chickens looks the same way. So I'm going to try a treat them for mites/lice. I got information on another post that you use 5% sevin dust to treat lice/mites and DE for prevention of the chompers. Good luck with your chickens!! I've got a big day tomorrow working on the coop!!

 

[texaschickmom]

Thanks for posting the pics, one of my chickens looks the same way. So I'm going to try a treat them for mites/lice. I got information on another post that you use 5% sevin dust to treat lice/mites and DE for prevention of the chompers. Good luck with your chickens!! I've got a big day tomorrow working on the coop!!

I'm going to do the same! Good luck to you, too.