Mites I think

Its been one thing after another. I haven't picked up my chickens in a while. bad mistake. I looked at a few this morning. All my buff sussex are loosing feathers at the base of their tails. I thought they were moulting. Yuk its really ugly, crusty and scaby and I saw teeeny teeny little things moving around. I am thinking mites. We have had a major heat spell. My broody who has sat tight is suddenly leaving her nest a few times a day. when she shpuldn't be leaving at all. They are starting to pip. she crushed one of the chicks and I am afraid she will crush more of them in her aggitation. I put diamatatious earth in her nest box when she started to sit but I am wondering if mites are driving her crazy as well. I have been looking at old posts on this subject, trying to decide what to do. Can anybody direct me to a good site where I can find the info on how to deal with this?

Sounds like mites to me. The mite powder you can buy at feed stores works well, but buying Frontline from the US works best. If you search on here you can find lots of threads on this.

Geeeze, from what you are describing, absolutely you have a severe infestation of northern mite. When the skin of the chicken has these awful scabs, that is a severe infestation. I saw that bad of an infestation on only one of my birds last year. The others had the mites, but the one had them horrible. And that is what I really noticed, which really alerted me to look very closely. Those scabs on the back end, around the vent area and extending down the legs. Do not beat yourself up. Mites can get hold this time of year very, very, very quickly and can be in explosion mode in no time at all.

When I noticed the scabs on the bird in question, I knew that something was wrong and I delved and looked very deeply. I pulled out all the feathers that I could see that had enormous clusters of mites, millions of them I would venture. I am thanking my lucky stars that I did not have any other birds with this severe of an infestation. Some get them worse than others. Those feathers that had long clusters of thousands of mites on each feather were burned in our barrel. The bird looked rather bare after I was done with it.

Upon checking the other birds, I saw mites, but probably 1/100 as bad as this one. I used a product, there are several that are very effective. I am sure you have read the threads by now that Shipperkesue has bumped. Very informative and there are lots of options.

If I were you, this is what I would do right now. Get the louse powder. I believe it is made by Dominion and get that dust on the back end of the chickens. You might find mites elsewhere on the bird, but for now, focus on the area below the vent and do the belly of the bird too. also do all the bird whilst you are at it, but these mites really like to live in the ventral areas and below. This will put a stop to the lice pretty quickly. Dusting is very effective. I used dusting powder on occasion and believe in it totally. I don't trust diatomaceous earth, maybe it works, maybe it does not, I think for a maintenance schedule it is good, but if you have a bad infestation and clearly sounds like you have, you must get out the bigger guns and reach for mite control applications.

Another thing to look for is what appears to be dirty feathers on the back end, extending down the back end to the belly. Pull one of those feathers and you will see that this is not dirt that you are seeing, but thousands of mites that are clustered. They will appear as red, black, grey dots, depending on how much feeding they have been doing.

This is horrible. And I know what I am speaking to, because I have been there, done that. I am not embarrassed either to come on open forum and confess. There will always be mite issues. Mites can be brought in from the wild birds that may come near you, places the chickens traverse to, anywhere. Many are hosts to mites, particularly the northern fowl mite, it is not exclusive to fowl as we know them, our chickens, I speak of. I have had mite issues off and on and thought that I had them eradicated. Don’t ever think that you do. As I said, they can come in on the wild things, not just the tame things.

At present, I do not believe I have mite issues. At present. That does not mean that I will not in any time in the future. I use preventative measures and it is time for a dose of product on my birds. I am in check mode tomorrow. I checked 3 buff Orpington gals that are broody, sitting on eggs and they are mite clear. That is good, as the broody hen is the perfect incubating environment not only for eggs, but the mites as well. They looked clean as clean could be. The cochin coop is my tomorrow job. When any bird leaves our farm to go to someone else, they are ALWAYS treated for mites. That is something I do and will always do. I would never take a chance to have an egg or two from a louse or a mite leave here to go elsewhere. This is part of my control measure.

So...first off. Get some louse powder. Dust. Suggestion is to hold the bird between your legs as you are sitting down and place that bird upside down. Chickens are pretty calm when in this position. Look closely. If you see those clusters of mites on the feathers I speak of, remove those feathers and put in a bucket for the disposal, however you dispose. Then proceed to get the dusting powder on the belly and ventral areas. Once you have done this, you will have some time to get further chemicals to stop further mite stuff, or dust again in a while, there will be eggs that will be hatching. I honestly do not know if the dust stays and kills eggs, maybe someone can speak to that, but I am just not sure.

I had a couple of chickens that I had to look after for awhile for someone. Before I let them go out of the container that they had come in, I checked them for mites and lice. They had both. I dusted immediately and also gave a dose of ivermectin. Double dosing, but it is what it is. A few days later I checked and the birds did not have any evidence of crawlies. I checked just before the birds left, which was about 3 weeks and still no evidence of mites or lice. The products used in conjunction eradicated mite and louse. The person whose birds I was looking after had been advised of what came on the birds. She cleaned out her chicken houses, applied both products, as I instructed her and the birds went back home clean from my place and to her clean home. I am sure she is 100% mite and louse free now too. And I was pleased that she listened and reacted so quickly. You don't know you have bug issues, unless you look. AND...assume that you do.

These things happen. Again, do not beat yourself up, nor think you are a bad chicken keeper. Because you are not. Nor is anyone that has insects such as these. This is part of what we are exposed to from the wild and the tame, we just need to do the best we can to keep on top of things. A good time of year for these things to be brought to the forefront of our minds, so we can have happy chickens (and happy humans too). Oh when you are dusting for mites or lice, or whatever, you are handling your chickens in these ways. Undoubtedly you will be bothered yourself and feel crawly all over, smiling. You will want to shower and probably launder your clothes immediately, smiling again. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Thanks cynthia I really needed to read your post this morning. I bought some of the powder last night. We cleaned the coop yesterday and put diamatatious earth evrywhere, but I agree with you . I am not a big believer in the stuff yet but I thought it wouldn't hurt.We are going to start dusting them today. I found a u tube video on dusting birds. Holding them between your legs seems more secure. I am worried about my mama hen whose chicks are in the process of hatching as I am writing this. I will be moving her to another coop that has never been used in a couple of days. Can I dust her before I move her? Will it hurt the chicks? I am curious about why my four buff sussex are in such bad shape while the rest are not. I read on some university research post that mites will not be as bad on older birds or on birds that have not reached their sexual maturity. They will usually be worse on birds that are between 20 and 30 weeks. I am also curious that the instructions an the back of the dusting powder doesn't mention to not eat the eggs for a week . Only to not butcher the bird for at least a week after dusting.

Just popped back in here for a minute. Then gone. Think of this. Take that mamma hen and see if you can see any mites on her. If you don't see mites, that is good, but probably unlikely. She needs to be treated. She will be flopping down on those chicks to keep them warm. They will be exposed to mites. Although, I do wonder if mites would leave that huge body full of lucious blood, to go to something that probably has blood that just tastes blah. I think little chicks don't have a whole lot of blood in them, and the scent of them might not be as good as a big bird, smiling.

If I were you, take this where you want to, I would, if I find mites, dust that hen. Period. She needs to have some help if she has mites. When you are finished dusting her, I would take her a fluff her up a bit, try to get EXCESS dusting powder off her. Her skin will have much of the dust still remaining and should help to lower numbers of mites. I think you need to dust her regardless, if you see little dots moving around. The mites will look like little dots. I think it is bad for a mamma hen to have mites and then be sitting on the babies. The mites may or may not go to the babies, but if they did, it would not take long for the babies to become weakened by the loss of their life substance, blood....

When you are doing your dusting today, take note of how bad the infestation is. As I said, if you see clusters of feathers, even say 2 or 3, you have a pretty bad mite case. I would like you to report your findings, when all is said and done. Particularly about the broody mamma. She needs help if she has mites, you must help her. I don't think that the dusting powder, if it is not too horribly thick, will harm the babies. But that is just me thinking. I have absolutely nothing to back up what I say. perhaps there will be others that may know more. Good luck, hope all goes well, and you have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Please. Anyone that has good information for Vic if dusting powder will harm newborn chicks, please speak up. We all need to know these things. And I don't think she has all day to wait around on our forum for answers, so if you know and you have time yourself and you are on the forum, speak up please.

I know people have had different results with DE, but I'll toss my 2 cents in.

I love the stuff, and will use it over and over and over.

It works for worms, takes about 14 days of consistent delivery to dogs to fully clean them out. I know it works because I watched the dog in question eliminate what seemed like hundreds of feet of worms, all tangled up in messes in her fecal matter. My chickens will eat it free choice and I don't seem to have much of a worm problem, if any.

For birds, there are so many dusting methods, but I found only one that really works for me. I set down a box half filled with DE that I have packed down by tamping the box on the ground to settle the dust in. I lay it down inside the coop and walk out, closing the door. Within 3 - 5 minutes, you can hardly see inside the coop and the coop windows and vents usually have dust coming out of them. Those chickens will roll, and flap, and lay around in, and shuffle upon that box of DE like it is nobodies business. They then get out and shake themselves off, creating an explosion of dust. After about a half hour, I open the coop door back up to let the dust out and find many-a-happeh chicken running around. The chickens that have gotten into (and fought for place in) the box, will come out grey as can be, no matter their colour, and the dust is deep down, surrounding all their feathers and covering their skin.

During this process, they dust the coop for me, walls included. It can be argued that being in an environment with the air so filled with DE could be harmful, as it is suggested not to snort silica (which is essentially what DE is), however it has given me great results without ill effects.


Good luck! Keep us posted. Unfortunately, it happens to the best of us for sure!

I just don't know what to think. I looked at 7 birds this morning. I can't find anything on them I only saw two teeny little speck moving around on the skin of the one I picked up yesterday. She is in the worst shape because she also has a laceration from a rooster on her side. My buff sussex all look terrible. They have broken feathers everwhere and they are always preening themselves. What else could it be but mites or fleas. I couldn't find any clusters of eggs or mites anywhere I took a flashlight into the coop last night and couldn't see anything. that may be because we scrubbed the coop down really well yesterday. Could the roosters be doing this to them? They are the easiest birds for me to pick up and probably the easiest for the roos to get hold of. I am wondering about putting the roos in another coop for awhile or putting the buff sussex girls in another coop for awhile. I don't want to treat for mites if that is not the problem. I will keep looking.

Schipperkesue wrote:Sounds like mites to me. The mite powder you can buy at feed stores works well, but buying Frontline from the US works best. If you search on here you can find lots of threads on this.

I did some reading here and elsewhere and ordered some Frontline off eBay. I think it will be an important addition to my chicken first aid kit!

And if it gets close to expiring, well, I can use it on the dogs.

I would treat for them if I even had a slight suspicion of them. Once heavily infested it is a tough thing to deal with.

coopslave wrote:I would treat for them if I even had a slight suspicion of them. Once heavily infested it is a tough thing to deal with.

Agreed. And a product like frontline is preferred by me than to use a powder that all the chickens breathe in.