Feathers Being Eaten - Mite?

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Billy

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Hi everyone,
I'm at my wits end with this problem which has now spread to a number of birds. Basically something is eating away the feathers in dead-straight lines just as if you've taken a pair of scissors and cut a chunk out. Some feathers are worse than others but its now visible from a distance, especially on wing feathers.

I've added a photo - could this be some sort of mite? I treated the birds with a general louse / mite powder which didn't have any effect. I got some Frontline and gave them two sprays to some bare skin at the back of the neck but this hasn't worked either.

Feather 1.jpg

If anyone has some information that would be great, I do have Ivermectin 5mg/ml so would it be worth trying that?
Billy
 
Hi Billy, I do hope someone on the forum can help you with this unusual problem. I think Ivermectin is very similar to Frontline and that it might be dangerous to mix too many insecticides.
 
Hello Billy and welcome to the forum. The picture shows typical preening or feather pecking damage, not mites. It can either be a clumsy bird with their own feathers or another bird pecking at them, particularly when they first emerge. I'd say with the damage just at the ends it may be one other pecking at everyones feathers. You will need to watch the flock carefully and make sure they are in sufficient area to escape. A perch in the run helps as well.
 
Hi again everyone,

OK these feathers pictured are from a bird who is alone with no others in the same pen. It's wooden so there are no areas where they can be "catching" and breaking the feathers. I've looked at various times of the day and night and there are definitely no visible lice / mites on the feathers (even in the dark using a torch).

Feathers.jpg

Could it be some sort of deficiency? Or outside factor? They get a very mixed diet of layers pellets, mixed corn (maize, wheat) and greens every now and then. They're housed on sawdust and shavings and kept clean. Drinking water is changed every day / two days max.

I'm getting really down because I just can't seem to work out the problem
 
Hi Billy,
It's a bad time of year for feathers in general. I had a suprise the other week when one of my hybrids that seemed to always have a messy undercarriage (however much I tried to clean it) suddenly went bald in a big patch from the vent to the keel. She's growing some new ones now.
Did those feathers (in your picture) fall out? We're they like that before (2 days ago.)
Are they under or over 18 months old? My older girls are a right scruffy bunch at the moment!
 
Have a look at the bird's beak Billy. Perhaps the top has overgrown and is causing the damage? We have to trim our cock's beak sometimes because he doesn't forage and it gets overgrown. Some of his feathers are damaged in exactly the same way as your photograph and also in areas along the lengths, particularly the tail feathers- we can see beak width chucks taken out of them.
 
Hi Billy.

Welcome to the forum; I hope the feather loss soon gets sorted out.
Would you please upload your photos straight to the board in future messages? I was very taken aback to click on your link & be confronted with images of girls who apparently can't afford clothes. Definitely NOT what I come to the forum for, and not appreciated.
Thanks for your understanding.
 
Well, that's odd - when I re-visited Billy's pics, the second set was just one sample feather, and the original set showed feathers, with four small pics along the bottom of the page showing what I thought were ladies from what just looked like advertisements from an underwear catalogue to me, quite attractive rather than provocative? The small pics did say 'promoted content' and there is a spam link to another website, so Billy's feather pic evidently got hijacked by some unintended advertising. Sorry if it upset you, Icemaiden.
Now my laptop has died, I use an iPad, and I too have never discovered a way to upload pics directly to this forum, though I can easily get a link from Photobucket when I post on Poultrykeeper. Maybe Billy had a similar problem. I'm sure it wasn't intentional.
 
It looks like the free image host Billy was using was serving up inappropriate adverts.
I have therefore removed the link to the images and attached them to the message instead - this way we don't get to see the ladies ;)

As for the problem - this looks like Depluming Mite. Birds will destroy their feathers as they get very uncomfortable so start to pull at them.

https://poultrykeeper.com/external-problems/depluming-mites/

Hope this helps.

Billy - would you give me permission to use one of your photos in the article above with credit?

Thanks,

Tim
 
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