Northern Fowl Mite?

chrismahon

chrismahon

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Bottom hasn't been himself recently. Not sleeping very well and looking a bit droopy. Spends a lot of time vigorously preening his hackles and pulling bits of fluffy underfeather off.

Closer inspection, despite his painful squealing, revealed very very tiny mites running around very large scabs on his body. You could probably get half a dozen on a pin head. They are chronic above his vent with the base of his feathers covered in what looks like a grey matted dust as well. There was a small cluster of them near his left ear eating at the base of his comb as well.

I've been out and checked his girls and no sign of anything like that. Just one or two with one or two normal lice -so dusting tomorrow.

He's been acting this way for a few weeks and gradually getting worse. I think he has picked up Northern Fowl Mite off our clothing after we rescued those dumped cockerels last month.

We've treated him with a dose of Frontline spray, 3 sprays per Kg, which has worked on head lice. He's sleeping soundly at the moment.

Can anyone confirm my suspicions ?
 
Try and get some Ivermec from your vet, it works instantly on all creepy crawlys. best of luck.
 
I've seen Harkamectin for sale for pigeons and caged birds Bex. Put on the skin as drops. Is that the stuff you use or is there a spray or something you can get from the vet?

Rosie, my wife, is now feeling all itchy and is having a shower! Bottom has been sleeping on her lap for an hour tonight.
 
Yes Chris I would say from my experience that you have Northern Fowl Mite, and it is tricky to spot. It will really bring a bird down, and quite difficult to eradicate. I bathed the cockerel in question in medicated shampoo then when he was completely dry sprayed with Frontline at the same rate that you did. I applied Sudacreme to the scabs that I found,apparently these sores are usual with NFM.

It is a really particular mite..in my experience that it is. I found only one bird affected and that was a cockerel, no other birds had NFM despite careful checking. I had not brought birds in, nor had been near anyone else's birds so where it came from is a mystery, I am presuming wild birds since mine all free range.

The cockerel in question had been a bit run down, lost a little weight and just appeared "off". He recovered really well and on checking a week later I could find no evidence of mite. Interestingly I have found since discussing with other breeders it is a mite that does seem to affect males more than females??
 
Thanks for that Foxy. We've just vaccumned his bottom as the things are falling off and crawling about on the kitchen roll we put at the end of his bed. He's sleeping very soundly at the moment -probably the first time he has relaxed completely in the last few weeks. Fingers crossed no adverse affects from the Frontline at that dose. We'll have to bath him next and treat the scabs, but they cover a very large area, because he's a very large bird.

They bite. Did they bite you?
 
Update. Was really worried he was going to die in the night. He was sleeping so soundly and couldn't keep his head upright. Early this morning same then at 6.00am .... COCK-A-DOODLE-DO! He's fine.
 
Probably the shock of having his bottom vacuumed Chris!!! :lol: :lol:
 
chrismahon said:
Update. Was really worried he was going to die in the night. He was sleeping so soundly and couldn't keep his head upright. Early this morning same then at 6.00am .... COCK-A-DOODLE-DO! He's fine.
Click to expand...
He was catching up on sleepless nights Chris :-)17 :-)10
 
Just to update. He's none the worse for his close encounter with the vaccumn cleaner! Back to his energetic former self and the scabs are falling off to reveal fresh clean pink skin underneath. He started 'soil bathing' in his bed about a month ago, which looked amusing at the time but on reflection was probably the start of the infestation. He's still sleeping soundly and is generally now a very happy little (well not little at 6 kg) chap. We'll be checking over all the others this weekend.
 
Iv just had a hen with northern fowl mite. In a flock of twenty she was the only one that got it. Like you she just looked down and when i checked found hugh scabs on her. I treated her with ivermectin and put sudocream on the scabs. My one warning would be that you need to treat again after a week. A couple of weeks after the initial treatment I checked her again and they were back. I had to treat her again with the ivermectin and dust her with diatom. I believe their are egg which are not killed my the ivermectin. Five weeks later I still dust her weekly as I keep spotting a few on her. They are a nightmare to get rid of completely.
 
Hi Val. They don't respond much to Ivermectin -youre not the only person who found they were back shortly afterwards and again and again using that. We were going to get some (as it's much cheaper) but won't bother now. We'll stick to Frontline spray and I'll see if the vet is prepared to post it over to me. Botty was treated once at 3 sprays per Kg bodyweight. Almost all the scabs have dropped off to reveal pink skin. The rest have parted from the skin but are held on by the feathers. There are no mite on him that I can see (need reading glasses now!) There were eggs in the feathers at the rear but they were sprayed at the same time and they must be dead. He is completely back to normal, just needs to put some weight back on.
 
if she gets them back again I will have to get some of that is sounds much more efficient. My little hen had got really bad before I spotted any problem. She is a pekin so had a very fluffy bum so it was not very obvious till I noticed she was not quite as energetic as usual and did a really close check.Bless the poor love her vent was covered in blood and scars and also down her back end and her backend feathers were coated in the eggs. I felt so guilty I had not spotted it earlier. She is laying again now and bossing all the others around so she is definitely on the mend but I will keep a close eye.
Which frontline spray do you get.
 
Hi Val. There are two Frontlines I am aware of. 'Spot On', which you can buy from the pet shop and can cause an overdose on chickens and kill them. Two of a friends Orpingtons died when the vet administered a drop on each of her dozen hens -they were weak from the lice anyway. 'Spray' which you can only get from the vet. We have a 100mL bottle which is administered to cats and dogs at the rate of 6 -12 pumps per Kg bodyweight. Erring on the safe side the maximum we use is 3 pumps per Kg and it has always been entirely successful. Each pump delivers 0.5mL of solution containing 0.25% Fipronil, so you get nearly 200 pumps (can't get it all out) and that will treat 66Kg of chickens, or a 3Kg chicken 22 times. Can't re-administer within 28 days. I was advised egg withdrawal is unecessary, but 10 days if you want to be certain. Think it was £25 ?
 
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