Red Mites but not red mite

[Cheviot]

Hi,
I have a pen of white pekins 3 hens & 1 cock, 1 of the hens in particular keeps getting badly infested with mites, which are red in colour, but unlike red mite are permanently on the hen, the other 2 hens sometimes have them and the cock doesn't appear to have any at all, I have been treating them regularly ( every week ) with red mite powder but cannot seem to eradicate it completly, in fact I am struggling to keep it under control at all on the 1 hen, yesterday I used some red mite control spray on them, it was the concentrate one that you can dilute to various strengths and used it at it's strongest mix, so will have to wait and see if it was successful. Is there something else I should be doing, I am going to move them into a new house and run, but would like to get on top of the problem before I do.
Regards
Sue

 

[podstable]

Sue---if you see them on the bird could they be feather mite ? They are a reddy/goldy/orangey colour? Seen towards the lower end of the feathers usually in clusters, move fairly slowly? If its those then 'spot on ' treatments wont work as they dont bite the bird. If its those Johnsons do a spray-can get in all pet shops - called something obvious like Bird Mite Spray---but I cant remember what! If its those this seems to get rid of them. --obviously a good idea to do house too! Ros

 

[Davidd]

Hello, they could be northern fowl mites-although not as common as red mites, they live on the birds all the time and suck blood- the best ( although not licensed) traetment is ivermectin- if you ask your vet he/she may well advise usage- I use the spot on 0.1% or 0.08% for small animals /birds- available on line. If they are northern fowl mites you need to do all your birds and all the coops! good luck
regards, David

 

[Cheviot]

Hi, thanks for the replies ,
I wonder if she has a combination of both as the lower half of the feathers appears to be covered in light coloured mites, I thought they were mite eggs, but she definately has fast moving red coloured mites that are biters as her skin is broken where they are, when I checked her today, she must be feeling a little better as she was not as easy to catch, there were only a few visible mites on her, where yesterday the mites were like a crust, I sprayed her and her mates again with the mite spray, they looked like drowned rats when I had finished , good job it is really warm again today. I have ordered some ivermectin it says it is for pigeons and small animals, so assume that is the right one.
Is there a reason why this particular hen gets so badly infested, as I said the others get no where near as bad as her. I am going to move them into a large dog crate for the next week, so hopefully I can get this under control before they go into their new house.

Sue

 

[Davidd]

Hi, even with lice/mites some birds get targeted more than others- the infestation varies from bird to bird- the ivermectin will sort it out- just make sure you do all the birds and clean the coop. glad she is a little better
regards, David

 

[mazbaz]

Hi, I am new here but just wondered if using ivermectin does it affect the eggs in any way,

 

[Tim]

Hi MazBaz, Welcome !

Ivermectin Drops are sold under the Small Animal Exemption Scheme for use in rabbits, Guinea Pigs and ornamental birds. Products licensed under the Small Animal Exemption Scheme are not licensed for use in food producing animals such as chickens however...

In the absence of licensed alternatives, veterinarians do sometimes prescribe it under the 'cascade' to treat mites and lice in poultry. However, it is only a veterinarian who can advise on such use and technically people are in breach of the veterinary medicines regulations and NOAH code of practice by encouraging the use of Ivermectin on a non-target species - Googling 'Ivermectin Poultry' however shows this hasn't stopped the online poultry shops from selling it for poultry and shows there is certainly a large number of poultry keepers using it for this purpose!

There isn't any data relating to withdrawal period for eggs or meat from the manufacturers following use of Ivermectin Drops on poultry - (since it hasn't been tested) although my experience is that vets will advise 7 days most of the time for egg withdrawal and 28 days for meat. If there is no data available though, they don't have any guidance themselves so are probably taking an educated 'guess'....

Here is the Ivermectin information on the PK site if you want to read some more.

Hope this helps.

Tim

 

[Tim]

Forgot to say the fast moving long reddish-brown fellas that crawl away quickly into the feathers are Lice. they are 1 to 2mm long and can look 'skin' colour until they have had a feed and can blend in well. You may have a combination of creatures on your chicken, there are several hundred variations of the same nasty.

I use Diatom on them and in the dust baths and sometimes Barrier Red Mite Powder that has tea tree in it.

Battles Louse Powder is good - but shouldn't be applied to the bird, just the nests ( )