Chicken bald back

[mollyripkim]

Hopefully you lovely people can help me, its Henrietta yet again, always something with her. They came back from a chicken holiday three weeks ago with mites, been treating with Ivermectin, had two doses so far but Henrietta's head has been looking more and more crusty over the past few days and like this when I got them up this morning. There is no evidence of feathers in the coop do don't think they are being pulled out. Just checked them all over and another one is starting to get crusty on her head so I am guessing its mites. I have some Johnsons Poultry Scaly Cream which I have used but think its just a soothing cream rather than treatment.

Any idea how to treat this? Many thanks.

The red dot in the middle is where a feather should have been

Edited May 11, 2014 by Guest

[Beantree]

There is a thing called a 'depluming' mite, which tunnels into the quill and causes the feather to fall out. There are also feather lice. If I'm not sure I give one 0.5mL spray in the area of Frontline. In this case it's best applied with a cotton bud. No egg withdrawal. It has solve some mystery feather losses for us in the past.

 

Are you sure it isn't feather pulling by another though Mollyripkim?

[Egluntyne]

I have to disagree with Beantree here I'm afraid. Frontline is not licensed for use on poultry in the Uk and therefore an egg withdrawal period will apply. We have to remember that if we administer any medication not licensed for use on poultry, and without a vet's prescription that we would be strictly speaking acting illegally and could be open to prosecution.

[mollyripkim]

Hi, thanks Egluntine, do you think its mites as well?

Definitely not feather pulling.

[mollyripkim]

I will google depluming mites, but I think a vets trip is in order.

[mollyripkim]

Interesting, just been on the Chicken Vet website, think it is mites now, but their recommendation is Ivemectin with a link to purchase it but with a caveat saying not licensed for chickens and to have an egg withdrawal period, didn't say what.

Does that mean if I use Ivemectin that it is illegal as well?

[Egluntyne]

Some information here click

[mollyripkim]

Thank you Egluntyne, I will have a good read of that and print for future reference.

[Beantree]

You can only get Frontline spray from a vet. They will set the egg withdrawal, which in our case they set at none. We don't use Ivermectin as it also is not licensed for poultry but has a definite egg withdrawal, 14 day seems the norm. On balance, in my humble opinion, Frontline is the way to go.

[Mrs_B]

I've got a similar problem to this, I always put it down to chicken pecking as I have some naughty bullies.

 

I had a vet looked at a hen with feathers disappearing from the comb and she took skin s"Ooops, word censored!"s and found nothing. I am going to try the spot on treatment (from my vet) just in case!

 

Hope your hen gets her lovely feathers back, mollyripkim

 

x

[mollyripkim]

Thanks Mrs B, hope your girl gets better with the treatment too.

My local vet was very honest and said he had never seen it before and as I had cleared up the mites they had with Ivermectin he just suggested I continue with that as he didn't think it was feather pulling and there was no evidence of mites on them. He suggested three doses a week apart to catch any eggs that hatch.

The skin doesn't look red at all now so I hope the feathers will regrow, luckily the two affected are acting normal, eating drinking, pooing normal, just don't look very pretty.

[Beantree]

Just as a matter of interest Mollyripkim, what was the egg withdrawal period suggested by the vet after the last Ivermectin treatment?

[mollyripkim]

I asked him and he went off to look at a book and suggested 28 days "to be on the safe side".

[Beantree]

Just read a very good book called 'Choosing and Keeping Chickens', by Chris Graham (ISBN 978-0-7537-1552-9). In it under the 'soft feather light' category of breeds is an article on Silkies. It says "Feeders and drinkers must be carefully chosen to prevent crests from getting wet or dirty, which in turn can lead to parasitic infestation and sometimes eye problems."

 

So it may be an idea to look carefully at the type and height to see if they are the cause of Henrietta's problem Mollyripkim.