Chicken Has Irritated Stomach

animalcrazy

I have nine chickens which decided to sleep in my shed tonight. I was picking them up to put them into their house and I noticed one of my rhode island reds has an irritated chest/stomach. All the feathers are plucked out and it looks a little bit red/irritated. It looks like she plucked them out because they were annoying/itchy. By the looks of it she has some kind of small mite as I couldn't see anything among her feathers. Anyone know where you can get stuff to treat mites? I might as well do the whole flock just incase. Can you get the stuff at the vets?

Sigma Force

I think a lot of people use a powder which prevents mites and lice.
Do they have access to a dust bath? If they do then you could add the powder to it. There's mite sprays as well. Important to find out wether it's lice or mites if you can't find an all in one powder.

A farm supply shop will probably be able to reccommend something either.

animalcrazy

Well they don't have access to a dustbath but they have access to a half an acre so they have various different places that they go to. I'll have a look when I'm going to buy layers mash.

Sigma Force

With this wet weather it's hard to find natural dust baths even under hedges can be soaking, they do need one in their shed where it's dry this will keep mites under control.

animalcrazy

Well they don't use their house, only for laying and sleeping, I know there are places they go that are dry, we have quite alot of trees around our house and there are a few dusty places they go to even in this bad weather. I also think she could have had them during the good weather as she has had bald patches on her wings, I thought it was just them being hens. She probably picked them up in around the trees.

luckat

She may just be ready to set - that means a hot red chest, usually. Is she cross and reluctant to move from where she is? Is she attempting to set on the eggs? Is she making a clocking noise? Is she looking broody, like an author with a difficult plot twist?

animalcrazy

luckat wrote: »

She may just be ready to set - that means a hot red chest, usually. Is she cross and reluctant to move from where she is? Is she attempting to set on the eggs? Is she making a clocking noise? Is she looking broody, like an author with a difficult plot twist?

No, she's defo not broody, I hatch chicks so I know what they are like when they are and she's not, I'll get some sort of spray/powder for her when I go to buy the mash

The Sweeper

If you treat one chook you should treat all of them. When you buy lice powder, hold them upside down to apply, working into the feathers under the wings etc. Also some mites can cause scaly leg disease, so you might want to either buy something to treat that, or use something like vaseline - if you apply it to the chicken's legs and feet you'll smother the mites.

Try painting engine oil on their perches to smother existing mites, and also make sure you dust the bedding and nest boxes with the lice powder (but keep it away from their food and water).