Help with my hen's skin/parasite problem

[CrazyChickenLady]

Hi...I have an older Plymouth Barred Rock hen....at least she seems older because of her skin condition and her feathers. Her skin seems to have lost its elasticity....which made me believe she is an older hen. Upon further inspection of her today, she has a bubble or boil type thing on her skin next to her wing. It seems to be filled with air. She also has some parasites crawling on her here and there......her neck has a scabby patch with parasites that are crawling in and out of the scab. Help!! I really like this hen.....I adopted her from the MSPCA so that is why I am unsure of her exact age. I would like to treat her for the problem tomorrow but I want to treat her correctly. Anyone have any ideas?? I was thinking about bathing her in flea dip for dogs and then blow drying her .....then dusting her and her house and housemates with an approved poultry powder......I would LOVE some suggestions?!?!?!? Thanks.

Beth

 

[bayouchica]

Hi there, I won't use dog dip on your hen... I don't know what to tell ya about the boil on her. Could be from the mites/ lice she has.If you can se them & they look red then they are mites.Mites can take a toll on chickens & can kill them if left unchecked.( I'm not trying to scare you, just being honest,okay?)

If you do have some poultry dust put it on her soon as you can. Make her a place where she can dust bath & maybe add some more dusting powder in it.
I would totally clean out her coop area & her nestbox,if she's still laying. Sprinkle some of the dusting powder where she sleeps, those mites can get into cracks & come out & feed on your hen at night.
Best of luck to ya,please post some pics of her when you can. Oh & welcome to BYC, lots of nice folks here to help.
Miriam

 

[CrazyChickenLady]

Thanks for your input Miriam.....the bugs that are crawling on her aren't red....they are sort of a light beige flesh tone color. I just went out to isolate her from the rest of the flock....I feel so bad for her because she is like the matriarch of the bunch. She just never looked too good from day one of adopting her. Her rims around her eyes are puffy too......I am going to keep her in her own house for a while till I get this figured out. Do you recommend any insecticide inparticular? The only reason I was going to flea dip her using dog shampoo was because it was recommended in the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow. But I may steer away from the idea.

 

[SpottedCrow]

It may not be a scab, it may be mite doo and eggs. blech...
They could still be a mite though. You can use Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth or 5% Sevin dust. Or you could bathe her...to see if that would get some of them off. I'd use a baby shampoo, even though I wonder if Rid shampoo for people would work...
She might have a broken airsac, but that seems to be the least of her worries...mites can suck her blood and leave her severely anaemic, which could kill her.
I'm glad that you adopted her though...it was a nice thing to do. Did you get her from Nevin's Farm in Methuen?

 

[CrazyChickenLady]

Hi...yes I did adopt her from Nevins Farm in Methuen. I also adopted 4 other hens from there as well....a New Hampshire Red, a Red Sex Link, a Black Sex Link, and a beautiful one-eyed black Cochin named Onyx. Onyx was a low-chicken where she lived prior to being surrendered to the shelter. When I first saw her she had a completely bald head, a pus filled eye and a nervousness about her.....I told the volunteer at the shelter that I had to have her and to call me as soon as she was done with her course of meds and her eye got a clean bill of health....a month later...she came to her new home with us. She has an excellent personality. I have 29 chickens all together.....26 hens and 2 roosters.
Anyway, my parasitic hen does seem weaker and thinner than she did when she first came home...she eats all the time though...also, her pervious owners cut her beak so short that she has a little difficulty pecking. I hopd I can get rid of these bugs!!

 

[dlhunicorn]

read this article for what I think is the most effective and appropriate therapy in your situation (use the spot-on application method):
http://shilala.homestead.com/ivomec.html

 

[Sunflower]

The lady I got some of my chickens from has some show chickens and she uses dog & cat flea shampoo to use to get rid of the crawly critters.
My daughter used it on all the chickens just to freshen them up one day and they all enjoyed it and it didn't seem bother them. The variety I use is safe for dogs or cats.
Good luck.