chicken parasites too small to see

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chickadee11

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chicken parasites too small to see
« on: November 20, 2010, 17:55 »
Hi, I am itchy after I've been down to my chickens..does anyone have any suggestion what it could be?  I had red mite in the summer and the itchy feeling is the same as when they were getting on me, only this time I can't see anything crawling on me..whereas I could see the mites. 

The chickens look ok, although one has a bald patch developing on her head - which to me says the others are trying to remove something from there!  Yuck!!

Also, in the past few days I've had 2 eggs laid with NO shell...I can't even find a soft shell!! It may be from the chicken with the bald patch.  Apart from that they all seem happy and lively.

Chickadee
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ehs284

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Re: chicken parasites too small to see
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2010, 19:47 »
Shell-less eggs could be from that hen and the feather loss could be moulting. Together this would suggest a need for better nutrition to get her over the moult and healthy again. See a number of threads on moulting. Use anti-peck anyway. On the head and neck the new growing feathers look very odd a bit like a stick with a white end at first glance. Quite a few of ours seem to start their moult around the head (maybe because that's the part we see) and then look as if they're going old and grey as the new feathers appear.
Itchiness could be live parasites, but if you can't see anything then could be dust mites or more likely, just the dust itself. Proteins in the food or bedding can cause irritation. One reason for getting dust into the skin can be 'static'. If you rub a feathered hen then electrons are moved and one of you becomes positively charged and the other negatively charged. Small particles of dust or paper which have a charge will jump to you as you have the opposite charge. They are going so fast that they actually penetrate the top layer of skin. Nylon clothing has a similar effect (take off your nylon top in the dark - keep your eyes open and you'll find the lightning storm quite frightening). This effect has caused many office staff to complain of fleas biting them when the culprits were a nylon stocking and an under desk printer.



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