I was monitoring my little gold lace Wyandotte as I could see she was loosing some feathers from her back end. She has always been a tricky one to catch. Her sister is a lot easier to get hold of, so unfortunately she hand not had a good health check for a l little while other than from a distance.
She was eating, drinking, seemed happy enough other than the loss of feathers. I put it down to an unusual late moult.
Today as she bent down to feed, putting what should be a fluffy backside in the air, I noticed a very bare and red patch of skin. So with wellies on, I decided today was the day to catch her.
It did not take long, perhaps because she knew she needed help.
First place I check whenever I check my hens over is the vent, and it was clear mites were active, eggs had been laid at he base of the remaining feathers and I could see two or there lice roaming around. I could not get a photo, but have found a particularly good photo on the Internet, so you can see what I discovered.
I decided to gave her a bath to clean off as many of the eggs as possible, and bought an anti mite spray from the local pet shop. It's the one used for small birds and rabbits. Lower strength than what is normally recommended (1% invecticim). Chicken vet is a great website to get info on this product and recommended you talk to your vet before using as there is an egg withdrawal period.
I'm going to treat her for 3 weeks, and not use any eggs from the wyandottes for a month.
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