weird moult

[crazy pigeon boy]

hi all

 

can any one help me out i have a jan aarden hen witch was coming good racing a couple of cards at club level but the last 2 years she has had a weird moult some of the feather have not grown back and left like a stuble i bred a hen out of her last year and now she has it to! there are no mites or ticks visabul at any times i have treat her as a precaution both years but im really confused as to what it might be as any body had a simular problem???

[Guest]

eva thought it could be down to what ya given them by way of treatment arey in the moult at the time

[crazy pigeon boy]

no i only treat them once with one spot lice treatment just once a year

[Guest Hjaltland]

whereabouts on the birds is this evident?

[pigeonscout]

do you use baytril?

[Guest]

its sounds like  an heredity fault in ur birds. i had a stock hen that would lose feathers around her neck but was not due to mite/lice.she was actually my top hen ,she would moult there twice a year.some reasons for this could be blood disorders.but would not affect the bird other then the moult...paul

[Wiley]

there is a lice that buries under skin and eats away at feathers

[robert.sutherland]

A mate of mean got a bird back months late but he noticed it had got worms so he treated them all not just the one BIG mistake a lot of the birds grow weird feathers some short  some long  but what he did then was read the instructions on the treatment he d given them IT SAID NOT to treat while in the moult so could it be anything like that                                                                                               your   in sport            BOB

[Guest]

From your post the hen wasn't always like this, so would tend to rule out hereditary. Problem is recurring, so maybe feather follicle (feather grows from it) is either damaged, infected or 'infested' with a particular type of mite. As one of this hen's youngsters is also affected, same applies; now unlikely follicle damage, leaves infection or infestation from parent bird more likely.

 

Late Frank Harper (vet) discovered the type of damage you describe was actually caused by the combined action of two different types of mite living on the bird.

 

Mites aren't all that easy to see either, said to be of a size barely visible to human eye, so you would need a magnifying glass, or a scraping and a microscope to see them properly.

[Guest Hjaltland]

there is a lice that buries under skin and eats away at feathers

 

 

This sounds like Depluming mites, commonly known as feather rot. Can be sorted using ivermectin, but best to make sure that's what the problem is before you 'splash it on all over!'

 

[Wiley]

 

 

This sounds like Depluming mites, commonly known as feather rot. Can be sorted using ivermectin, but best to make sure that's what the problem is before you 'splash it on all over!'

 

not me mate had it many years ago touch wood wouldnt get it again was a bugger

[Guest Hjaltland]

No.. not you Wiley.. I was just thinking you might be near the truth here with 'crazy pigeon boy's ' prob.

[Wiley]

but ur 100% right with the ivermectin if i rememberrightly couple drops every couple of weeks and once you got it will spread in the shed.normally around the crop area you will see it

[Guest Hjaltland]

Thats right Wiley, I've seen it below the beak on the crop before, and thats why I was asking whereabouts on the pigeon this was.

 

I've also seen an occasional bird moulting round the neck area at odd times of year.

[crazy pigeon boy]

yes this is on the front of her brest and the wing buts the only thing is it's just those 2 birds that have it none of my other birds have it.

[Wiley]

it will soon spread mate it sounds just hjaltland are talking about

[stevebelbin]

Ive had a few birds with feather-rot and was told to use lighter fluid on the infected area, which did work well. Also theres a permethrin based product called easitox that I used last year and this year and any lice they had were gone within a few hours, incredible stuff. Not seen a lice since  

[Guest CS]

I sent an email to Gordon Chalmers from Canada,

 

Hello Craig:  Apologies for the delay in replying to you about your friend's Aarden hen.  As always (or nearly always), one has to wonder about genetics, especially since the same thing in this case happened to a bird bred off this hen.  Another possibility is paramyxovirus infection which can cause feather abnormalities.  Still another possibility  - maybe a bit remote - is circovirus infection, since a circovirus is associated with beak and feather abnormalities in parrot-like birds, and it's possible that at a critical stage of feather development, damage by this virus might cause feather changes.  I've also seen serious changes in many feathers in birds that have been highly stressed by a tough race, and after they've moulted their new feathers, they are all short and stubby and the flights are very long and narrow.  Hope this helps a bit.  Regards, G.  

[crazy pigeon boy]

thank you all for your advice  

[peterpau]

Go for the Ivermectin mate. Then you can be sure that at least you have no mites. One spot every four to six weeks.