red mite, bare bums and houses!

[knat]

We have 9 hens. Probably 6 of them have some form of bareness on their bodies! We know there's red mite in teh wooden coop but aren't getting rid of it. Could this be causing the feather loss? Would a plastic coop be worth getting instead? If so has anyone any recommendations? WAs thinking of buying a plastic shed and converting. Would love some advice please.

Despite their ragged appearance all 9 are laying well!!!

Bare bums are normally caused by mites (not red ones) and if you inspect the area around the cloaca carefully you will see them wriggling at the base of the feathers. They usually either stay there and cause bald rear ends or they hang around the neck and cause bald patches there instead. Ours got them from wild birds from next door's pond and we had to dust them religiously with mite kill right against the skin to get rid of them and it takes time unfortunately.

Thanks for replying BCBG. Haven't seen anything wriggling on them. One of the birds has the feathers around its wings missing aswell. Is there a specific mite kill you used?

Can't remember the name but your local animal feeds place should have it (or maybe a MNerr with more expertise will come along . all I recall is that the powders that just choke mites didn't work and I think the one that did had pyrethin in it: I use the website flytesofancy and I think they sell it there'd as well. They are very hard to see, they look like specks of dut moving around. I missed them the first time I checked. As far as I know, red mite suck blood so they become unwell quite obviously whereas wih the lice they will carry on laying even if quite ragged.

You need an Ivermectin treatment (the vet will sell you a spray) and a Permethrin spray (from the pet store). The Powders don't work at all.

To kill red mite you need to clean the coop thoroughly with a steam cleaner and then scrub with bleach. I think Jeyes fluid works as well.

I think plastic coops are supposed to be better.

it's called Red Mite Powder.

it isn't necessarily red mite though.

the bes thing you can do is clean the house thoroughly with very hot water and jeyes fluid.
scrub right into the nooks and crannies and crevices, and use a brush to do that.
rinse very well with more very hot water (please do, because jeyes is poisonous if you don't rinse it off)
make sure it's all very dry before bedtime, then when the chooks are ready to go to bed, sprinkle them nad the house with the powder.

make sure it's not them biting each other too - make sure there's plenty to occupy them in their run