How to get rid of chicken feathers
poultry farmers who are just starting to breed pets should know what infectious processes of parasitic origin can affect the body of their birds. One of the causative agents of such infections is chickens. If it is present, one has to observe manifestations of a negative symptomatic picture, a decrease in the level of egg production and other indicators of productivity.
Feather in chickens
In addition to how to get rid of a feather eater, you need to know for what reasons parasites appear in chickens, how to recognize them and what drugs to use. The presence of such knowledge will allow you to quickly and effectively eliminate the threat to the health of birds and get the maximum result from poultry farming.
What is a feather eater
The feather-eater is a small parasitic organism that settles on the body of a bird; not only a land bird suffers from it, a pigeon and a parrot are also susceptible to such a pest. Its dimensions are only 2-3 mm, which makes it impossible to recognize it in the early stages of development. Also, the small size of the parasite does not allow the poultry farmer to understand the reason why the plumage of chickens falls out, the birds lose their calm and begin to peck at each other.
The feather eater, also known as "chicken lice" or "chicken mite", is the cause of the development of the disease, which is called malofagosis. In this regard, in science, parasitic organisms that live on a chicken body are known as mallophages (downy eaters).
From the photo you can see what a chicken feather looks like and how it differs from fleas... It has its own structural features. Its body is flat, divided into segments, slightly elongated, no wings.
The parasites are light brown in color with a tinge of yellow. Stripes of dark color can be seen between the segments of the body of the feather.
Like any other parasitic organism, the Feather must fix its position on the host's body. This parasite clings to the jaws and three pairs of legs. In the video, you can see the whole process of the parasite's invasion of the bird's skin.
This organism does not feed on the blood of chickens. His diet includes:
- feathers;
- fluff;
- pieces of dead skin;
- discharge from the places of pecking and scratching.
peroed exists under certain conditions: the temperature regime is within 25-30 ° C, and the humidity is 70-80%.
The fertility of the parasites is quite high. One female lays up to 10 eggs per day, attaching them to the feathers or down of chickens. The size of each does not exceed 1.5 mm. Eggs laid by a feather-eater can only be found under a magnifying glass. Larvae usually hatch 6-18 days after laying. After that, they go through 3 molting periods, each of which lasts 12-18 days. After that, the parasites become adults of mallophages.
The life span of a feather-eater in the external environment is 6 days. On the host's body, parasites live for up to 30 days, but if the necessary drugs are applied in time, the pest can be destroyed even before it spreads throughout the poultry house.
For what reasons the parasite gets to animals
In order for birds to get sick with malofagosis, it is necessary that its pathogen, that is, the feather-eater, gets into the chicken coop. Mostly young birds suffer from invasions, but it can also settle on the bodies of adult chickens. Parasites are most often transmitted through a sick individual. The high survival rate of the feather eater is due to the abundance of food, optimal conditions for development among fluff and plumage.
It is worth noting that the death of a chicken infected with parasites causes death of the parasites themselves. This is due to the fact that the pest needs a stable temperature regime in order to continue its vital activity. However, an important point is that mallophagosis is a contagious disease and it is difficult to treat it. Seven days is enough for most of the birds in the hen house to be infected, the necessary settlement period is 3-5 days.
In order to get rid of parasitic organisms as effectively as possible, it is worthwhile to clearly understand how they can get to pets.
At the current moment in time, the following ways of infection of a bird by feather-eating are known:
- transmission between sick and healthy individuals during dust baths;
- wild birds that flew into the territory of the yard;
- contact of healthy birds with sick birds while on roost, nests or cages;
- a person who brought parasites on his shoes from another room.
Also, when breeding poultry, it is worthwhile to clearly understand that in the spring and autumn periods, the risk of infection with parasites becomes higher due to an outbreak of their activity. There are also some situations that increase the risk of parasite infestation in birds, namely:
- inadequate level of conditions in the chicken coop, increased level of dampness in the premises for both young animals and adults;
- poor diet, causing a lack of vitamins in the body of birds;
- insufficient chicken coop spacecausing crowding of birds.
There are many known cases in which a rooster is the cause of feather eating in chickens. This is understandable, since males are less likely to clean their plumage and take dusty baths.
By contact with chickens, roosters make the transmission of the parasite quick and easy. And the more infected individuals, the faster they spread the pest through the poultry house.
Manifestation of the presence of eaters
Like any other disease, malofagosis, which is caused by downy eaters, can be distinguished from the rest by a number of signs, namely:
- feathers are damaged at the base of the shaft, there are lesions resembling perforation;
- in birds, the level of anxiety increases, in attempts to remove the parasitic organism from the body, they constantly clean their feathers;
- the development of young animals slows down, the birds gain weight worse;
- over time, damaged areas begin to lose feathering, which becomes the first sign of alarm for most breeders;
Long-term neglect of the problem leads to the fact that birds begin to lose weight, the level goes down egg production... It is also important to remember that self-spreading of birds can provoke the appearance of purulent wounds.
Inflammatory processes on the skin of a bird are no less dangerous than wounds in humans. If the chicken is not relieved of the symptom that provokes self-spitting, it can be fatal.
How to treat mallophagosis
Treatment for parasites should be carried out as early as possible. As already mentioned, the feather-eater quickly spreads throughout the chicken coop, affecting both adults and young individuals. In order to keep your pets as safe as possible, it is important to recognize the presence of parasitic insects before most of the birds in the chicken coop get sick.
The most effective way to get rid of feathers is by using chemicals, spray, or spraying.
This method of treatment involves the use of ready-made products, including professional drugs that are often used in veterinary clinics in order to quickly remove the parasite from an ornamental bird. At the current time, veterinarians recommend the following drugs to combat such a parasite:
- Not anointed;
- Frontline;
- Leopard;
- Karbofos.
The plumage of chickens is processed twice. The first treatment is therapeutic, the second is prophylactic. This allows you to destroy not only adults, but also to cure the birds from larvae. Prevention will kill young mites that emerge from previously laid eggs. The effectiveness of therapy increases if the entire feather cover of parasitized chickens is treated.
It is also possible to treat, in which the owners rid the birds of feather-eating by folk methods, which have accumulated quite a lot. It is important to remember that there are also local methods of exterminating the pest, which act only on the downy eater. There are also universal remedies for bird parasites.
Home remedies for feather eating
Kerosene mixed with vinegar and water is the most common parasite treatment without the use of chemicals. The plumage is treated with this solution in order to destroy active individuals and destroy the protective shell of the laid eggs.
After it is established that the pets have been hit by a feather eater, it is important to learn how to get rid of it. And fleas are more troublesome. The feather eater itself can suffer not only from the direct effect of the agent used, but also from the smell that it emits, but this does not work on fleas. Here, only treatment with folk remedies is appropriate. That is why it is possible to use a mixture of kerosene, benzene and ammonia as a medicine. The method of processing birds with celandine will also be effective. With the help of this tool, not only the plumage of pets is processed, but also carried out disinfection in the chicken coop.
Our predecessors, in the fight against parasites that spoil the economy, often resorted to the use of those plants that have a smell that irritates and repels pests. Pooh-eaters cannot stand the aromas of the following representatives of the flora:
- chamomile;
- wild rosemary;
- tansy.
In order to fight feather-eating, chamomile flowers are used, and from wild rosemary and tansy, plant branches are taken to fight. This herb also gets rid of fleas.
If the medicine is celandine, then here you need to prepare a decoction or tincture. But this remedy is very bitter, you need to make sure that the birds do not get a burn of the throat and esophagus.
Preventive measures
Once faced with such a problem as chewing lice, a person does not want to experience this stress again. To this end, it is best to carry out preventive measures that will help prevent re-infection with parasites. In order to protect yourself and your birds from the negative effects of peroed, it is recommended to carry out the following actions:
- to carry out processing in the chicken coop with boiling water and steam;
- regularly remove outdated feed residues and droppings;
- change bedding for birds;
- conduct regular inspection of birds for the presence of parasites;
- limit the ability of poultry to contact wild birds such as the pigeon.
It is also worth making sure that the chickens have the opportunity to take sand baths with an admixture of ash. This will allow you to naturally clear feathers from feathers.
The downy eater, like a subcutaneous or cutaneous mite, affects not only chickens, but pigeons, and ducks, and geese, and even parrots. When choosing preparations for chicken fleas, you should check whether they can be used to treat birds when a downy eater is found.