Feather-eaters in chickens treated with folk remedies. Mallophagosis or feather eating in chickens: how to get rid of it using drugs and folk remedies, recommendations for disinfecting the chicken coop. How to get rid of lice eaters completely

When mallophagosis is detected, the breeder is faced with several tasks at once:

separating sick chickens from healthy ones;
destruction of down-eaters;
disinfection of the chicken coop;
carrying out preventive treatment for healthy chickens.

There are two main ways to treat the disease: with the help of synthetic drugs and folk remedies. Experienced poultry farmers advise using both methods, since medications quickly destroy bird eaters, and folk remedies repel them well.

Drugs

If down feather eaters are found in chickens, treatment should be started immediately. In a situation where an infected individual is found immediately, it is separated from the rest. Otherwise, preventive treatment of the entire livestock is carried out.

The most effective medications for the treatment of mallophagosis.

Butox

Helps hatch adults, but is not effective against eggs, so full course treatment includes two or three treatments of birds.

Stronghold

An effective medicine that is very convenient to use, since it requires application only to the withers of the bird.

Insectol

Another effective drug, convenient to use. It, unlike Stronghold, is applied under the wings and under the tail of chickens.

Arpalid

Helps get rid of live fluff eaters and also prevents re-infestation.

Nyuda and Bars are also popular. If a feather eater is detected in chickens, the veterinarian will advise how to treat it. If it is not possible to contact a veterinarian, then you should use any of the suggested remedies; under no circumstances should you ignore the disease.

Attention! Chickens cannot be used to cure medicines in the form of a spray.

Folk remedies

Even before creation medications breeders had to look for methods to combat fluff eaters, so there are many means traditional medicine, which can be used to treat birds and disinfect the chicken coop.

Kerosene

Water and vinegar are added to kerosene. The resulting solution is applied to the feather cover. If the livestock is large, then it is simpler: simply dip the chickens in a medicinal bath, avoiding getting the product into the eyes, mouth and nose.

Ammonia

Kerosene and benzene are added to alcohol. The resulting product is applied to the chickens' withers.

Hellebore and barnacle

The dried plants are ground to a powder and applied to the chickens' feathers. Plants are toxic, so the drug is used with caution. Not recommended for treating young animals.

Disinfection

During processing, you must follow a number of rules in order to clean the poultry house safely for your own health:

Before placing the birds in their usual conditions, you need to make sure that all the chickens are healthy. Otherwise you will have to start all over again.

Prevention

Simple preventive measures that have proven their effectiveness for decades will help reduce the likelihood of the occurrence and development of mallophagosis:

Mallophagosis is transmitted by contact:

from wild birds to domestic chickens by direct contact;
when an infected chicken communicates with healthy individuals;
through the common litter in the chicken coop;
with the help of a person if the feather eater has attached itself to clothing or shoes.

non-compliance with the conditions for keeping birds: untimely cleaning, overcrowding, poor ventilation;
reduced immunity caused by errors in the diet: lack of vitamins and minerals;
high humidity caused by appropriate weather conditions. Mallophagosis worsens in late spring and early autumn, when the warm climate coincides with heavy rains.

Symptoms

On early stage development, when the disease affected only one individual, it is difficult to recognize mallophagosis. But after a few days, several heads in the chicken coop will already be infected, so the symptoms will be more noticeable:

The chickens' behavior is changing. The birds are constantly itching, trying to peck out the feather eaters, inflicting wounds on themselves.
Productivity changes; egg production in adult laying hens decreases. In young animals, development in height and weight slows down.
When there are a lot of mallophages, they quickly eat the feather cover, so the chickens become noticeably bald. If obvious baldness is still not noticeable, then you can see holes on individual feathers.

In an advanced stage, chickens peck not only themselves, but also each other, there is severe baldness and restlessness in the ranks of birds.

What does a feather eater look like?

Insects reproduce by laying eggs. One female can leave about 10 eggs per day. The size of each is no more than 1.5 mm, so they can only be seen with a magnifying glass. Mallophages hatch after 1–3 weeks and live on the chicken's body for a month, after which they die. The activity of bird eaters is best expressed at an air temperature of about 30 degrees above zero and high humidity up to 80%.

Danger of mallophagosis

If you ignore mallophagosis, then in addition to a decrease in productivity and restless behavior of chickens, the death of the entire flock may begin.

Chickens gradually refuse to eat, and the lack of full feather cover leads to the fact that with the onset of cold weather the birds simply freeze.

Close attention directed at chickens will help to promptly notice changes in the behavior of birds, and therefore detect deviations in their health status in a timely manner.

Show all

Signs of the disease

When infected with a feather eater, the behavior and condition of chickens changes.

loss of appetite;
small holes at the base of the pen;
partial baldness;
scratching;
weight loss;
desire and attempts to pluck feathers;
decreased egg production.

The insect multiplies quickly, so infected individuals should be separated from healthy birds until they are completely cured in order to prevent an epidemic. At the same time, you need to completely disinfect the chicken coop and equipment.

The treatment period can be from 1 to 6 months, since no insecticides have any effect on the eggs of the beetle. Treatment is carried out several times with a break of 7-10 days.

Chemicals

You can fight insects with various veterinary drugs. They are highly effective and do not harm the bird:

Drug name	Directions for use
Bars (insecticidal drops)	Apply to the withers of an infected bird. The dosage is calculated based on the weight and instructions for the drug
Stronghold (drops)	Apply to the withers
Insectol (spray)	Spray under the wings and under the tail of the chicken
Frontline (spray)	Spray the feathers all over the bird's body, excluding the eyes and beak. Re-process only after a week
Butox (ampoule or powder)	The liquid from the ampoule is dissolved in water (the proportions are indicated in the instructions), and the resulting solution is sprayed onto the bird. Powder diluted with water (1 g per 1 l) is used to treat the chicken coop
Neotomazan (ampoule)	Dilute in warm water in proportions of 1:1000, spray the feathers of chickens
Nyuda (spray)	Spray on the feather

When treating for lice beetles, you should follow some rules:

1. Sprays should not be used on chicks under 3 months of age..
2. The drops should be applied strictly to the withers so that the bird cannot reach the feathers stained with the product and get poisoned.
3. Spray the spray at a distance of 15 cm from the body, covering the chicken’s head with a cloth (this will help protect the eyes and beak from getting the drug on them).

Folk recipes

You can get rid of feather eating in chickens without the use of chemicals. The most popular folk remedies include the following:

Ways to kill insects in a chicken coop:

1. Treatment of the premises with Butox. The powder is dissolved in water (1 g per 1 liter). Wipe all surfaces and equipment with the liquid and spray the roost.
2. Spraying Neostomazan solution (1 ml of the drug per 400 ml of water).
3. Spraying the chicken coop with a solution of ammonia, kerosene and benzene.

Preventive measures

You can prevent chickens from becoming infected with the feather eater by following these recommendations:

As a preventive measure, you can also add plants to the litter (a dry mixture of chamomile, tansy, wild rosemary branches, wormwood), the smell of which repels insects, or hang bunches of these herbs throughout the chicken coop.

First you need to make sure that it is this insect that is bothering the birds.

Causes of insects:

contaminated feed,
entering an apartment on shoes or clothes, from balconies, when a large number of pigeons live in the attic,
chickens can be infected by wild birds.

How to get rid of lice eaters completely

The fight against lice eaters involves treating birds with various means. In this case, it may be necessary to treat the premises with professional insecticidal preparations.

Chickens sit in the same nests, perches, and are constantly in contact with each other, thanks to which insects quickly spread throughout the chicken coop.

For preventive purposes, to prevent insects from bothering the birds, the cages and premises can be sprayed with an infusion of wormwood or chamomile. In the warm season twice a week, in winter you can do this once a month. The infusion is absolutely safe for birds, but parasites cannot stand the smell and try to leave such a room as quickly as possible. It’s easy to prepare the product; you need to take a third of a glass of herbs and pour boiling water over it.

Sometimes poultry farmers are faced with the question of how to get rid of feather eating in chickens. If you notice that there is a strange situation in the chicken coop, expressed by restlessness, loss of feathers and nakedness of the chickens, your birds began to itch, finger their feathers and pull them out, pay special attention to this. The cause of all this could be period. They also call it a lice eater. This is a very small insect, no more than 2 mm in length, yellow-brown in color. The body is elongated. It has 6 limbs, each of which is equipped with 2 claws. On the body of chickens, feather eaters look like brown lines.

Sometimes poultry farmers are faced with the question of how to get rid of feather eating in chickens.

They easily move across the skin, clinging to it with their claws. Externally they look like lice. The head is triangular in shape with mouthparts. With the help of these organs, the feather eater gnaws the feathers of chickens. Eggs are laid on feathers near the skin of poultry. After 5-7 days, insects hatch from them. After 3-4 weeks, they are already able to lay new eggs. Down-eaters in chickens cause great harm to their health, causing a disease that veterinarians call mallophagosis.

Infection with the disease can occur from wild birds that fly in for food and are in close contact with domestic birds. The pathogen also appears when contaminated food or equipment is brought into the premises.

Also, insects or their eggs can be carried into the chicken coop by the owner on shoes. Other routes of entry are also possible.

The development of the disease is facilitated by keeping a large number of pets in a closed, cramped room for a long time. Signs of the emerging disease are:

nervousness of birds;
constant picking of the plumage with the beak;
feather pulling;
skin dermatitis;
eye conjunctivitis;
weight loss;
deterioration in egg production;
slower growth of young individuals;
fallen feathers chewed by a feather eater.

Chickens lose their appetite from the lice eater, they lose weight, and general exhaustion of the body occurs. Chickens stop laying eggs, and the growth of new feathers slows down very much. They experience constant discomfort, become irritable and fearful. Trying to get rid of the itching, they begin to pluck feathers. Having lost their feathers, chickens freeze, weaken and may die. In addition, they infect other family members.

How to get rid of fluff eaters and chicken mites (video)

Ways to combat the lice eater

The lice eater is very tenacious. This tick is not afraid of sudden changes in temperature. It can go without food for a long time and hide in secluded places in the room, maintaining its vitality. Therefore, it is necessary not only to treat the chickens, but also to thoroughly disinfect all rooms and objects that came into contact with sick birds. First of all, it is necessary to separate infected individuals from the rest. Then treat all birds, premises and household equipment with special substances that get rid of harmful insects.

Can be used traditional methods control or disinfection chemicals. The poultry house itself is treated with karbofos. It has a wide spectrum of action and is popular in various fields agriculture.

Colonies of pathogens of this disease are mainly concentrated on the back and wings. They eat both down and large feathers

To rid birds of disease you can use:

various essential oils;
a solution of vinegar in water;
an aqueous solution of vinegar and kerosene;
benzene, ammonia and kerosene dissolved in water.

The mixtures are shaken and applied to the feathers. But they cannot be used for chickens.

A 2% oxalate emulsion is now also used to treat sick animals. (For 1 chicken you will need 30 ml of emulsion.) In addition, various preparations and sprays have been created to clean birds. They can be purchased at a veterinary pharmacy:

spray Bars;
Frontstein drops;
Incentall and Stronghold;
Unsmeared.

You can use traditional methods of control or carry out disinfection with chemicals.

Fighting fleas, feather eaters, ticks in chickens (video)

Traditional methods

Among the folk remedies, ash-sand baths for chickens are very effective. The sand needs to be sifted. Then wood ash is added to it in the same quantity. Pour everything into prepared containers (troughs) and place it in the chicken coop and in the places where the chickens graze. The thickness of the mixture in the trough must be at least 20 cm. Care must be taken to ensure that no moisture gets in there. Chickens love to take such baths.

Traditional veterinary medicine cannot do without medicines from natural plants. For treatment, infusions are prepared from herbs such as:

chamomile;
tansy;
wild rosemary

Among the folk remedies, ash-sand baths for chickens are very effective.

The plumage should be soaked in the herbal infusion daily. This can be used especially successfully for young animals and chickens. It is good and safe to use dry wormwood powder. Herbs are recommended mainly for prevention. For progressive disease, chemical drugs are more effective.

After the symptoms of the disease disappear, it is necessary to continue to monitor the situation on the farm to prevent the emergence of a new epidemic. Do not forget preventive measures against pest attacks. Clean the room daily. Keep sparrows, pigeons and other wild birds away. In order for the inhabitants of the poultry house to be healthy, they must always have chalk, shells, and charcoal.

Veterinarians confirm the presence of fluff eaters in chickens and prescribe treatment if they are detected under the animal’s plumage, as well as with the following symptoms and details of the clinical picture indicating infection:

How to remove fluff eaters

Chemicals

Folk remedies

Kerosene will be effective in fighting beetles. This product instantly kills not only adult lice beetles, but also partially destroys the chitinous shell covering them. Kerosene can be used to treat chickens by mixing it with water and vinegar. This liquid should be used to treat the bird's feathers.

Prevention

treating the room where chickens live with boiling water or steam;
timely removal of old dirty food and droppings;
constant change of chicken coop litter;
excluding contact between chickens and wild birds.

We also recommend installing sand baths mixed with ash. Don't forget in mandatory periodically inspect the roots of the down and feathers of chickens for symptoms of damage and monitor the behavior of the birds. We strongly recommend that you take great care to keep your clothes and shoes clean when caring for your bird.

Photo gallery

Video “Diseases of chickens”

After watching the video, you will know about all the most common diseases of chickens.