Chicken died from mites?

[byezic]

Hi everyone. Earlier this week I discovered mites on my 1 year old Easter egger. We dusted everyone with DE and then last night I bathed her and was going to do a dip in permethrin. I soaked her in soapy water and then clean water for a rinse. When she was in the clean water she started to stretch her head all the way back to her tail feathers like she was seized up. I was very scared so we dipped her in the permethrin then I wrapped her in a towel. The entire time she kept doing the seizing thing. I thought maybe she needed to dry quicker so I started to blow dry her and she was stretched out laying on her side, like legs stretched straight out too, and she just died while I was blow drying her. I am so devastated and am worried that I caused her to die. She was smaller, weight wise, than my other Easter egger, but has always been that way. Yesterday before the bath I noticed her wings drooping and she almost seemed to be off balance. I feel so terrible and I just don’t know if she had had the mites for so long it killed her? I checked everyone else 3 times now and no one else has them. Also, I do have mareks in my flock and lost a hen last September to mareks. I feel like a terrible chicken mom. Has anyone experienced something like this before?

I attached a photo I took of mites on her back while she was in the bath. All the mites looked like they were dead after her bath.

 

[Eggcessive]

Those look more like lice than mites. What type of permethrin did you use as a dip? How was it mixed? Normally, 0.5 % permethrin spray is used on chickens around 15 ml or 1/2 ounce, or permethrin dust is used. DE is pretty worthless for an outbreak. Sorry for your loss.

 

[byezic]

Those look more like lice than mites. What type of permethrin did you use as a dip? How was it mixed? Normally, 0.5 % permethrin spray is used on chickens around 15 ml or 1/2 ounce, or permethrin dust is used. DE is pretty worthless for an outbreak. Sorry for your loss.

We used this one. My husband did the calculation of mixing it. He said less than 1/2 an oz to probably roughly 3-4 gallons of water. I used the DE cause it’s all I had when I first noticed them, but I’m going to add some dust to my emergency kit now. Can lice kill them?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

It sounds like she could’ve already been very sick with Marek’s, and the stress of the parasites and the bath pushed her over the edge. I believe it’s generally unwise to bathe sickly chickens, as it can be too much stress for them to handle.

 

[azygous]

It's unlikely she died from the parasites. Lice, which are different from mites, feed on dander and dead skin. Mites feed on blood, but those bugs look more like lice. Pick one off and look at it with a magnifying lens. Mites have eight legs and lice have six.

It sounds more like this hen had an exiting health issue and the stress of the bath is what caused her death.

 

[byezic]

Thanks everyone for the information. When I found out we had mareks in the flock I knew I was going to experience losses eventually but it never gets easier.