What is this? White specs. Lice? Mites? Molting?

[Mcmurdiefam]

Our silkie rooster has been looking pretty sad lately, feather loss and broken feathers. He has lost feathers right above his tail feathers as well as some near his wings. I assumed that he was just molting until it dawned on me today that maybe it could be lice. What do you guys think? I didn’t see anything crawling but there are these little white specs….

If it is lice or mites, how do I treat him? Especially being a silkie he seems like he’d be harder to treat. We have 10 other hens that live in the same coop too! I haven’t noticed any feather loss or anything on them though. It’s also winter so I don’t know if bathing is an option??

 

[GodLovesU]

Those might be eggs,but it could be something else.If they do have mites and/or lice they’re fairly simple to treat.Bathing is not necessary.If he does have lice I would go ahead and treat all the chickens, just in case.First I would put the chickens in the run,change the bedding in the coop, and then spray the interior of the coop with diluted permethrin.Let the permethrin dry.Be sure to put the old bedding far away from the coop or ,even better, burn it.Next catch each individual bird,cover them in poultry dust (powdered permethrin that can be found at TSC), and put them in the clean coop.This step is easier with two people.I didn’t but I suppose you could also spray the run.

 

[CHlCKEN]

He’s probably just molting. They shed the protective layer of their feather shafts when new feathers come in. It’s white and flaky, kind of scaley even.