Feathers damage, all-over

[Charly_20]

Hi,
I have 1 year old Eclectus. I picked him up from a local breaded. When I bought him, his tail fathers were half missing and the rest damaged, the quill brakes on several locations. I have been told this is due to quill mites and I have been treating with Ivermectine. One-two drops directly on the skin, every 8-10 days for about 4-5 weeks. His new feathers came out nice and clean of bites and I thought that's it. Stoped with the treatment. Now they seem to be back. The wings feathers are all bitten, the tail as well. I wonder if this treatment is working at all.
Any share of experience and knowledge will be appreciated.

[Pajarita]

Well, for one thing, the damage that you describe might not be due to feather mites and, for another, the Ivermectin is not used the way they told you to use it. Feather mites eat the little parts of the feather, the barbs and barbules with their little hookers, but they hardly ever touch the rachis so the feathers themselves don't break, they just look 'moth eaten'. Let me explain. Think of a feather like a tree, the thick part in the middle is like the trunk of the tree and that is called the rachis (or shaft) - then you have the big branches that come off the trunk, and those are called barbs, with the little branches that come off the big branches called barbules, and the barbules have hookers (these are the little hooky thingies that overlap and attach to each other so the feather ends up like one single surface). The feather mites eat the little ones starting at the middle of the feather because it's where they are safest (not near the skin where they can be picked by the bird and not at the end where they can get blown away) and the first thing you see are holes right there. If the mites go untreated, they keep on eating their way to the end of the feather - but this never really happens in captivity because breeders or keepers, seeing the holes in the feathers, treat the birds immediately. Not because they hurt the bird itself but because birds need their feathers to be healthy and whole, and when their plumage looks 'moth eaten', they look ugly - and no breeder wants his merchandise to look ugly because he would have to sell it at a discount - which they do not want to do. A breeder that sells you a chick with mites is a TERRIBLE breeder because it means the birds were kept under filthy and unsafe conditions (if the birds have feather mites, they most likely have red mites, too) and he/she did not even care enough to try to fool you into thinking he/she was a good breeder.

Ivermectin is not normally used for feather mites, it's used for parasites that either eat the flesh of the animal or suck the blood (like airsac mites, bird lice or red mites). Feather mites eat protein in the form of feathers or dead skin -but mostly feathers- and the feathers they eat will not contain any ivermectin no matter how much you give the bird because they were formed waaaay before you treated. Now, I guess that you could spray the bird with an Ivermectin solution but I would not do that because you can't really be sure how much was ingested by the bird as it preens and you do not want to overdose poison to an animal (Ivermectin is poison). When there are parasites that can be treated with Ivermectin, the treatment can be done by giving the bird the Ivermectin internally - you mix it in the precisely correct proportion to water and follow the protocol exactly, doing it once a week for three weeks in a row (not every 8 to 10 days for 4 to 5 weeks -that's too long and ineffective because you waited too long between the treatments - it has to do with the lifecycle of the mites, if you wait too long in between, you end up with a new generation of mites and the infestation will continue). Some people do the one drop placed in the apteria (the area of the skin where feathers don't grow) right beneath the nape of the bird, high up between the wings, but you still have to do it once a week for three weeks in a row. Now, there are commercial feather mite sprays that you can use BUT before you go putting more poison on the bird, you need to figure out if the problem is actually feather mites because if the feathers are broken, that means the shafts were affected and feather mites do not weaken shafts (especially the primaries that have thick, strong shafts) they just eat the little 'branches' off the feathers. So, get yourself a magnifying glass, a table under a good light and toweling the bird (if you can find a perfectly white cotton kitchen towel -they sometimes call them 'flour sack', use it), place it on the table in front of you, allow one wing to come out of the towel and look at the underside very carefully because, if the bird has mites, they will congregate there right on the skin (because they also eat the dead skin flakes and this is an area where there are very few feathers). If you don't see any there, open up the bird's wing and look very carefully at the remiges (the long feathers in the wings) shafts because, again, this is where you will find the mites (they lay between the barbs, kind of sandwiched between two of them). If you were able to do it with a white cotton kitchen towel, shake the remiges on it and 'scrape' with your fingers the underneath of the wing and see if anything falls off (they are VERY little and that's why you will need a magnifying glass). If you see mites, use the commercial spray on the bird (do not use the little round thingies with holes in it that you are supposed to hang on the cage - only the spray). If you do not see mites, you will need to take your bird to the vet and have it examined and tested for PBFD, just to make sure it's not the disease.

[Charly_20]

Thank you for the explanation and the answer.

I think it will be helpful to show a photo of a feather with the damage I tried to describe. Somehow I can't figure it out how.
The quill mite is the one which pears the quill from inside out, because is often found inside the quill. Also leaves a line in the barb region of the feather. The mite you describe sounds like an acari type, which basically drill holes in the feathers. This is not the case.
So, when we talking quill mites, they regenerate every 16 days, this is why I was using the medicine in the given intervals for about a month trying to cut off on the population.
I can try to look for mites with magnified glass and I have microscope too. So far, all the feathers I have observed only show the consequences of the act, but could not fine any bug -dead or alive.
My problem with the vet is that the Eclectus does not like to be touched, like many other from this kind. Some birds are qudally, but not this one. When try to touch wings and tail, he immediately moves away and will try to bite, but is a good soul, first he never does it hard enough, so giving you a way out. Second, going to the vet with the bird can be also another stressful experience for him not to mention the chance to pick up something from there. I thought about bring some old feathers maybe they can look at if there is no help here.

[Pajarita]

Hmmm, I have different information. For one thing, quill mites are acari, same as feather mites and other types (they are Trombidiformes, which falls under the 'acari' classification). For another, although there were species found in African birds (there are a couple of studies that I link below but the birds are passerines), they are, usually, very host specific and, in USA, they are normally found in passerines only so where could your bird have gotten a species of quill mite that parasiticizes ekkies, I can't image (budgies and tiels do get mites but they are air sac, red or feather mites and lice, not quill mites). I am quoting: "Approximately two thirds of the known quill mite species are host specific, meaning one quill mite species lives only on a specific bird species. “There is evidence that some mites may be able to parasitize a narrow range of closely related hosts, namely birds from the same genus or family,” and I could not find a single study or mention of an ekkie having quill mites. Also, according to all the articles I've read, there is never an extended plumage damage with quill mites, it is always restricted to a few feathers - there is a reference to less than 5% in oven birds tails or wings- and that's what made me think that maybe what your bird has is not quill mites but feather mites.

About feather, quill and feather follicle mites:
http://www.federmilben.de/en/living.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/ag ... ther-mites

Acari:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acari

Trombidiformes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombidiformes

In African birds:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31206583/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3443350

Different studies on different types of birds but not a single parrot
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... es_Mimidae

Does the bird bathe on its own in a bowl of water? Because if he does, you could put ivermectin in the water and, if it doesn't you could spray the affected areas because another tidbit of info that is in one of the links I give you is that the mites are not only very host specific but also very feather type specific so some species are in the tail feathers, some on the wing feathers (like I said, there is no generalized damage, it's always limited). But make sure you use the right dosage.

Also, I do not know what you mean by 'regenerate' - do you mean an entire lifecycle, meaning from egg to the birth of the new generation? If you do have a link, could you post it here? Because although I could find a generalized life cycle of external mites, I could find a single piece of info on Syringophilidae as to the exact time periods of the different stages of their life cycle.

[Charly_20]

Hi,

I have looked at all links and the one which applies per my opinion is the link #6.

I will also add this one below, which is not much different.
http://www.finchinfo.com/health/disease ... _mites.php - it is in finches, but the symptoms are 1:1. I see vertical lines on many feathers and some feathers have dark stain in the quill, like of dry out blood, actually very few. The local breeder did not maintain good hygiene and parrots have contact with number of different type birds. I had no idea about the mites when visited the place, not I was informed about it in anyway.
I can confirm, that this first was seen on the tail feathers, extensively. When the feathers were all gone, seems like they moved to the outer wings plumage, not the fly feathers, which are mostly untouched.
I don't know for sure if this is a quill type parasite, but what I see is not holes in the feathers, what some mites are leaving. The quill mites are likely host specific and are mostly unknown by far. Still it is not clear on what they really feed. This what you can read about them online is just of fraction of the entire picture and in some cases the scientists admit that more research is needed to clarify on them.
No, he does not bath on his own, and I usually spray him with bird bath solution or water. He sleeps fine, it isn't nervous at night or day, and I can't say he preens extensively, however he preens sometimes quickly from one location to another and use his leg to scratch head, not sure if all this is normal or excessive. I think rather normal.
The Ivermectine I have is only for drop-on. The one mixed with water has different concentration and I don't have it.
More info about the topic in Avian Pathology. Hope this clarifies somewhat..

[Pajarita]

The study you say resembles most the problem with your bird is based on a passerine - same as the finch link. Parrots do not have the same species of quill mites as passerines so it has to be something else.

Why don't you pull a compromised feather and look at it under the microscope? That should give you some good clues because even if you don't see the actual mite, there might be eggs. You might not be able to actually identify the exact species or even the type of mite but you will confirm whether it has or not mites and take it from there.

Also, it doesn't have to Ivermectin, it can be any mite spray but, if you want to use Ivermectin, put 1 ml of a 1% Ivermectin solution in a quart of water. Make sure his cage, perches, toys, etc are all thoroughly cleaned (treat them with the solution and then rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse).

[Charly_20]

I have many compromised feathers. They fall off on its own. I looked under a microscope and so far cannot find any useful sign of a mite or eggs. I only see the damages... have cut the quill along side and still nothing. I guess this requires more then just to place material under the scope.
Now, if this is a quill mite, the spray you suggested will not do a thing. Remember, the quill mites are inside the feather quill. But of course, I'm not sure if this is a quill or not. And I have mite spray and have done the cage and the bird, several times.
Will, keep looking I guess and think to get some feathers to doc.
Thanks for your input.

[Pajarita]

Well, the spray works because, first of all, the mites make a large hole in the quill so I would assume that some of the spray gets in, and also because the females come out to lay eggs and, if you kill the females, eventually, there will be no more mites - but everybody agrees that it is VERY difficult to get rid of them and that it usually takes a long treatment (not for feather but for quill mites - feather mites are easy to kill).

But, Charly, if you have studied several feathers under the microscope and see no mites or eggs in any of them and the feathers are falling off by themselves, we are not talking about quill or feather mites because the feathers do not fall with mites. Both feather and quill mites eat the protein in the feather and can do from very little to a lot of damage but ONLY in the visible part of the feather, they never reach the part of the calamus inside the follicle (the very 'root' of the feather and what keeps it 'attached' to the skin) so, if the feathers are falling off, you need to take the bird to an avian vet because this is NOT mites.