I didn't have the dry cough until after I was mistakenly given steroids by dermatologist. He was treating me for on and off rashes with those weird threads everyone talks about. He thought the threads was virus related mixed with a bacterial infection. The feathers is what I call them and I believe they are the dead skin from the worm molt mixed with my dead skin. See my recent post and you will see a high definition picture of a 2 strongyles boring thru a hair follicle . The threads I see are approx. .25 to over an inch if stretched out. Most of the time it looks like a very tiny ball of lint before stretched.