In need of some mite suggestions/help!

Sydney Acres said:

I have used sulfur powder to dust my birds also, and have been impressed with how well it works. The Northern Fowl Mites here are resistant to carbaryl, and pretty much all other insecticides except spinosad, but still very sensitive to sulfur. I use spinosad in warm dry weather, when getting the wet is ok, and sulfur in cold weather, when they need their fluff to stay warm. I just use the pure sulfur powder. I started out mixing it with corn starch, but found that the the pure form is more effective.

There are many different grades of sulfur powder. Most sulfur is a byproduct of diesel production, so the lesser grades will have a lot of contaminants. Here's a list of the different grades: http://www.dudadiesel.com/sheets.php Although it is not specifically mentioned in this chart, Feed Grade is the same as Tech / Industrial Grade, not the same as Food Grade. I would not recommend using Agricultural Grade for dusting chickens, as it has the highest level of contaminants.

Click to expand...

Interesting.
Wonder if the products available, in say, the garden center, that contain sulfur are labeled as to grade?

Per the aromatics listed for repellents in your other post......any concern that they could be respiratory irritants to the birds?

For those of you who might be having difficulty getting rid of the extra stubborn winter Northern Fowl Mites this time of year, here is my most recent experience.

I currently have 34 birds on the property: 2 turkey hens, 25 chicken hens, and 7 roosters. The turkey hens never get mites. Most of the chicken hens only carry a few mites, but are very sensitive to those few, so they start overpreening their feathers and look a mess if I don't keep the mites under control. One of the chicken hens gets horrible mites, just as bad as the roosters if I forget to treat her. Six of the seven roosters are tame, and are easy to treat and keep the mites under control. My routine protocol is to use Elector PSP in the summer when it's ok to get the birds wet, and to use pure sulfur powder in the winter when I don't want them wet. (The different grades of sulfur powder are discussed in a previous post.) I don't powder the whole body, as the sulfur is a respiratory irritant. I carefully dust the skin of the tail and the areas around the vent widely, where most mite live, and also areas that aren't frequently preened, such as the fluff under the keel. I avoid the area around the preen gland where a bird will rub its face, as I don't want the sulfur to get into the birds lungs. The partial body sulfur treatments, plus several large dry dustbathing pans containing plain dirt mixed with wood ash and peat moss seem to keep things under control for all but one bird.

The one old rooster, an ancient decrepit arthritic boy with an amazing will to live long after his entire flock has died of old age -- he's my challenge for mite control. I inherited him from my father-in-law 9 years ago. He's 10-12 years old, a huge LF Croad Langshan that was 10 lbs in his prime, and is still almost 8 lbs even at this advanced age. He's not tame and he hates being handled. For the first 6 years he was here he regularly plotted to kill me, and I selected a few recipes for him in return. It was not a good relationship between the two of us, but my husband didn't want his deceased father's birds slaughtered, and I respected that. As an old geezer he depends on me for all the comforts of geriatric luxury -- 8-12" of soft aspen shavings on the floor of his house (he hasn't been able to roost for 3-4 years), a germination mat for heat about mid-depth in his shaving so his bed isn't cold, a heat lamp right outside his door so the air isn't frigid in the winter, nutritional supplements for his joints and feathers, pain medications for the arthritis, and of course special treats every night with extra nutrients and protein to maintain muscle mass. He gets pneumonia a few times a year, but always responds to medication. He just won't die. But despite our now-close relationship, where he waits for me to hand feed him his medications and special nutrient meat loaf every night, he panics and flails if I try to handle him, which greatly increases his risk of injury. So he doesn't get checked for mites regularly.

About a month ago he started getting sleepy all the time -- just couldn't keep his eyes open. He would actually fall asleep sometimes while eating, then wake and and continue eating with enthusiasm. He had bursts of energy for a few minutes, but would rapidly fall asleep again. If he was out of his pen, he would lay down and his eyes would half close after walking 10-20 feet. After a few minutes rest, he was bright and alert again for another 5 minutes, then back to resting or sleeping. His comb wasn't beautifully red like usual, but it wasn't pale, so I didn't immediately think anemia. (In retrospect, it's almost spring, he's full of testosterone, there's hens everywhere, and he'd probably drop dead before having a pale comb.) I knew he needed to be treated for mites, but his lungs are so sensitive that I knew I'd kill him if I put sulfur dust on him. It was way too cold to get him wet with Elector, especially at his age. Then he stopped crowing in the morning. As a compromise, I gave him a quick hands-off squirt of sulfur powder to his vent area as he was walking away from me while outside his pen one morning. I figured that would decrease his mite numbers significantly, he wouldn't have his face anywhere near the powder, and the powder wouldn't drop off in his bedding where he was likely to inhale it.

The next day I noticed that he was preening himself more. I took that as a good sign. But he was even sleepier than usual, and still not crowing. Over the next few days he was preening more and more, sometimes frantically, and I realized that he was itchy. One night when I was feeding him his treats out of a white bowl I realized that all the microscopic black specks that were falling off his head into the bowl as he pecked at the food weren't dirt -- they were mites. I went and got my reading glasses and a very bright light. OMG, there were mites on his face, which had to mean that there were thousands of mites under his feathers. Something more had to be done, whether he wanted it done or not, even if it put him at some risk from injury while struggling, or even dying from the stress of handling.

A good friend came over on the one day this month that it was sunny, and we captured poor Jack. He didn't have much fight left in him. Amazingly, the area around his vent where I had squirted the sulfur powder had no mites whatsoever, and had evidence of widespread scabs that had just healed, as the scabs were flaking off and still caught in the feathers. But the focally applied sulfur powder drove the mites to the rest of his body, and because he is too old to dust bathe there was nothing to discourage them settling in everywhere. I felt horrible. There were thousands of mites on him, and scabs everywhere. Nothing could be seen until you looked under the feathers, but it was a disaster under there.

Even though it was sunny, it was still only about 38 degrees. I couldn't put more sulfur on him -- I knew that he'd die of pneumonia if he inhaled it, and he needed treatment everywhere on his body, even his head. So I made up the Elector with warm water and saturated him head to toe. About half the mites died instantly, but the other half were still moving. After 15 minutes I couldn't leave him wet any longer -- even wrapped in a warm towel he was shivering, and was becoming too weak to stand. He'd never survive the cold if left to drip dry (which is what is needed for Elector to work properly), even if I brought him in the house. It took me over an hour to thoroughly blow dry him, and because the solution was no longer wet at least 25% of the mites were still alive. I didn't know if they would eventually die, or if they needed longer contact with the wet solution.

I remembered reading that someone had used selamectin on their birds for mites. I had already tried numerous spot-on topicals over the years with no success and had pretty much given up on them, but I had not tried selamectin, which is marketed as Revolution for dogs and cats. I had some cat Revolution at home. At this point I was concerned that the remaining mites wouldn't die now that the Elector had been blow dried. I was also convinced that he would die if I didn't get this mite issue resolved. I hate trying medications off label based on internet advice, but this was worth the risk. I found these two threads on BYC:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/233933/mites-revolution-selamectin
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/704004/revolution-yay

I decided to apply 0.25 ml of the cat Revolution to him (NOTE -- the cat version is half the strength of the dog version), half on the top of his neck, and the other half over his saddle area. It did not burn his skin.

My friend thoroughly cleaned his pen and generously sprayed all surfaces with Elector while I was blow drying him.

The next morning he seemed to feel a little better, but was still itchy, and there were still mites on him. The first post on the first link said that the mites took 3 days to die with Revolution, but it was still disappointing. Clearly, Elector must be left on to drip dry to be 100% effective. (Or the mites in my area are starting to become resistant to Elector, which would be horrible, as they're resistant to all the commonly used products already.)

On the second day there were still lots of mites on him, an amazing number of mites, but they were out on the feather edges, as if trying to get away from the skin. Perhaps the Revolution was starting to work, and they were trying to avoid it. I have some Frontline spray. Lots of people use Frontline spray on mites, but there is a lot of documented toxicity in chickens to Frontline, so I avoid using it directly on the birds. I will spray it into the cracks in their housing as an alternate with Elector, just to avoid always using the same premise spray. But these mites were covering the surface, not down deep into the feathers. I gave a single quick mist of Frontline spray to his back, which was well below the normal treatment dose for the whole bird, just to kill what was on the surface.

The next day no mites were seen. Over the next several days he grew stronger and stronger, and his feathers shinier and shinier. After 8-9 days, he started crowing!! I'm thinking of using Revolution on him every month, at least during the mite season. At his age, I think I'd rather accept the risk than require him to live with the discomfort of mites. Especially since he can't dustbathe anymore, and I can't easily check him over on a regular basis.

There are things to consider when using Revolution. First, it is not approved for use in chickens. That means that there may be unforeseen problems -- drug complications, side effects, or even death are much more likely than with medications that have been specifically tested, widely used and approved for use on a specific species. Second, there is no withdrawal time for Revolution, as it is not approved for use in the food chain. That means that there is the potential for human health risks when even minute amounts are ingested in food, so birds treated with it should not be slaughtered for food and eggs should not be eaten. Theoretically, this restriction should be for the life of the bird. Whatever decisions people decide to make for their own food, it would be very unethical for someone to use Revolution on their birds and then sell meat or eggs from a treated animal to an uninformed public. And third, it is very important to remember that the concentration of the dog Revolution is twice as strong as the Revolution marketed for cats. Be sure to take that into consideration when calculating out a dose if you decide to use it.