Questions on Ivermectin and Lice

I've discovered lice on a lot of my chickens and I have some questions on treatment options.

The last time I had to deal with this I just had chickens and dusted them with a permethrin powder for 3 treatments ten days apart each treatment with success. Now my neighbors have brought home a nasty old rooster a little while ago and ended up infecting their whole flock and my free range mixed flock. So now I have to treat a lot of bantam and standard chickens, 8 turkeys and 4 peafowl. Plus I have 4 ducks which I don't think have it but should I treat anyway?

I have everybody locked up for treatments. They will all be dusted tomorrow, but I also have some pour-on Ivomec for cattle and I've read that some people use that to treat lice in poultry. Two of the peas and four of the turkeys hate me so I was wondering if the ivermectin pour-on would be effective or even safe on them and if it would continue to work for a few weeks. A couple of my turkeys started laying in late January. Would Ivermectin affect egg hatchability?

Are there any other treatments I can consider that might leave an active residue to continually treat the birds? I have a large flock and my neighbors are kinda lazy about it so I'll probably have to help treat their flock as well.

Good question! Many people do use Ivermectin for poultry - however, it is an 'off label' use and should really only be prescribed by a veterinarian.
Since it is a systemic medication, I would assume it is possibly transferred to eggs - so would eggs be safe to eat? I don't know the answer to this question.......
If the dust has worked well in previous times I would continue with it, I'm really am a fan of lowest toxicity possible.
I built my birds an indoor dust bath which contains wood ash, peat moss and a few handfuls of DE. They will bathe in this and keep their external parasite load fairly low/non-existent.
Hope this is helpful....

Permethrin spray concentrate is approved for use and is much easier to apply, and cheaper, than the permethrin dust! I have no experience with ducks, turkeys, or peafowl, so make sure permethrin is also safe for them at the same concentration before applying. There's no reason to use Ivermectin for mites or lice, when the permethrin works great and is approved. Permethrin spray done at night when everyone is roosting is easy and no bird needs to be individually handled. Also spray the coops inside at the same time. Once. There's good residual action, in my experience. Mary

@MargretClare, welcome to BYC!

Both permethrin spray and dust are safe for peafowl, turkeys, and ducks, but it is harder to use on them. Peafowl and turkeys are very large, strong birds and can be very difficult to restrain, and restraining an overweight meat turkey could cause respiratory distress in the bird, so one must be careful when handling them. Ducks are tricky because they are waterproof and it can be very difficult to get the powder or spray on their skin.

Most peafowl breeders use the pour on ivermectin to treat lice/mites, I use the injectable or the paste orally. Peafowl breeders also use it during breeding season and have not noticed any problems with fertility.

Both Folly's Place and I have had great success using permethrin spray. I found that one application of the spray took care or all lice, and they did not return.

Thanks for the responses. I haven't been on in a few days. I got everybody dusted but I'll use the permethrin spray for the follow up. What are some preferred brands? I had a hard time dusting the peafowl because of how tight their feathers are.

Some of the chickens had it really bad and were covered in eggs and bugs but others I couldn't find a single bug or egg on them. And these are birds that share a roost and sleep really close together. Any idea what that's about? Do some birds just taste better? I didn't actually see any on the peafowl but I found a few bugs on some of the turkeys. Of course I treat everybody just to be safe and they're staying locked up until the neighbors treat their birds too.

MargretClare said:

Thanks for the responses. I haven't been on in a few days. I got everybody dusted but I'll use the permethrin spray for the follow up. What are some preferred brands? I had a hard time dusting the peafowl because of how tight their feathers are.

Some of the chickens had it really bad and were covered in eggs and bugs but others I couldn't find a single bug or egg on them. And these are birds that share a roost and sleep really close together. Any idea what that's about? Do some birds just taste better? I didn't actually see any on the peafowl but I found a few bugs on some of the turkeys. Of course I treat everybody just to be safe and they're staying locked up until the neighbors treat their birds too.

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There are many type of lice, and some types prefer chickens, while others prefer the eyes and ears of peafowl. Let me see if I can find you pictures of my peas with lice.

What is the dosage of ivermectin pour on for peafowl and turkeys? I can only seem to find "7 drops for giant breed chickens".

MargretClare said:

What is the dosage of ivermectin pour on for peafowl and turkeys? I can only seem to find "7 drops for giant breed chickens".

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There is no official dose, but i think peafowl breeders give 0.045 ml to 0.9 ml per pound. @KsKingBee, can you confirm how much pour on you use?

casportpony said:

There is no official dose, but i think peafowl breeders give 0.045 ml to 0.9 ml per pound. @KsKingBee , can you confirm how much pour on you use?

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We use 0.50 ml per mature peafowl divided up between the wings and above the butt fluff and save one drop for on the crest to get the face and ear lice. The pour on Ivermec must be applied to the skin.

Is it alright if the drop on the head gets on the feathers? Also, I couldn't find any pictures from Google of face and ear lice in peafowl. Would I be able to see these on my birds or are they smaller than chicken lice and hard to see?