Poultry Lice symptoms question...

So, the year old Cuckoo Marans roo that we took from my MIL (because she was going to turn him out in the wilderness if we didn't), has lice (I think).

He bent down to eat some food and I noticed that the whole area around his vent was beet red and featherless, so after dark we got him off the roost (he is VERY scared of people at this point) and started an inspection. I had noticed earlier that he had some broken feathers on his chest and wondered how that happened, although I thought it could have been because she feeds all of her chickens scratch only and it might have been a protein deficiency.

Anyway, my question is concerning the symptoms I saw tonight. He has lots of broken and missing feathers all the way from under his tail to his abdomen. The skin is Very red and his vent is swollen. He had a lot of manure stuck to his vent and around it, so we gave him a soaking down there and cleaned him up. Most of his feathers are broken off where the quill comes out of the skin. It has to be so painful down there. I will get pictures tomorrow.

We set him in a shallow tub of warm water to wash him and I happened to take a look at it before I threw it out. Tons of lice (or something) in the water. At least I believe they are lice. it looks like it to me.

I took one out of the water and tried to get a picture of it. If anyone can confirm that it's lice or help me figure out what it is, I would be grateful. Any help on how to help him get better would also be appreciated.

It does look like lice, here is the Learning Center article on them. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lice-chicken-pests-how-to-protect-your-chickens-from-lice Sevin or poultry dust/ permethrin works on them, you should be able to get it at the feed store, you'll need to treat him several times and the area he was in, change all the bedding etc.

Kelsie2290 said:

It does look like lice, here is the Learning Center article on them. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/lice-chicken-pests-how-to-protect-your-chickens-from-lice Sevin or poultry dust/ permethrin works on them, you should be able to get it at the feed store, you'll need to treat him several times and the area he was in, change all the bedding etc.

Click to expand...

Thanks very much! We've only had him a few days and my existing flock has never had anything like this. I'll clean his coop and do the things suggested in that article. Thank goodness we quarantined him!

I'm still wondering if the really red skin and breaking of feathers is because of the lice or if it's something else. I'm not getting clear answers from the articles I've read. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Here's a picture of the area around his vent. Sorry for the poor quality. He wouldn't hold still, but you can see the color. I bought some Sevin dust and also some permethrin. We decided to use the Sevin-5 dust tonight. I'm hoping we can help him through getting rid of the lice and adding nutritional support.

Whenever he sees me coming he starts making this pathetic little noise, like "What now?" poor guy.

Have you got any NuStock? That will certainly help with the redness/soreness. I had a similar problem with one of my girls being red and sore with loss of feathers and read about NuStock on one of the fermenting feeds threads (or possibly the Road Less Traveled thread).

It is hellishly hard to get hold of in the UK but I managed it - three days later the skin was back to normal. Great Stuff.

wolfpup said:

Have you got any NuStock? That will certainly help with the redness/soreness. I had a similar problem with one of my girls being red and sore with loss of feathers and read about NuStock on one of the fermenting feeds threads (or possibly the Road Less Traveled thread).

It is hellishly hard to get hold of in the UK but I managed it - three days later the skin was back to normal. Great Stuff.

Click to expand...

I don't have any, but I will certainly get some, we're building our chicken first aid kit as we go along. I had no idea how many issues chickens can have, so I only started with the basics. Thanks very much for the information!

The bright red skin is likely just from irritation. The lice chew on feather shafts and skin, so it's very uncomfortable if they have an infestation. Broken feather shafts could be from him trying to pick the lice off, or from malnutrition if you said that was a possibility. Or a combo of the two.

grew up with yard chickens... have had my own 50 years... am 82... never had much mite/lice problem . recall Father painting roosts with something (long beore Sevin) and heat from body would make fumes. It might have been "sheep dip" that vets ought to know about. Any old-timers who remembers? also burn wood and have ash heap for them to wallow in. lady friend also took in a new rooster who has them. like anything good clean surroundings, diet, work wonders.

SavageDestiny said:

The bright red skin is likely just from irritation. The lice chew on feather shafts and skin, so it's very uncomfortable if they have an infestation. Broken feather shafts could be from him trying to pick the lice off, or from malnutrition if you said that was a possibility. Or a combo of the two.

Click to expand...

Oh, that makes a lot of sense! Thanks!

I know he has to be very uncomfortable, it looks terrible. And she was only feeding them cracked corn and scratch, so I think that's a nutritional issue.