Mites - treated, how soon to see improvement?

[CircusRing]

I have a hen who has been put through the wringer this year. She got sick in the spring, went on antibiotics, and has never been the same. Recently, she started acting very sick, flat deflated comb. We gave her some nutridrench, and noticed she is moulting, so assumed the moult was the culprit. She perked up a little, but a few days later her comb was deathly pale, and upon closer inspection I can see she's covered in Mites. My vet gave us some "Boss" which is a treatment for mites and lice I guess. We sprayed her down yesterday (and all of them actually), and today I found some crawling off of her on to me (EEEEEKKK!!!). She's also SUPER lethargic today, so we gave her more nutridrench, and she ate some scrambled egg. But I'm so worried about her. Will she recover? I worry that we left this too long untreated. The guilt is killing me.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Don't beat yourself up. Nobody is perfect.
I never heard of Boom. What is the active ingredient/s in it?
Did the vet tell you how often and when to retreat?

 

[CircusRing]

Don't beat yourself up. Nobody is perfect.
I never heard of Boom. What is the active ingredient/s in it?
Did the vet tell you how often and when to retreat?

I got the name wrong. LOL, it's called Boss, and the active ingredient is permethrin. The vet said to treat now, then again in 2 weeks.

 

[CircusRing]

Her poops have been wet and yellow-ish today. But she’s not doing well at all.

 

[CircusRing]

Update. We lost her overnight. We had brought her in and had her in a crate because she was so weak. When we found her in the morning her feathers were COVERED in mites. So she had a worse infestation than we realized. Moral of the story: treat them right away if you suspect mites.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sorry to hear it.
I was in the midst of writing this response when you posted that you lost the bird.

She won't be well till the pests sucking the life out of her are gone.
If they are still visibly crawling on her, treat again.
The reason the vet suggested to re-treat in two weeks is to kill those that hatch from eggs in the next two weeks.
But that is assuming all the original adult mites are gone.

It doesn't sound to me like the Boss treatment did anything. Usually a mite treatment will kill all on an animal in short order. Certainly not still crawling on an animal the next day. The 'Boss' was either not potent enough to do the trick or had long expired.
Let the vet know your bird was so infested he/she needed to bring out the big guns.
Likely your entire coop is infested. Are your other birds covered as well?

 

[CircusRing]

Sorry to hear it.
I was in the midst of writing this response when you posted that you lost the bird.

She won't be well till the pests sucking the life out of her are gone.
If they are still visibly crawling on her, treat again.
The reason the vet suggested to re-treat in two weeks is to kill those that hatch from eggs in the next two weeks.
But that is assuming all the original adult mites are gone.

It doesn't sound to me like the Boss treatment did anything. Usually a mite treatment will kill all on an animal in short order. Certainly not still crawling on an animal the next day. The 'Boss' was either not potent enough to do the trick or had long expired.
Let the vet know your bird was so infested he/she needed to bring out the big guns.
Likely your entire coop is infested. Are your other birds covered as well?

I haven’t seen any of the other birds in as bad shape as her. They’ve all been treated. But I think I wasn’t generous enough spraying because she was the first one we did and I didn’t want to stress her out. In hind sight I probably should have soaked her down. I’ll inspect the rest of them better today and re-treat if I find anything crawling still.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sounds good. You may want to do a thorough coop cleanout and fumigation.