Silkies and Lice

[outlawking]

That dust works great

 

[BackyardDove]

I really appreciate all the advice given here, but I'm honestly not looking for another product to kill the lice on the chickens. I will look into Diatomaceous Earth because it may be a good preventative for the environment, but as far as treating my chickens for lice, I don't need help with that. The stuff I use for that is Martin's Viper Insect Dust and I already said it worked great. What I want to know if why the my healthy, older chickens are dying from a parasite that generally only kills young chicks, and why Permethryin 10, the supposed to go for treating lice on chickens, seems to be utter crap compared to Martin's Viper. The dust works perfectly well, but it's a pain to use, so I'd like to know if I'm doing something wrong with the Permethyrin spray.

 

[casportpony]

I really appreciate all the advice given here, but I'm honestly not looking for another product to kill the lice on the chickens. I will look into Diatomaceous Earth because it may be a good preventative for the environment, but as far as treating my chickens for lice, I don't need help with that. The stuff I use for that is Martin's Viper Insect Dust and I already said it worked great. What I want to know if why the my healthy, older chickens are dying from a parasite that generally only kills young chicks, and why Permethryin 10, the supposed to go for treating lice on chickens, seems to be utter crap compared to Martin's Viper. The dust works perfectly well, but it's a pain to use, so I'd like to know if I'm doing something wrong with the Permethyrin spray.

Your Martin's Viper Dust is permethrin, yes?

When using the permethrin spray, how many ml per gallon are you using? With the 10% solution it should be 20 ml per gallon

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

For goats it's 1.28 ounces (~38 ml) per gallon:


-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

This is 3.2 ounces (~95 ml) per gallon





This is 1.28 ounces (~38 ml) per gallon




-Kathy

 

[ManawaGirl]

I'd never had lice before until just this September when I bought three silkies from an animal auction. I get them home and take them out and sure enough, massive infestation of both lice and red mites. After freaking out and reading everything I could about lice and mites on google, I did a 4 pronged approach. SInce they were already separated, I kept the 3 infested newbies in a dog crate in our screened in porch. Then, I poured a few capfuls of VetRX in a 5-gallon bucket and washed everyone, then rinsed them and blow dried them. (This was a Sunday). Then, each morning Monday thru Saturday I shook Garden/Poultry dust on them. I had my daughter hold them upside down while I shook the powder around their vents, their armpits and then massaged it into their fluff. Each evening Monday thru Saturday I sprayed them down with a mite solution I bought at my local feed store. Then, on Sunday again I dipped them in the VetRX/water solution. I repeated this for two full weeks, so basically three Sundays, with the dust/spray each week day. I never saw another live bug after about day 4 or 5 but I kept up my regimine. I lost the rooster on day 2. He was pretty sickly and to be honest, I didn't expect him to make it. But... both my hens did great. Happy to say I now have a blue splash silkie and a red silkie who I introduced to the rest of the flock and are doing okay.
While the infested birds were quarantined, I did get some pyrethrin and mix it with water in a spray bottle and went on a spray-spree in my regular chickens' coop. Plus, I was super liberal with the DE in my coop, just in case. Happy to report that we are still lice/mite free (knock on wood). I may have over did it and slightly went crazy but if you saw how bad the infestation was, you'd have done the same thing.
I wound up reporting to the auction house about the seller of the silkies as the seller said there were no problems with them and he would have had to have been blind not to notice how sick that poor rooster was. Anyhow, beware if you buy from an animal auction where you can't actually pick up and examine the birds.
Thanks! Hope it helps!

 

[chicky1016]

I'm so sorry, for some reason I wasn't notified via email that anybody had responded!

I have heard of Diatomaceous Earth, but I've heard mixed things about it. I'll have to do some more research into it, I can't keep letting these lice kill my chickens, and three of my chicks have already died...

What I used was this peremethrin (sp) dust that comes in a blue can from tractor supply. I dusted each bird once a week for 3 weeks and the lice were gone, and trust me when I say they were infested. I have also read mixed things about DE-- majority of them seem to say that it does work, but you have to use it in large quantities.

 

[vpeterson]

You could try washing all of the silkies with a flea and tick dog shampoo. Physically remove the nits under the beak. Then you could spray with a flea and tick spray or us a Frontline type of product.

 

[jaybud]

From what I researched and learned, if you free range ur birds wood ash is best for them to dust bath in.