Treating hen with lice

[Fluffy family]

Hello everybody, I currently have a hen who has one of the worst lice infestations I’ve ever seen. We’ve been treating her with diatomaceous earth (de) and it doesn’t seem to be helping much. She’s a lot less active than the rest of the hens and when you pick her up she opens her mouth up really wide to breath, something she’s never done before.

My question is does anybody have other treatment ideas that aren’t chemicals that we could try? If not, does anybody have any more information on permethrin and if it’s safe to use? Does it have any side affects?

 

[nuthatched]

Permethrine is safe to use, just get some Permethrine based dust or spray and follow the direction. D.e is ineffective and actually not safe to breathe.

 

[Shadrach]

Hello everybody, I currently have a hen who has one of the worst lice infestations I’ve ever seen. We’ve been treating her with diatomaceous earth (de) and it doesn’t seem to be helping much. She’s a lot less active than the rest of the hens and when you pick her up she opens her mouth up really wide to breath, something she’s never done before.

My question is does anybody have other treatment ideas that aren’t chemicals that we could try? If not, does anybody have any more information on permethrin and if it’s safe to use? Does it have any side affects?

I would check your hen over very carefully if she's infested with lice. In general healthy hens in good physical condition don't get lice and if they do, they don't have them for long.

If you get lice what the doctor may well tell you to use will have permethrin in it. Many creams for head lice, scabies and other body lice contain permethrin.
I used it on myself; the same stuff I use on the chickens.

If you take sensible precautions such as not breathing in the dust or the spray and don't spray or dust the chickens face it's as risk free as any other treatment.
If she's as infested as you write, then forget about trying to do things with so called natural remedies and treat the poor hen with something that works.
Permethrin works.

 

[deidreg]

When my hen got a bad case of poultry lice, I gave her a bath with warm water and mild Ivory soap. Rinsed thoroughly and spent about an hour drying her with my hair dryer on low. It took a couple hours but worked well. The lice and nits all died.