A picture with bugs - new pic. p3

[draftiemama]

My apologies for the large photo but I wanted to show you these small creatures living on Floyd.

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detail by draftie, on Flickr

Yesterday I was fooling with the camera getting close ups and noticed these small whitish colored bugs crawling all over his face, can anyone tell me what they are and if they're harmful what I should use to get rid of them?

I'm worried, the old boy doesn't need any blood sucking creatures to weaken him.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

It looks like Floyd has poultry lice.

You can treat him with a poultry insect powder, Seven dust, or even an insect spray for horses. We use the spray - just make sure it says that it kills lice, mites, or fleas.

 

[kuntrygirl]

draftiemama, no need to apoligize for the large pics. it's what we needed to see. i agree with greenfamilyfarms. looks like lice to me as well.

By the way - Excellent close up shot pic. I would rather see your pic in all of the poultry books and articles online then some of the pics that I see online.

I wish I could take pics like that. Been having my digital camera for 3 years and i still can't take good pics.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

yep lice. they cantake a heavy toll on your birds, even kill them in the long run so do treat and treat all of your birds. Most reccommend treating again in 7-10 days to get the newly hatched as well. Poultry lice will get on people but won't bite or stay they can only feed off of poultry.

 

[draftiemama]

Thank you for your advice, I'll get some lice powder tomorrow.

One more dumb question if you don't mind, when dusting Floyd, is it bad if the powder gets in his eyes? I know I wouldn't want to get that stuff in my eyes and I doubt he'll shut them if I ask. LOL

 

[technodoll]

I have found the powders to be messy, toxic, wasteful and dangerous all around for everyone's lungs (and patience).

If you miss just one clump of feathers, you have not eliminated all the lice.

My preferred method: applying a few drops of Ivermectic (Ivomec) to the skin on the base of the neck.

24 hours later all lice are dead, guaranteed. Plus your bird has just been wormed, too

Good luck!

 

[draftiemama]

Quote:
Thanks for the compliment! I take hundreds of pictures just to get one decent shot..... if I'm lucky.

 

[draftiemama]

Quote:
Oh I love you! That sounds a heck of a lot easier than the dusting powder.

I was just reading up and got to the part that says to make sure you throughly dust around the vent area and thought to myself, hmmm he's not going to be very cooperative and was scheming how to dust him.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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[draftiemama]

So I went back to my photos and zoomed in and look what I found. It's horrible.


mites by draftie, on Flickr

Those things are in his eyes, poor Floyd. I feel so bad for him....never thought I was a bad animal keeper.

He will be medicated tomorrow.