Arizona Chickens

[a little chiken]

I would just be up front with the buyers and tell them you have been treating some birds and advise they isolate them and keep an eye out. Which a person who already has a flock should do anyway, but not everybody does. I would not sell them if you see they are infested until you clear them up. If you are selling the males for meat you should not use anything that leaves a residual in the tissue. We really do not know any withdrawal time for that stuff since it is not approved for poultry and Americans don't eat their dogs

least not that they admit too anyway. TY so much for all your help.

 

[MrsFitzDarcy]

Then I lost 3 SIAM but they were covered in ants. I put them out 2 days after a big storm and I have cleaned and dusted said coop with DE after each set of birds leaves it. I am not sure why after that storm we had a huge amount of piss ants that covered these chicks and I am guessing that is what came over them. the only other 2 I lost were roosters that were in there together with hens and seemed to get along (a bantam cochin and a silkie) and they passed after the flooded coops within a couple days of each other and they both were sneezing, and coughing with gooey eyes but no one else got it.
I started checking my birds more closely after talking to this friend and bringing home a rooster. although he did not go into any of the coops he was near them. I found what I think is lice on some of my birds. only about 4 birds but one had nits on its chin feathers and I found some crawling on the back and neck are. I was always taught to look under the wings and around the vent area of the chickens. So I have bought some poultry protector spray but I didnt have enough to do the whole lot of birds but I cleaned all my coops and put sown DE and dusted

OK, newbie here.

Update me on the acronyms! SIAM? DE?

And what is the vent? The butt or something else?

 

[desertmarcy]

OK, newbie here.

Update me on the acronyms! SIAM? DE?

And what is the vent? The butt or something else?

Can't help you with SIAM. DE is diatomaceous earth, the vent is the opening through which feces and eggs pass. The large intestine and the oviduct both use the same "out hole".

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

a little chickeneverybody seems to have good advice, specially Desrtmarcy, she has loads of experience. I use DE, Poultry Powder (sometimes mixed), bathing in Dawn then blow dry. So far it has worked for me. As long as I fallow up with cleaning area, spraying, powdering and so forth. The bathing was for a girl I counted more then 10 on. The figure is for every 1 there are 100 - 500 you do not see. It must be true, on the one I washed she was infested. She had colony's I discovered on her feather roots in one spot. She was sick and weakened so the mites and lice moved in, they, I am sure were making her sick. She had bugs in several stages of life dying on her. I Fallowed up every few days, (all my girls do to association). sense it was not sure of life cycle of mites for a couple of weeks.

I had a covered kennels. Doves would get in, I trapped them caught them, sprayed and powdered them, then released them.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
For those who are new to this mite/lice issue, sprays and dips do not kill the eggs. You can treat one day and have live bugs the next day even if the treatment killed all the living bugs the day before. It's frustrating, but that is why you need to re-treat. You have to treat repeatedly, before the newly-hatched bugs can lay another round of eggs. How soon you need to re-treat will depend on which critters are infesting your chickens, how long they live before laying eggs, and how long the eggs take to hatch.

None of this really works long-term for roost mites. Roost mites live on the roosts and in crevices on the premises, and come out to chomp on your birds when your birds go to roost in the evening. For lice, northern fowl mites, and other mites that live on the birds you have to treat repeatedly until you have killed all of the critters that hatch out from the already-laid eggs and there are no more eggs to hatch. If you miss a treatment and some of those bugs lay another round of eggs you get to start over again.

I've avoided Frontline because I eat my birds and that stuff scares me more than the permethrin. It sticks around way too long. Fortunately I don't have as many chickens as you, so spraying once a week only takes about 15 minutes and I get to know my birds really, really well. Too well. "Hi girls, time to check your butts." Only another chicken-owner would understand...

Short story is yes,

 

[Billiam]

Quote: Catching up on post's.. How is she??

Unfortunately I think we're losing her. She's been sleeping all day and doesn't take food or water well at all. I'm going to go get a tube feeder and force feed her. Her stool is very watery so he is definitely dehydrated.

 

[Billiam]

Hey, I'm off work now, and I just looked it up in the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow. As Sill mentioned, most feed stores carry electrolytes for chickens, and some of them have added vitamins. If you can't find that, look for vitamin AD&E powder to put in their water.
Curled toe paralysis is caused by a deficiency of vitamin B2, or riboflavin, but is more common in chicks. Older birds can get it if they are penned and fed unsupplemented layer feed. A good source of riboflavin is green leafy veggies, including young grass. Another dietary problem with similar symptoms is caused by a deficiency of vitamin E, and this is usually associated with a selenium deficiency (eat egg yolks!).
If this turns out to be a riboflavin deficiency, you want to treat it now. Left uncorrected, it leads to progressively worse nerve damage, and death.

Thanks! The hens have access for grass and vegetable garden leftovers (plant an all). I'll check for all of these at the feed store.

 

[FeatherPugs]

Keeping chickens pest and disease free can be a challenge indeed.

On the crawling ectoparasites, look for lice under the hackle feathers, under their wings, and above the vent. They will take a toll on your birds if left unchecked, but worse is the Northern Fowl mite. Look for them above the vent. They are small like ground pepper and hard to see unless moving or viewed with a hand lens but will make the feathers above the vent look icky and black. That mite spends it's whole life cycle on the bird and multiplies within 4 days, so the numbers can increase very rapidly and they will suck your bird dry and they will die.
I had an infestation of them this winter and tried numerous remedies and the ONLY thing that worked was Front Line spray. Do I care what affect it has on the bird? No, because the birds will die from mites and the mites will spread and you will have a problem dealing with it. So forget about using everything else and just use the Front Line if they have mites. Things I tried that helped but did not get rid of them permanently: Ivermectin pour on, Permethrin dip (soaked the birds up to their heads in a 5-gal bucket except the few that decided to take a dive, those got their heads soaked too), Adams Flea and Tick spray, Sevin dust. I spent a lot of money and much time catching and treating 100 or so birds over and over with different stuff. The permethrin? I found live mites crawling on a bird the day after dipping them all so even though the package said it has a 30-day residual effect, it did not. Frontline, spray one spritz above the vent and one on their back and you are done. Since this is not approved for chickens, no way to know if you need to wait to eat the eggs. I'd wait 7-10 days then whatever residual might be there is going to be small and probably a lot less harmful than many of the other chemicals in our food supply. Just saying. Mites are much harder to get rid of than lice. Adams Flea and Tick spray should take care of the lice and much easier to use than Sevin dust. Just make sure you treat all your birds in the same day or you will just chase the buggers around.

The lice and mites can be spread by wild birds or if you bring in an infected bird, all it takes is one live one on that bird to start the population booming. Getting new birds for your flock? Quarantein, Quarantein, Quarantein!!

Really good post!!

 

[desertmarcy]

I've avoided Frontline because I eat my birds and that stuff scares me more than the permethrin. It sticks around way too long. Fortunately I don't have as many chickens as you, so spraying once a week only takes about 15 minutes and I get to know my birds really, really well. Too well. "Hi girls, time to check your butts." Only another chicken-owner would understand...

Short story is yes,

And that is exactly why it works so well. The eggs hatch and the chemical is still there, waiting to kill the newly hatched. I only used it once, I did not need to re-apply.

 

[Papas Chickens]

Hi guys what age should i feed my girls grower feed? The older ones are almost 11 weeks old and the younger ones are almost 8 weeks old. Is that to young or would it be ok to feed them the grower feed?