wow sry to everyone that is having chicken issues.
I was asked by a friend how often I check for chicken pests like mites, lice and ticks and I thought I was doing a good job but I have lost about 12 birds from one pen in about 4 months and although all but 5 were from one breed I thought ok there has to be something else going on as all of my other coops the birds are fine. This is my grow out pen and I lost some due to an aunt invasion, some after a very bad monsoon rain that flooded everything but a couple I did not know what caused the issue and frankly still dont.
I took this breed as a project breed to help establish it and I have found that they are very difficult to work with. Not their attitude but they seem to die very easily. They are supposed to be heat resistant and ok I agree no major heat issues but every time it rains I lose one or two. I find that odd. My coops have roof's so they should not be drowning but I have no idea what is up.
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 the 4 birds I found with these lice. I have been reading on what to use and their are so very many products and for every product there is someone that says not to use it. could the lice be the reason of the sporadic deaths of these birds? they do not seem to be infested as I only found maybe one per bird, 3 was the most I saw on one bird and only the one with nits on it.
what does everyone here use? powdered products or liquid? sprays or dips and why?
I have read not to use powder due to respiratory issues in fowl. but if you use dips and sprays how does that affect the birds? what would cause me to get lice all of a sudden? was it probably the rooster I took in or do they just show up?
Thank you in advance for your help.
so tired of looking at conflicting ideas, stories and articles, just want to help my birds and make them all happy again. **sigh***
