Dealing with lice in 4 month old chicks

h3nnyp3nny!

Songster
Aug 28, 2017
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We have two 4 month old silkie chicks who have been dealing with lice for the past month. We have tried diatomaceous earth and poultry spray weekly, for over aontj, to get rid of the infestation, and it has only abated a little. As these babies are young, we've been hesitant to use anything with an insecticide in it, but feel that that may be our only choice now. Can you give any suggestions...has anyone had this experience with young ones before? Momma hen is a surrogate of a different breed, and doesn't have nearly the infestation the babies have. Am wondering if part of that is due to the soft nature of the silkie's feathers. I have heard of using canine flea shampoo, as well as a poultry dust with insecticide. Any thoughts?
 
Get a poultry dust that contains PERMETHRIN. You've discovered for yourself how useless DE is at eradicating lice. Permethrin is perfectly safe for your pullets/cockerels.
Dust under both wings, in the chest, in the fluff under the vent and on the back shaking the dust down to the skin.
You should also clean out the coop and spray it with diluted permethrin. Get a bottle of Permethrin 10 and dilute per the label directions in a garden pressure sprayer and spray the cleaned out coop, let dry, then rebed.
You will want to repeat treatment of the birds every week to kill what hatches from eggs attached to the feather shafts.
 
We have two 4 month old silkie chicks who have been dealing with lice for the past month. We have tried diatomaceous earth and poultry spray weekly, for over aontj, to get rid of the infestation, and it has only abated a little. As these babies are young, we've been hesitant to use anything with an insecticide in it, but feel that that may be our only choice now. Can you give any suggestions...has anyone had this experience with young ones before? Momma hen is a surrogate of a different breed, and doesn't have nearly the infestation the babies have. Am wondering if part of that is due to the soft nature of the silkie's feathers. I have heard of using canine flea shampoo, as well as a poultry dust with insecticide. Any thoughts?
I know I am late to the game but Elector PSP is the best...not toxic, you don't have to wear gloves either!....we have successfully treated mites and bad case of poultry fleas by using it as a dip and then spraying down the coops.
It is expensive but in my opinion worth it in the time and frustration it saves, not to mention it isn't a pesticide either. You can buy a small quantity from sellers on Ebay but I figured I would want to be able to keep it on hand.
 

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