Any suggestions for lice eradication on cross-beakers that cannot groom themselves? Poor Britney and Lindsay are COVERED in lice.
I thought we had them all wiped out a few months back, but apparently we just sent them into hibernation or something. These poor girls are absolutely infested. Their previous owner must have never treated them because they are encrusted with lice eggs, which I thought we had killed, but now, since the weather warmed up, are hatching like crazy.
Strangely the rest of the flock seems to be bug-free, I suspect because they are able to groom themselves and take care of the buggies on their own.
I'm at a loss here.
I've tried a tri-fold bath of salt water, followed by Dawn dish-soap, followed by vinegar rinse water. That seemed to help kill the live ones but only delayed the hatching eggs for a couple months.
I've been dusting them regularly with both DE and Permethrin. I've even plucked some of the most lice-egg covered feathers, which I feel terrible about. I know these girls fight hard for every ounce of nutrition and to make them devote energy to growing new feathers feels wrong.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks!
I'll cross my fingers that this stays small, and if it does get bigger there is always trying to trim or file, I'll figure that out when the time comes! As for now the chick is eating well and whenever I pick her up her crop is full and she can even pick grass so I'm glad that I found this thread!
