Dusted for Lice now it's even worse! HELP!!!

[Luvs chickens]

I bathe my birds with kitten and pupple flea tick and lice shampoo. kills on contact. works great.then blow dry. then I apply kitten and puppy flea tick and lice powder. my birds love the extra attention.smells good too.

 

[Aimless Farmer]

Be careful using all those over the counter dog & cat flea & lice treatments. Very bad to get on your skin or to inhale the dust. I would worry about egg contamination with all of those chemicals. Many of the OTC pesticide treatments have caused severe illness and death in dogs, cats, puppies, kittens. These are serious chemicals. Has anyone contacted the companies about using these "off label" (for a different species)?

I work in as a vet tech, and would never use anything I bought at "the store" on my dog or cats. I've only had chickens for (going on) four years, but I've been on HERE a lot even before we actually got chicks, and this is the first I'm reading about it. I'll be searching for more feedback on this. Sounds scary to me...

 

[Bare bottom farm]

Quote:
May I ask where you buy your Ivermectin and what the cost is? Thank you

 

[mrbstephens]

So, is this a molt or a lice infestation? You know, I'll take some pics and post them.

 

[mrbstephens]

Margaret is in the worst shape of them all. Look at how red! She actually just laid an egg today which was the first in over a week and it's a HUGE one! She doesn't have too many tail feather left. I can see quite a few of them laying in the hen house. Please note that the original reason for the balding of the saddles on Margaret and Freda was from a rooster we used to have, but the bald spot remain.

Freda

Trixie. She only just recently started loosing her feather too. Mostly the feather are broken or completely missing. There is an overall thinning look to the hens. Meaning their coat of feathers don't look as dense. This one of Trixie's saddle is hard to see, but it's also balding. Does molting start on the saddle? Not sure why she's losing her feathers here first.

The good news is that all of the laying hens have laid an egg today!

 

[rcentner]

looks like my hens that are over-mated, they make saddles for that. You could have molting & lice & overmating. Lice can be pretty common, couldn't hurt to treat for it.

as far as the ivermectin, I cheat...I am a vet tech with access to all sorts of dog n cat meds at veterinary cost. You can use the cattle/sheep ivermectin which I think they have at TSC, but I know it is expensive.

edit: if you can hold the chickens and you don't have any lice crawling on you after you hold them, then you may not have a lice problem. After holding my birds for a few minutes (this is how I discovered a lice problem) there were little lice all over me! ewwww..don't worry, you will not get lice from them. They only want the chickens!

 

[colby318]

I sell my eggs for human consumption so I use food grade diatomaceous earth. The birds look like they've fallen into a flour sack but it seems to help with infestations.

 

[teach1rusl]

I do agree that if you're not seeing lice, and clumps of nits, your birds most likely don't have lice. Check for mites as well. Here's a good site for pics of what to look for: http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html
We picked up a rooster w/lice and used Adams flea and tick spray. It worked really well, and the spray was very easy to work with...

How long ago did you get rid of your rooster, because that would have been my first guess, based on your location in your pics. I'm wondering whether it's a combo thing as well. Already in bad shape due to the rooster, and then molting starting???

 

[Lollipop]

Quote:
Thanks for the info - I thought our outbreak was done, but found some more lice on another bird after treating a month ago and changing out all the bedding, etc. UGH!

My question, my birds seem to have it in their muffs and chin area, when I dip them, do I want to swish them a little and try to get that water mix all under the feathers and on their skin?

I would. If you`ve ever dipped a dog, you know you can`t keep it outta their eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. Then they lick themselves. Should be a lot easier on a chicken dip............Pop

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, that looks like mating damage and plucking by other birds. You should be able to see lice. Nothing you can do but wait for the next moult and feathers to return.