Freezing weather, dying chicken, mites

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you. She was lethargic, not lifting her head, couldn't keep her eyes open. We brought her in and warmed her up, and she is perking up and drank a little bit of water. BUT my daughter noticed that when she petted the chicken, she got mites all over her hands. Do I need to powder my mud room also? How far do these nasties run? do they leave their blood meal or do they start running as soon as they get into a warm spot? WHAT HAVE I DONE? My kid with OCD is freaking out. I have never personally culled a chicken. I was expecting her to just die and not recover. We are going to treat her right now.

we cannot get that product. Would Floradix, infant iron drops, adult iron drops, chopped raw or cooked liver help?

Where are you located in the world?

Personally, I would give her the liver - this will give a nice boost of protein too. About 1 Tablespoon a day or so. I like to give it cooked, but some feed it raw.

Hopefully she will perk back up some more. The mites may have really been draining her. Work on hydration, getting the beef into her and her eating. Oh and the mites, get rid of those too!
I sure do hope you are able to eliminate them and they aren't in your house. Looks like @rosemarythyme gave you some very good information.

 

[Farmerbetsy]

Where are you located in the world?

Personally, I would give her the liver - this will give a nice boost of protein too. About 1 Tablespoon a day or so. I like to give it cooked, but some feed it raw.

Hopefully she will perk back up some more. The mites may have really been draining her. Work on hydration, getting the beef into her and her eating. Oh and the mites, get rid of those too!
I sure do hope you are able to eliminate them and they aren't in your house. Looks like @rosemarythyme gave you some very good information.

she is monching on some liver-based cat food right now, I'm going to dig through the freezer to find the liver that I saved. And a dear neighbor is going to have her dad pick up the Nutri Drench in the next county over and bring it to us before it starts snowing again. People seriously make fun of Seattleites for not being able to drive in the snow, but, it's incredibly hilly here. My street will not be plowed ever at all and the ice will only clear when it melts this weekend after the next storm.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You can get permethrin products from garden stores, at hardware/home improvement stores like Home Depot, and I even got permethrin spray for the house from Walgreens.

Just double check the dosage before you use it. For powder you want 0.25% and spray 0.5% dilution.

 

[Farmerbetsy]

You can get permethrin products from garden stores, at hardware/home improvement stores like Home Depot, and I even got permethrin spray for the house from Walgreens.

Just double check the dosage before you use it. For powder you want 0.25% and spray 0.5% dilution.

Happily we bought permethrin last time we treated the ladies so we had it on hand.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Frozen streets are no joke! Be safe! I have seen parked cars go slip-sliding down hills all by themselves.

 

[Farmerbetsy]

Frozen streets are no joke! Be safe! I have seen parked cars go slip-sliding down hills all by themselves.

thanks that's kind of you! The gentleman who delivered the poultry drench had a 4WD big Man truck. So that was really nice of him.

 

[Farmerbetsy]

For any of you following along on the chicken mite saga:
We treated Lucy chicken with Poultry drench and permethrin. She still looks extremely sad. There are swarms of mites slowly moving on the crate that she is in which is horrifying to me and my kid with OCD is beside herself. I've created a moat around the crate with permethrin and I might just create a moat of Dawn dish detergent around that? Does that seem bonkers? are there going to be mites in all the shoes and clothes in the mud room?
I don't know how bezerk to go with washing clothes.

We then treated each chicken with permethrin and all the ones with pale wattles got a dose of Poultry drench.
We dusted the entire coop.
It's not practical to do a deep clean until it's warmer.
I will add Poultry drench to their water.
It's just really hard to manage anything until it warms up.
I'll also add some DE or ash to the pen so they have something dry to roll in.

 

[rosemarythyme]

You don't need to go berserk with laundry. The mites will slowly die off anyhow as long as they can't feed off their bird host. For now I'd probably keep the already "infected" clothes (anything already in the room, anything worn into the room while treating the chicken) in the same room with her, and then do a big batch of laundry once the whole thing is done.

The permethrin should do the trick now that it's been applied, making moats won't make it more effective or kill faster (though I feel bad for the kiddo, I know I promptly freaked out once I saw mites crawling around the house, especially since I had dozens of bites on me before realizing the cause).

 

[NatJ]

There are swarms of mites slowly moving on the crate that she is in which is horrifying to me and my kid with OCD is beside herself.

Since there are so many of them, maybe you (or the kid) can take a piece of tape and start catching the mites from the crate. Just stick the tape to the mites, continue until the tape is full, then throw the tape away. You could put mite-covered tape into a tightly-closed bag or jar before throwing it away, if you want to be extra-sure of those particular mites staying gone (especially if you already have an empty jar that needs throwing out.)

I would not expect to get ALL the mites that way, but catching a bunch of the visible ones might make you (or the kid) feel like something is being done.

 

[Farmerbetsy]

You don't need to go berserk with laundry. The mites will slowly die off anyhow as long as they can't feed off their bird host. For now I'd probably keep the already "infected" clothes (anything already in the room, anything worn into the room while treating the chicken) in the same room with her, and then do a big batch of laundry once the whole thing is done.

The permethrin should do the trick now that it's been applied, making moats won't make it more effective or kill faster (though I feel bad for the kiddo, I know I promptly freaked out once I saw mites crawling around the house, especially since I had dozens of bites on me before realizing the cause).

Rosemary, you are my new best friend.
Now that we have treated her, should we a) put her back in the coop b) put her in the garage even though it's 30 degrees out there c) keep her in the mudroom even though it's next to our pantry, and all of our shoes and winter clothes.