Help! I bought a Silkie at a Poultry Show today and she's infested with some type of pest and also

[puglady]

What did your girl have? Lice, mites, ? What did the eggs look like? Same as mine? I guess tomorrow I will go buy the lice comb. I've never seen one of these combs before but I'm wondering how it will work with feathers since these eggs are at the base where it is much thicker than human hair. But it will be great if it works!! I'm realizing that most importantly I really need to get rid of these eggs. I do not want them hatching. I guess I was thinking the Sevin was going to eat away at the eggs too! Thanks lilchick for letting me know the Sevin will not work on the eggs. It makes sense. If the comb doesn't work, I'm going to search around for some other ways to "dissolve" these things. Too bad it's so close to her skin. I don't want to hurt her by plucking her feathers, as I'm sure you didn't want to hurt yours either puglady. And honestly, I don't know if I actually could do it. I know I would be fine cutting them. But I don't know how close they are to her skin and if it would leave any eggs if the feathers were cut. They are so nasty. When I was trying to pull them off with my fingernails, it was pulling her entire feather. They are on like glue. That's why I'm wondering about the comb. Leadwolf1, does the comb have sharp edges where it cuts through? This poor little Silkie.

She had lice/lice eggs. I could only find a few (4-5) lice running around on her and that was after I noticed the eggs that I thought was dried yogurt. They were small, white and in clumps at the base of her feathers and there were many many more eggs than actual lice. If I hadn't caught it and they had hatched there would have been 100's. Yuck! Good luck with the comb. Hope she's feeling better soon and let us know how she's doing.

 

[starrdice]

Yes coconut oil does wonders! I checked the next day after appling it and no eggs or mites/lice. again 4 days later still nothing. then again a week later still nothing. I also tossed all the bedding and spayed some coconut oil in the coop. IAlso threw down ashes from the fireplace which the chickens love to roll in lol. Hope it helps!

 

[leadwolf1]

The problem with pulling them off or out is, you don't know if you have gotten them all. Anyone/thing that has had lice has also had eggs. They go hand and hand. So, you spend all your time pulling off the eggs or pulling/cutting feathers and you miss one. Very easy to do. Ten days later you are back in the same position of having lice..from the egg/eggs you missed. Then the process starts over. You will need to treat. Ten days later treat again. However, if you treat once and then automatically treat after ten days, they are gone. The hatchlings won't have had time to reproduce so there will be no eggs.