HELP! PLEASE? Need advice for treating 50+ for lice/mites

[PunkinPeep]

Lice don't live long away from their host, so it's most important to treat the birds themselves.

If it were mites, they can live in the bedding of the coop - and i think the wood that the coop is made from.

 

[maizey]

Whats poultry dust?

 

[UGAchick]

OH...Ok. Well they were small and white. Someone posted a link to a website comparing lice to mites and I decided that they were more like lice than mites. But, I have never seen lice or mites, so I really don't know. Will the treated dust bath work for both? The only difference is that I would also need to treat the coop and run in the instance of mites? Sorry for the stupid questions (and post hijack) just a pest novice here.

 

[Urbanfarmerkc]

I try to keep lyme from pot ash and de available for dust baths and I loved the idea of a cat litter box. Someone posted you can use de all over the coop and I think that is a good idea as well. When my girl's get it really bad, I use Adam's Flea and Tick which I can spray at a distance. THEY HATE IT!!! but the lice and mites are ALL gone the next day. I only use this when all else has failed but it keeps everyone happy.

Dave

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Here you go- http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html Go Dawgs!

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
The one i have is marketed as Garden, Pet, and Livestock dust. It's permethrin based, so use with caution. It's toxic. I have used it to treat for lice and what i thought were mites.

I think that the dust bath would certainly be worth trying without the permethrin. I really didn't put much of the dust in there, so i'm not sure it was that big of a determining factor in the absence of lice.

Lime is wonderful too. I accidentally ended up with some, which i put in my brooder, and not one of my chicks has had a single bug. I love it. Be careful though. Lime comes in different grades, some of which will harm your chickens.

 

[rancher hicks]

Food grade DE (diametacious earth) can be ordered from "Countryside". Not sure of the exact site but you can find it. A 50# bag can be delivered to your door.

I dust all the nest boxes and the entire inside of the coop. It can be put in their food as well, though some say it's not benefitial to do so, I do it anyway. I also put it in their dusting holes when it is dry and I see them dusting. You can dust each bird individually if you like. Make sure to get under their wings and around their vents.
There is no withdrawl time and it can be used regularly as a prevention. I like to mix it with the wood shavings everytime I clean the coop. With the right watering system they will stay reasonably dry til the next cleaning.

All wooden roost can be "painted" with oil to smother mites that hide in crevices. I suppose a good smear with vaseline would work just as well. (I think mineral oil would be safe to use too)
Vaseline can be smeared on legs and feet to kill scaley mites. Do this also on regular intervals as prevention.
(vaseline is good to put on combs in the winter to prevent frostbite as well)

The new Practical Poultry magazine has an article on mites and fighting them. It's a must read and can be found at TSC stores. The $7.50 price is worth it for all you'll learn from this magazine. I also recommend Back Yard Poultry as well. I keep back issues to reference.

Wishing us all a mite free chickens keeping experience

Rancher

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Is there any withdrawl time with the eggs using the ivermectin?

There is no legal withdrawal time for ivermectin, because it is not approved for use in poultry in the US. You cannot legally sell the eggs (ever) if you have used it. Beware the wrath of the feds!

You are correct tellynpeep. The only federally approved poultry wormer is wazine. It is approved for swine as well. The feds dont recognize us backyard flock raisers otherwise there would be more poultry wormers on the market. Since wazine only paralyzes large roundworms, and there are many many different types of worms that chickens get, we have to improvise and use off label wormers to kill those other types of worms. The withdrawal time for ivermectin pour on for cattle slaughter is 48 days. I'll rephrase for arguments sake...it is recommended without legalities that ivomec/ivermectin products used to worm chickens have a withdrawal period of 14 days... due to the small dosage, except eprinex. Whether an individual uses it or not...that's their choice. I provide the info they request, dosage and that's all. If I sold eggs, I'd personally wait 14 days after worming and inform customers that I wormed my chickens 2 weeks prior and the eggs are safe to eat, unless the state or town has a law or ordinance stating otherwise. Ivermectin is a safe wormer and used in third world countries and given to humans there. There are BYC'ers here who ignore withdrawal times and eat the eggs/meat after worming with ivermectin...sorry, not me...I'll wait 2 weeks.

 

[newchickens2009]

Thank you everyone for all the great info. It will surely come into good use.
UGAchick, don't worry about the hijack that's what were on here (BYC) for. To help eachother and all have learn and share our great chickens together.
One for all and all for one! I help you and you help me!
Thanks again everyone and God bless!!

 

[Lofty Dreams]

I showed my chickens at afair last year and they came back with lice. We never had lice before. We didn’t know the lice came with us until I was reaching for a chicken and a couple lice fell on my head from the chicken. I reached up, pulled off a louse, screamed and ran back to the house. I took two showers and after I read about lice. It turns out that poultry lice is different than the kind of lice that people can get. Poultry lice are a chewing or biting lice where as the kind people can get is blood sucking.

Poultry lice are a small (1/4 inch) yellowish-brown bug that feeds on the blood of poultry, making it a parasite. Parasites are harmful to birds. They can be come so irritating the birds do not eat or sleep well and egg production can drop. Birds can even injure themselves by scratching and pecking themselves out of frustration. Lice can even kill young birds that are infected with them.

A louse (a single lice) lives for several months and spends its entire life on a bird’s body. The female lays eggs and glues them to the bird’s feather shaft. The nits hatch four to seven days later. Over the next few months the nit matures and then lays its own eggs. It can lay 300 eggs in its lifetime. With one generation being born every 3 weeks after just a few months the original pair of lice can become 120,000. Lice can also live for a week away from the bird.

Lice can be transmitted through contaminated supplies or birds. That is why it is so important to wash your birds after showing and to quarantine them to minimize the chance of spreading lice to the rest of your flock.

Please see the following steps to treat your birds for lice.


I showed my chickens at county fair
last year. We came home with lice.
This is a picture of me with Goliath,

How to treat a chicken for Lice


About two weeks after I came home from fair I noticed the white silkie chickens pecking themselves. I picked one up and I got a louse on me. The silkies were trying to peck at the lice chewing on them.



We went to the store and bought lice powder. We dusted them with it and kept them separate for two weeks treating them every week with the powder. We didn’t see lice in the rest of the flock. We still saw lice on the silkies after the two weeks so we decided to give them a bath. We applied a lice shampoo designed for people that we bought from Wal-mart following the directions of letting the medication sit on their skin for five minutes.



Then we washed them in the bath water. Silkies look funny when they are wet? They actually liked the warm water after they got used to it.



When they were done we wrapped them in a towel to dry them off. Then we dusted them with lice powder.


Then I cleaned and disinfected the cage they were living in an all the bowls they used for food and water.


Unfortunately this wasn’t the end of the lice for us. The rest of the flock ended up having them and we had to bathe them all. We also had to clean and disinfect the entire coop. We were able to save them all but one, Goliath.




The worst part was that Goliath was too far gone to save. He was so covered in lice and lice eggs that each feather shaft on his body around his neck had a cluster of eggs. We started to pluck out his feathers hoping to save him, but we realized that we would end up with a bird having to be plucked alive and ending up with no feathers. It wasn’t fair to him to endure this, even though he was a great breeding bird and a nice pet. We had to cull him.