Help please!

[Pecking Mad]

Hi!
Just wondering what these black spots on my girls could be??? Little black lumps, kind of looks like caviar! All 5 girls have it & have had it for about a month - not getting any worse but not getting any better either. Looking for ideas to treat it. TIA

 

[Pyxis]

Those are sticktight fleas. It might take a really long time to get rid of those, and it's going to require some serious coop cleaning, too. Try dosing them with pour on Ivermectin, and clean out the coop really well and dust it all down with Sevin dust to kill any fleas that may be in there. You can dust the birds, too. You can also try covering them in Vaseline to smother them out. Frontline is another option - it has been found to work well if you put one drop on each bird on the skin on the back of the neck.

You're probably going to have to repeat whatever you choose to do several times to kill the new fleas as they hatch. Eggs take a couple weeks to hatch and you probably have several stages of eggs, so be prepared that this may go on a while.

This will affect other animals too, like dogs and cats, horses, rabbits, and even humans, so I'd be trying to get rid of them ASAP.

 

[Pecking Mad]

Thanks heaps for that, sounds like it's going to be a long process! I have some frontline that I use on our dogs so will do first thing in the morning. Then I'll head out & get the rest of the stuff & get into it asap

 

[Pyxis]

Sounds good! Don't do the Ivermectin if you do the Frontline, one will be sufficient.

 

[Pecking Mad]

Ok great, thanks.
How would they have gotten these horrible fleas?

 

[Pyxis]

They're carried by rodents like rats and squirrels, etc, so it's very possible your hens picked them up from them.

 

[Pecking Mad]

Chickens frontlined & coop cleaned & dusted. They're looking better already, thanks so much for the advice! When should I do it again & how often can I put frontline on the girls? Do you think we can still eat their eggs?

 

[Pyxis]

Chickens frontlined & coop cleaned & dusted. They're looking better already, thanks so much for the advice! When should I do it again & how often can I put frontline on the girls? Do you think we can still eat their eggs?

I've read it usually lasts about a month, so you can reapply at that time if necessary. There's no listed withdrawal time since it's not been made for use on poultry but I'd say wait a week and you're fine. Someone did an excellent post about it here and basically it boils down to even if you ate all the eggs from four hens each month and assumed you ate most of what you put on them (which you wouldn't be) you'd still be safe.

As for the coop cleaning and dusting, I'd repeat that again in one week and then once more after to be sure you've gotten all the eggs cleared out.