I drove an hour and a half to pick up six, six month old hens from a woman that ended up being two hours late to meet me. I was anxious to get home after waiting so long, so I put the hens in my car and hurried back home. Got them home and out of the car and saw that one hen didn't look so great. Her poo was watery and smelled awful, and she was infested with lice. I did a little research, and found that she appears to have clostridium perfringens based on the appearance of her poo. I have her in a dog crate, away from my other girls. I gave her a warm bath, and soak (water, dawn dish soap, and vinegar) to get rid of the majority of the lice, and eggs. I dried her, and powdered her with diatomaceous earth (woman at the feed store recommended it). The soak seems to have done a great bit of good to the majority of her body, but she still has lice eggs around her face. I'm wondering if I should do something else, or if a few douses of DE will take care of the rest? I've never had to delouse anything before so I really have no idea what I'm doing. For the clostridium, I'm administering sulfadimethoxine (albon) in her water. Is clostridium contagious to the other chickens? How long should I keep her on antibiotics to treat it?
