How to treat poultry lice in a flock of 200 chickens plus turkeys?

[WallTenters]

Instead of doing the ivermectin on the neck, do it under the wing, it's much easier to get a clear patch of skin, trust me.

 

[cackleberryhead]

Quote:
Farmerboy16,
I just read your post and was wondering what treatments you decided on and how did they work? I have discovered lice on my 200 plus flock and did dust all of them last week with DE. Just checked them two days ago and found still a few lice which will quickly become many again. I suppose I should dust yet again.....

I need help and am so worried I am going to loose my flock. Only getting a dozen eggs or so now. Losing profits and my mind

Please advise me if you can!

 

[Chickenaddict]

Quote:
Farmerboy16,
I just read your post and was wondering what treatments you decided on and how did they work? I have discovered lice on my 200 plus flock and did dust all of them last week with DE. Just checked them two days ago and found still a few lice which will quickly become many again. I suppose I should dust yet again.....

I need help and am so worried I am going to loose my flock. Only getting a dozen eggs or so now. Losing profits and my mind

Please advise me if you can!

First of all don't believe the hype about DE! it is WORTHLESS when it comes to treating for lice! it is used more as a preventative not a treatment. It is also handy to dry out the poo in the litter but thats about as far as it goes. If you want to get rid of the lice use ivermectin pour on in combo with adams flea and tick spray for dogs WITH precor in it for spraying roosts/walls/ nests ect. All old bedding needs to be taken out and dumped away from the birds or thrown away. you then need to delouse the coop and the birds, add new bedding and mix DE in with it. This method has worked well for me for a long time now. Every 3 months I retreat the flock and never have problems with the mites/lice anymore.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html
This link has important information about retreating to get the hatching eggs. See the bottom of the page for instructions. Today I dusted 58 chickens with Permethrin poultry dust, whew. Took me a very long time.

If you set up dust baths in concrete mixing tubs, and make them very tempting with sand, ashes, etc., and keep them closed up in the coop for the day with food and water, do you think they would dust themselves? (And put your poultry dust in the dust bath too?)

See which chemical ohioline recommends- it is a very potent killer of bugs. If you do a search on BYC you will find a link to a chart of egg withdrawal times for poultry dust (says 7 days) where you toss the eggs.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Farmerboy16,
I just read your post and was wondering what treatments you decided on and how did they work? I have discovered lice on my 200 plus flock and did dust all of them last week with DE. Just checked them two days ago and found still a few lice which will quickly become many again. I suppose I should dust yet again.....

I need help and am so worried I am going to loose my flock. Only getting a dozen eggs or so now. Losing profits and my mind

Please advise me if you can!

First of all don't believe the hype about DE! it is WORTHLESS when it comes to treating for lice! it is used more as a preventative not a treatment. It is also handy to dry out the poo in the litter but thats about as far as it goes. If you want to get rid of the lice use ivermectin pour on in combo with adams flea and tick spray for dogs WITH precor in it for spraying roosts/walls/ nests ect. All old bedding needs to be taken out and dumped away from the birds or thrown away. you then need to delouse the coop and the birds, add new bedding and mix DE in with it. This method has worked well for me for a long time now. Every 3 months I retreat the flock and never have problems with the mites/lice anymore.

I treat every 4 months and they need it. Then I retreat 10 days later to get the hatching eggs.

I agree with her about DE being a good preventative, and chemicals are needed during an infestation for lice, based on lots of posts here on BYC. I haven't dealt with lice- just mites. A year or so ago, I had mites crawling around in the litter of the coop since that is how they must have jumped on me, and I had so much DE in those coops at the time that there shouldn't have been any.

 

[flashover1969]

I don't have as many chickens as you, but I use a poultry powder that uses an active ingredient of Permethrin. The lice just start falling off within a minute or two, thrash around for a little bit and kick the bucket.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Quote:
Farmerboy16,
I just read your post and was wondering what treatments you decided on and how did they work? I have discovered lice on my 200 plus flock and did dust all of them last week with DE. Just checked them two days ago and found still a few lice which will quickly become many again. I suppose I should dust yet again.....

I need help and am so worried I am going to loose my flock. Only getting a dozen eggs or so now. Losing profits and my mind

Please advise me if you can!

Hi,

I had gotten a bottle of ivermec .08% sheep drench, and tested on my roosters, and broody hens, and it worked very well, and easy to do. NO LICE in a few days.

I was planning to treat the entire flock this fall when the egg production is down from molting, and before winter hits, but had a coryza outbreak, I had to cull my whole flock of chickens, guineas, and peafowls. Now the turkeys looks like that they have mycoplasma.

If they do have it, then I will have to cull all of the turkeys, and maybe the ducks, and geese too. It looks like I will be poultry less this winter in the first time in 9 years.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Glad to hear that the ivermec worked. Sorry to hear about the outbreak.

 

[cackleberryhead]

HI ya'll<

Sorry to hear all the misfortune you are having with your poultry. I appreciate all the advice and info you have shared with me. So far my 175 layers are only giving up approx 7 eggs a day, I suppose due to the lice I discovered some 6 weeks ago. I dusted each one twice with DE and thought that did it but a week later after much searching I found several lice!

So I am testing Ivermectin 1% on my roosters in their water. I only put 5ml per gallon. Just guessing.... What do you think? It has been three days and none have died! Chickens that is...I will check the lice this afternoon. I am nervous about giving this to my layers.

No income for six weeks has me also fretting about how I will feed them soon! I have planted extra in the fall garden for supplements for them. I just don't understand WHY they are not laying. They are eating well, lots of winter feathers have come in, picking up weight again....

Just needing someone to bounce all this off of...and feeling kind of desperate these days.

Thanks for being there BYC friends.

 

[redmacbear23]

Love the garlic water idea. Much easier. Also dusting the roosts and boxes, etc. I use Sevin, but only have a small flock and can catch them up one at a time, then dust under the feathers. There is a Poultry Protector in a small spray bottle that works on nesting areas. Also I use some of the wood shavings from the horse stalls, no cedar tho, and fresh hay. Key is cleanliness, no matter how large or small the flock and coop.