I'm lost! Treatment options for mites/lice

[luvmybirdz]

I'm not entirely sure what I'm dealing with. I need to do more checking over in the morning, but I think we're dealing with lice. My problem is wanting to do as little as possible chemically. I have DE but know once there's any infestation it's of no real use.

I just cleaned the coop completely out, but assume I'll have to do this again, scrub it out and treat it w/something? Can someone please give me the rundown of all I have to do to rid us of this problem? I have seven dust and will use it if need be. I really hate having to use chemicals! How many times will treatment need to be done? Is there an amount of time we'll need to stop using our eggs? Is the seven dust good for coop use or do I need a spray of some kind? We have mallard ducks too and I assume they'll need treated but don't know if lice is an issue for them. That will be a riot considering they don't much like to be handled and are HARD to catch! We even have 3 day old ducklings and a couple chicks that are a couple weeks old.

I noticed on my big rooster the back of his neck was missing some feathers and his skin was super red. Would this be caused by the lice or am I dealing w/a completely seperate issue here? His legs have seemed red to me too over time. I don't see any mites on his legs (that I know of anyway....not sure what I'm looking for). It has sort of looked like feathers on his legs were irritatated and his skin is just red. But the red on his neck was really pronounced. Sorry for all the rambling, but I'm the one around here who has to figure these things out....I just don't know what I'm dealing w/or how to best fix it! Thanks for the help folks!

 

[Leslieb118]

Sevin dust (5%) is perfectly fine for use on chickens. You'll need to dust each chicken. The easiest time to do this is in the evening when the sun is going down and they're roosting. I have a little "puff" I made out of the foot of a pair of pantyhose. Some people hold their chickens upside down by the feet and dust them that way, or use a pillowcase with the Sevin in it, keeping the chickens head out of the pillowcase. You'll need to re-dust them in 10 or so days to kill any newly hatched eggs.
You also need to dust the coop, roosts, nesting boxes..etc. I clean out the coop, and sprinkle the Sevin everywhere, and use a broom to kind of spread it around. I've since learned that there is a Sevin Spray that is good for spraying the coops instead of dusting, so I'll probably try that the next time. You'll also want to add some Sevin to the nesting material, and the bedding material.
There is no egg withdrawal.
As far as your rooster goes, it could possibly be mites or lice. Also, on the legs, are the scales raised up at all? If so, you could be dealing with Scaly leg mites as well. Those you'd have to suffocate with something like vegetable oil, vaseline, or something like that. You could post a picture of him on here if you can get one, showing the area of concern and maybe we can help figure out what's going on. Good luck!

 

[dawg53]

I dont recommend turning a chicken upside down to dust them. The pantyhose and pillowcase methods are safer when dusting a chicken. I dont recommend liquid sevin to spray inside a coop. The goal is to keep the inside of a coop a dry as possible. A simple way to dust the inside a coop no matter what size the coop is; put a large pile of sevin dust at the entrance to the coop. Next, wear a mask and hit the pile of sevin dust with a leaf blower full blast. I guarantee you the sevin dust will get in every nook and cranie. Do this later in the day when the chickens have finished laying eggs giving time for the dust to settle. Repeat dusting again in 7-10 days, this will eliminate the pests lifecycle both on your chickens and coop.
The redness on your roosters legs could simply be his hormones flowing, normal.
Keep in mind that you can actually see lice crawling on your birds. Mites look like pepper and are slow movers. Mites can cause anemia and eventually death.

 

[jak2002003]

why do you think your chickens have lice or mites? What are the symptoms?

The red on the roosters legs sounds normal. Many roosters get this and its to do with his hormones. Feathers missing from the back of his neck is probably from some other rooster, or something else attacking him and pulling them out in the struggle.

 

[luvmybirdz]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions! I have seen bugs on them, but didn't know what they were. As for the rooster, no other birds would have done this to his as he's alpha and NO ONE gives him trouble. We only have one other roo and he takes crap from this big guy daily. The redness on his neck looks bad. Angry red and bumpy textured....very strange and not normal for him. On other threads I checked out on redness of skin I see the bugs can actually cause this sort of irritation. Is that right? Someone posted something about mites that get under the skin. Is that right? How would you know if this was the issue and does seven treat all types of mites?

As for applying the seven, what I have is a bag of it, so I can't 'shake' it on them like the with canister. I like the idea of the pillowcase method! I think I'll try that. I read someone comment on another thread that lice only live on the birds and mites live both on and off the birds and in the coop. Is this true? What about their yard area? Do we need to treat any of that? Does seven take care of both mites and lice? Should I completely empty the coop and apply the seven, or just apply to existing bedding material? I just cleaned it completely out last week and added all new pine shavings. I don't mind to if I need to but would obviously like not to if it's not necessary. Thanks again for the advice! Can't wait to get this dealt with and over.