It was lice!!! Have a few questions

[Kelllynnl]

Gave paprika a bath this morning and her feathers looked great!! I didn’t find any lice or eggs on her. Hopefully I caught it early before it really got out of hand. I did however, see her in the dust bath last week and she spent A LOT of time in it and wasn’t in a sharing mood with her sisters.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She's lovely!

I hope you got all of them treated and after you give the follow-up have no more problems.

Seems like my girls take dust baths almost daily. Even in winter when the temps are in the teens (F).

Something for you to consider, if your ground is frozen, provide a tub of loose dirt/sand in the coop or under cover for them to take dust baths in. I also add wood ash to the dust bathing areas. So far I have not had any external parasite problems - I check my girls about every 2wks.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I asked and he said I guess you would have to get the vet to dust the birds. Really??? I’m kinda freaking out thinking about what I will do in the future if and when I encounter this problem again.
Bath for miss paprika it is!! Thanks for the help. Hopefully I can get this cleared so my babies feel themselves again

Hi! I'm from Manitoba. I really hope what he's meaning is that you can buy it from the vet. This is really unfortunate.

 

[Folly's place]

Here we can buy permethrin dust or spray concentrate at the farm stores, and it's approved for the chickens, with no egg withdrawal. Carbaryl is no longer approved for use on chickens here, which is no problem, because the permethrin works very well.
Mites and lice are the pits! I check a few birds every week or two, at night with a flashlight, and treat if any bird has one bug!
I had deaths because of anemia from mites a few years ago, and learned the hard way to be proactive. Yuck!
Bathing a sick anemic bird is likely to hasten death; be very careful if you try to handle a sick bird that much. The spray, at night when they are roosting, is easiest on everyone. Powdering is fine, and much less traumatic than bathing.
DE is very bad to inhale, and ineffective.
Spinosad is effective but extremely expensive; not worth it, at least not now.
Mary

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Here we can buy permethrin dust or spray concentrate at the farm stores, and it's approved for the chickens, with no egg withdrawal. Carbaryl is no longer approved for use on chickens here, which is no problem, because the permethrin works very well.
Mites and lice are the pits! I check a few birds every week or two, at night with a flashlight, and treat if any bird has one bug!
I had deaths because of anemia from mites a few years ago, and learned the hard way to be proactive. Yuck!
Bathing a sick anemic bird is likely to hasten death; be very careful if you try to handle a sick bird that much. The spray, at night when they are roosting, is easiest on everyone. Powdering is fine, and much less traumatic than bathing.
DE is very bad to inhale, and ineffective.
Spinosad is effective but extremely expensive; not worth it, at least not now.
Mary

Unfortunately, Permethrin products are not available to producers in Ontario. I can buy Permethrin concentrate labelled for chickens over the counter at a feed store in Manitoba.
At this time I'm also able to purchase the Carbaryl dust.

In Ontario, a person has to be licenced for class 3 pesticides (3 or 4 she said) to obtain and use the product. I called one of the major feed stores in Ontario to find this out.

We have Spinosad available for purchase here. I do not know if it's allowed in Ontario.

 

[Kelllynnl]

Hmmmm. My fil is a farmer and I know he is licensed to get pesticides others can’t so maybe he will be able to get it. The feed store hasn’t mentioned they carry permethrin so I will have to ask. I had a bin with sand and dirt but it did freeze. It got to -40c here for a few weeks in a row this winter. I guess I should keep a small shovel to try and break it up everyday when I go out. Maybe if it’s mostly wood ash it won’t freeze?
I didn’t know about the baths however I hatched the babies myself so they got really use to me handling them as well as I have bathed them all 1-2x since they’ve been born. I know you are not suppose to but their siblings thought it was funny to poop on them and they got pretty gross.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Hmmmm. My fil is a farmer and I know he is licensed to get pesticides others can’t so maybe he will be able to get it. The feed store hasn’t mentioned they carry permethrin so I will have to ask. I had a bin with sand and dirt but it did freeze. It got to -40c here for a few weeks in a row this winter. I guess I should keep a small shovel to try and break it up everyday when I go out. Maybe if it’s mostly wood ash it won’t freeze?
I didn’t know about the baths however I hatched the babies myself so they got really use to me handling them as well as I have bathed them all 1-2x since they’ve been born. I know you are not suppose to but their siblings thought it was funny to poop on them and they got pretty gross.

May I ask, your father-in-law...was he able to take a course on pesticides that allows him to use them?

Here we can no longer use phostoxin (it's a pesticide for bugs in grain stored in bins) without taking a course regarding the usage etc. I still have to find out more about taking the course because my husband and I plan to take it.

 

[Kelllynnl]

I’ll have to ask him. They go down to Florida for the winter. All I know is there’s stuff he is able to purchase that most cannot.
Now idk if I even want to use anything he can get lol