Ivermectin Pour On or Dusting - Which Do You Prefer For External Parasites?

[leadwolf1]

Okay...just looked at the box and it says that this stuff kills lice...is there something I'm missing? Please explain.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I never had any luck using the dust. Even if I gutted the coop and took every drop or speck of shavings out of there and powder puffed the whole thing they always came back. I use ivermectin pour on every 3 months topped with adams flea and tick spray for dogs with precor in it. When I treat the birds I also treat the coop taking everything out and spraying it with bleach then hosing it down. I spray the roosts, walls, cracks and crevices. I lock the birds out of the coop for the day when I do this. Once the coop is totally cleaned out and treated I lay a thin layer of DE on the floor (to keep the poo from sticking to the wood floor and keep things dry) Then I put in a few bales of shavings and mix that with more DE. Everything I took out, bleached and hosed down is sprayed with the adams flea and tick spray. Then onto treating the birds. If I stay on a 3 month schedule I never have a problem anymore. If I wait say 4-5 months they are reinfested via the wild birds and critters around the area. I dose them with the iver on and top off with a good spray with the adams and they are good to go with a nice clean coop to roll around in afterwords.

 

[leadwolf1]

Now I really am confused...I understand the Adams, I think I will get some...but if there is a 21 withdrawal period when you need to dispose of the eggs and you treat every 3 months, that is a lot of eggs that you are throwing away or do you not honor the withdrawal period? I am trying very hard to figure out the best way to get rid of these critters without needing to dispose of eggs all the time. Also, if it is acting as a wormer, wouldn't you be overdosing your chickens on worming medication?

 

[galanie]

I've noticed no one but me lets them dust bathe in wood ashes. Maybe I just don't have the numbers you guys do?

 

[leadwolf1]

I just don't have the wood ashes

 

[galanie]

I guess I'm lucky then. I have had to do a lot of tree pruning this past year and have a "barbeque" spot where I burn things periodically. Then I let it cool and they LOVE LOVE LOVE to dust bathe there in the ashes. I am in the city but in a great neighborhood where we just live and let live so no one gets reported for anything much.

 

[dawg53]

Okay...just looked at the box and it says that this stuff kills lice...is there something I'm missing? Please explain.

Ivermectin is for cattle. Cattle lice suck blood, chicken lice do NOT suck blood.

 

[ivan3]

Lice respond well to Adams tick and flea spray. The Eprinomectin will kill adults through direct contact not via feeding - primary on cattle (not a perfect world). We helped our neighbors, some years ago, strip their coop (mites) and did everything short of burning it down (used Eprinomectin mixed - not really good for solutions with tea tree oil - a potent acaracide that can't be used directly on chooks) to spray down interior of coop/ put down sand and DE as base and, after treating all the chooks/turks with the pour-on and leaving them in temp digs for the night, reintroduced with wood chips as primary bedding. They've had their problems since then but mites aren't one of them.

thread with some more on withdrawl times, etc.: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/465176/study-on-ivermectin-residual-in-eggs-links

Big dusting pit with wood ashes and ADE - and beware of wild bird nests...

 

[dawg53]

Eprinex will not will kill lice in chickens, it will kill mites in chickens. It will kill biting and sucking lice in cattle.
http://us.merial.com/producers/cow_calf/products/cowcalf_ivomec_eprinex.asp

 

[leadwolf1]

Dawg, I believe you, really I do...but, they are gone! I only used the pour on and the lice are history. I used to pick them up and the lice would immediately attack me...I haven't seen one since the day after treatment. I don't know what to say except, I am glad that they are gone. As for the ones that will hatch? I will get the flea and tick spray....the sevin never seemed to do a thing. I will continue to use it in the coop with every change cause I haven't seen a mite one...

Thanks for all the help...this has been a great thread.