Lice or Mites on Baby Chicks

[SilviaWarner]

We have two baby chicks that we have been keeping inside our house since they’ve hatched. One is approximately four weeks old, the other around a week old. The little one was very dirty, so I gave them a bath in warm water and found a lot of white-tinted oval shaped eggs on their head and neck, as well as a few live mites or lice crawling through her fluff too. This has happened to other chicks we’ve had before as well. However, these two have never gone outside as they were incubator hatched and raised indoors since. I’ve been looking around for any answers or any similar findings, but have found nothing so far. This happen to anyone else? Or how to help them?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

Can you post some photos of the chicks and the brooder? If you can get some photos of the bugs or eggs too that would be great.

What is the brooder made out of and what type of bedding are you using?
Using the same brooder as before? Where was it stored?

For chicks that young, I would use a Permethrin dust to treat them for the lice/mites.
Clean out the brooder and treat it as well.

 

[SilviaWarner]

Because the chicks are still small, they’re in a glass fish tank approximately 20in x 8in. They just have a paper towel bedding. The paper towels get changed every two days, and their water and food changed and replenished every three to six hours.

By before, around two or so months ago we had a few more chicks living in the tank, but it had been properly cleaned and washed before placing these two in it. The older one would have been transferred to the coop outside, but I was worried the lice will spread to the other chicks.

Unfortunately, my camera can’t properly pick up the bugs or eggs. The bugs are very small, just a bit smaller than a fruit fly I’d say. Their eggs are white, but the bugs themself are more of a beige to brown color.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Because the chicks are still small, they’re in a glass fish tank approximately 20in x 8in. They just have a paper towel bedding. The paper towels get changed every two days, and their water and food changed and replenished every three to six hours.

By before, around two or so months ago we had a few more chicks living in the tank, but it had been properly cleaned and washed before placing these two in it. The older one would have been transferred to the coop outside, but I was worried the lice will spread to the other chicks.

Unfortunately, my camera can’t properly pick up the bugs or eggs. The bugs are very small, just a bit smaller than a fruit fly I’d say. Their eggs are white, but the bugs themself are more of a beige to brown color.

Cute chicks!
I think I would take them out of the aquarium and place them in a larger brooder so they have more room.
It does sound like lice you are dealing with. Since you hatched them yourself, I would wonder if the eggs themselves somehow had lice eggs on them and when the chicks hatched out those were transferred to the chicks.