lice or mites

[Noelg]

On top of all the other fun im having with chickens right now

I have a sick silkie roo, so sick that i brought him in the house last nite. he has all the symtoms of MG, his eyes are horrible! IVe posted on the mg in another thread, so im dealing with that.

so im reading with him wrapped in a towel in my lap a half hour ago, AND BUGS START CRAWLING ON MY ARM!!!

they are lice or mites, cant figure it out at the moment, they are very small oval from what i can see and light brown almost white. Im putting my youngest on the bus and heading to my local TSC. im off to get sevin and maybe the adams stuff. im thinking i will put the sevin in a old sock and powder them all. Its too cold here in michigan for any bathing

My poor Roo, he is so sick, but i NEED get the bugs off of him. what is going to be the most gentle but effective way to de-bug him? there are so many different ways to approach this, i just dont know which way to go
I have 18 birds in a coop and runs and one very sick silkie in the house.


TIA
Noelg
(who is really hating raising chickens right now)

 

[Noelg]

I must correct the bug description

very tiny reddish brown and my poor roo is crawling with them! he is so skinny. Do mites suck blood? should i give him something other than the polyvisol?
im assuming if they suck blood hes gonna be anemic....

Im off to get sevin, and adamns. i want these bugs off him!!!

Noelg

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I will guess it is lice, although from your description it could be either. These external parasites can cause symptoms that are similar to CRD. Most respiratory illnesses in poultry have very similar symptoms; without laboratory diagnosis, I do not think you can easily tell them apart. If you have access to baytril, that would be an excellent choice as it is bacteriacidal and very broad spectrum. Next would be denagard, for similar reasons. Other good choices, in no particular order are erythromycin, tylan or sulmet.

For him, do give him a warm bath with flea/tick shampoo, then blow dry him and put him in a cage with a heat lamp at one end. Do not let him get chilled at any point in the process. Keep him inside until he is much better. I do agree that bathing the birds who will stay outside should be avoided in cold weather. Personally I would use a spray rather than a powder; I believe it is easier to ensure that the bird is adequately covered, and also has less likely a respiratory affect from breathing the dust..

 

[HenSpa]

Sounds like mites to me. They do bite humans also. Chicken lice are yellowy/white from what I've read.

Read up on how to treat your coop/chickens is my advice. So sorry!

 

[Noelg]

i just dusted him with what TSC had which is a Permethrin based product... Every thing on him i think is now dead, all the bugs are coming to the top of his feathers and dying.
They are Tiny little red/rust colored bugs. GROSS!


Im gonna nurse him though out the day, he seems a bit stronger this morning. If i can get him to start eating on his own then i will bathe him if nothing else just to get all the crustys off! Till then hes getting pedlyte, tylan 50 and some yogurt with nutracal. I tried egg last nite and he would have none of it.


Also while reading i ran across the link to the ingredients to sevin

Ingredients from MSDS/Label
Chemical CAS No / Unique ID Percent
Carbaryl 000063-25-2 5
Kaolin clay 001332-58-7 <95
Silica, amorphous (Diatomaceous silica) 007631-86-9 <95

Really? does it read like i think it does? 95 % DE? ive been using DE in the litter since i moved them out to the coop, and he was covered in creepy crawlies.

Im gonna dust the girls and clean and dis-infect my coop this afternoon, and come monday. im overnighting a swab to MSU . I gotta say i would be THRILLED to hear it was mites over MG and would be humming a happy tune cleaning out my coop!

Which spray would you say for the girls out in the coop? i saw the Adams plus spray at the supply place but didnt get it till i knew it would be ok for the chick-girlies. it says it stops them for up to 3 months, and then what about eggs? will i have to pitch eggs for 3 months? they must injest some of it?
Thanks for the help, I hope my little Roo survives, I named him Elvis


Noelg

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I would use the Adams plus, and personally, I do not toss eggs for that.

 

[Noelg]

OK cool!

Thanks Sonoran!

Ive gotta do a quick embroidery order Then im off to purchase that and clean and de-louse the coop. My poor chickies

noelg