Get the dust IN THERE on the skin. Pay special attention to vent area. I part the feathers and inspect the entire bird--my assistant (son) holds the bird for me. He tilts the birds so I can look under their wings and their bellies. REALLY get that dust in there good. Your birds will be dusty for a few days after as this stuff clings really well to their feathers.
Yes I only had to dust once. I did not have a severe infestation though. I sprayed the coop inside and out with the liquid diluted to the correct level. It works really well and you should notice results the next day.
I found my condiment bottle at Dollar General. It is clear so I can easily see how much dust is in it. It has a little cap too. I keep it filled about half way.
Great! They have had a treatment of ivermectin already, so I'll add this into the regiment tomorrow. I also think we may have caught it early enough as all the vents and underwing areas appeared clear, it was mainly on my 3 outside birds on their backs mostly.
That's great! I had only one bird that had them, and they were all on her back and tail area. But they were killing her. I almost lost her. She also had bumble foot in both feet. This girl was a hot mess. But we worked hard for her and she lived through it. She is now laying again and is quite the ornery little thing. We named her Molly Brown because she is unsinkable!
Great name! I am really hoping my one girl didn't die of this, though her flockmates are still doing good minus having not laid for a week, I can only guess if there was more to it than this, as her death was rather sudden.
Molly let us know something was wrong. She sat on her favorite outdoor roost most of the day, not doing much of anything. She was very low energy, not dust bathing or foraging. Just sitting there. I checked her for mites that night and figured out what was happening.
Ok, maybe the lice didn't do it then as Gabby was fine the day before and did her dust bathing and eating. She was a bit slow the morning she died but otherwise seemed good. By evening she was purple and past the point of help. Definately getting the dust and bottle tomorrow, these lice are toast!
Housing does need to be treated, if possible, remove bedding.
I have the ivermectin on hand, and could use it immediately. I have read on older posts on this forum that ivermectin works if the lice actually feed on blood, not neccessarily on skin, whereas the dust works for lice feeding on skin. Thus, I'd like to cover all bases. As for housing, the sand would be the only difficult part to remove, would dust mixed in with that be effective?
