Lice problems in north east England!

[layla93]

Hello,

We seem to have a lice problem as it is cold and wet here and the chickens have not been using their dust bath that we built for them! We have cleaned the coup and dusted but the coup and chickens in DE but it hasn't seemed to work.

I bought some 0.35% harkers ivermectin and used it on Saturday but some of the chickens have a few stragglers! Does anyone know if it is okay to treat them a second time after a week of first application? I want the pests gone. Chickens don't seem bothered or irritated at all, but I feel awful for them.

Thanks in advance.

 

[boskelli1571]

Hello & welcome!

You should ask your veterinarian about using Ivermectin on the birds. As far as I know it's an 'off label' use so caution is advised.
You will need to thouroughly dust the coop with louse powder and re-apply the powder in 7-10 days to catch those just hatching. Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies otherwise you will be doing this ad nauseum.. good luck,

 

[aart]

I don't believe that Lice can live off the body of a chicken......
......so treating the coop is probably unnecessary.
Red Mites are another story.

Not sure about the product you are using.
I used a permethrin powder and needed to do a second treatment to get the newly hatched.

 

[Folly's place]

Can you get permethrin spray? It's available here as a concentrate, to be mixed with water, and it's super easy to use. It's also approved for use in poultry without egg withdrawal here, unlike Ivermectin, which is off label. Mary

 

[casportpony]

In the UK one can get a 10% permethrin spray called "Martin's". Does anyone know if permethrin is approved for use in laying hens in the UK?

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Okay, so I had a UK link for Morton's, but now I cannot find it.

Two questions for @Yorkshire Coop :

1. What pesticides do you use to treat lice and mites?
2. What pesticides are approved for use in laying hens in the UK?

-Kathy

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I use the ivermectin (0.035%) drops for lice issues on birds (Harkers) It's packaged and sold for use in pigeons as it's not licensed for poultry here in the U.K. but if you can find an understanding vet they will sometimes prescribe it for you. The drops for pigeons are available on Amazon etc if you can't find a vet. Over here they advise egg withdrawal if you treat with this but there are varying answers on for how long depending whom you speak with. Personally it does not bother me as they treat humans with this for head lice so residual in eggs does not worry me.

Permethrin based products are approved for use over with laying hens. I dust birds with a louse powder and also use a permethrin based spray in the coop.

Spray Contains: Permethrin 2.3%, Tetramethrin 0.23%, Benzalkonium chloride.

Powder Contains: http://www.molevalleyfarmers.com/mvf-static/reports/product/pdf/21574.pdf

More info here from defra ~ http://ahvla.defra.gov.uk/documents/surveillance/diseases/backyard-poultry-guidance.pdf

 

[casportpony]

Hello,

We seem to have a lice problem as it is cold and wet here and the chickens have not been using their dust bath that we built for them! We have cleaned the coup and dusted but the coup and chickens in DE but it hasn't seemed to work.

I bought some 0.35% harkers ivermectin and used it on Saturday but some of the chickens have a few stragglers! Does anyone know if it is okay to treat them a second time after a week of first application? I want the pests gone. Chickens don't seem bothered or irritated at all, but I feel awful for them.

Thanks in advance.

Did you use enough of the Harkers? The label says to use two drops per bird, and a racing pigeon weighs about 250-350 grams i think, which means an average sized chicken would get much more.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

I found a picture of a powder that you can get in the UK (it's the one mentioned in Yorkshire Coops message)

-Kathy

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

@layla93

This one is also another good dusting powder both for the birds and in the coop ~

Do you see any clumps of eggs attached to the feather shafts like in this pic? If so coating these egg clumps in Vaseline can stop them hatching, it also softens them up so you can start removing them.