Lice Question

[Chickwhit]

I found lice on my 4 girls. So after reading on BYC and a few other sites I bought some Eqvalan - M41(liquid) - .08% Ivermectin Pigeon wormer. I gave them 2 tsps in 2 quarts of water for 2 days. I treated them on March 12th. I just checked them and didn't see any lice on 3 of them. One of them still has lots of lice on her. I was going to retreat them in 10 days to take care of the egg hatch. Now I don't know if I should retreat the one that still has lice now or wait a few more days to see if they die off or just wait the 10 days. I am brand new at raising chickens. Have had my girls since last May. I nearly lost this same chicken last fall to lice. I used a very toxic powder on her then and didn't want to use that again. She is the happiest I have ever seen her. She had a very hard molt in the fall too. Had to keep her in my garage away from the other chickens as she was very nearly naked. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Judy]

You didn't mention cleaning out the coop or bedding, and the eggs will live there. I would probably use either sevin 5% garden dust, or what is often sold as poultry dust or spray, usually a permethrin/pyrethrin mix. It's also available as Adam's flea and tick spray. I'd say you need to treat the birds by hand (Spray each one, or dust by putting them in a grocery bag with their head out) plus treat the coop and change the bedding. You will likely have to do both at least twice to get the eggs. Some people have to treat several times.

Also, I don't believe ivermectin actually kills all species of lice and mites.

 

[Chickwhit]

Flockwatcher, Thank you for your advice. I usually clean my coop everyday. Replace bedding ecetra every couple days. I was putting it off as we are getting ready to move coop to a new area and thought I would wait. But under the circumstances maybe I'd better just take care of it now. Thanks for your advice. I just never knew that chickens were so susceptible to lice. I'll run down to the feed store and see what they have to dust the whole coop with. In the past I've used DE but I'm discovering that it doesn't work for me.