lice!!!

[live2shine]

Oh boy- thanks for this thread! I came home to a hen laying on her side and not using one of her legs. I picked her up and started checking out her leg and discovered an absolute infestation with lice and eggs- yuck!! I had such healthy chickens when I had chickens before that I'm not experienced with too many parasite problems. I just bought all new laying hens for our new homestead and I purchased some from a woman who had other hens with leg mites. Although I didn't take ones with mites that I could see, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN NOT TO BUY ANY FROM HER! None of the hens I bought from a different lady have any lice (yet). I checked out all 11 of my hens and only the hens from this one lady have them, except for one other hen with a few bugs crawling around- no eggs (yet).

I came on here and found this thread (thank you!!) I put together a coconut oil and natural coconut cleaning solution to spray on them. I did my best to get all the hens sprayed, but I couldn't catch a few and it was starting to rain. I'm going to have to check out the Sevin spray and do a full clean out and treatment on all of them. I also found a blog who got rid of them by giving all her chickens baths in warm water with dial soap and apple cider vinegar. I don't like to use chemicals/pharmaceutical products, so I'm going to access what direction I want to take- knowing that the "organic" way seems to involve much more effort.

Okay, as far as this one sick hen... I feel like I'm a completely heartless person, but I kind of want her to die

. I don't exactly know why- well, probably because I had it in my head that I wanted 10 hens right away- but I brought home 2 production rhode island reds from the mite lady who didn't look so great to begin with- and these are the hens that have total lice infestation. One of them is the sick one. I think she's almost 2 years old and I'm the 3rd owner. Her beak is clipped, so she probably came from a big farm. (Again, I don't know why I brought them home.) I feel like this one hen is so infested, it's not worth nursing her back to health...and this is if it is only the serious lice infection causing all of her problems. I really don't want her to keep spreading these lice between now and when I can get this problem taken care of. My rooster and the other chickens are starting to peck at her more and more, too.

I'm looking for some advice here. What do I do with her, and should I be concerned about more than just the lice problem? I can't seem to find clues of other problems. Thanks!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oh boy- thanks for this thread! I came home to a hen laying on her side and not using one of her legs. I picked her up and started checking out her leg and discovered an absolute infestation with lice and eggs- yuck!! I had such healthy chickens when I had chickens before that I'm not experienced with too many parasite problems. I just bought all new laying hens for our new homestead and I purchased some from a woman who had other hens with leg mites. Although I didn't take ones with mites that I could see, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN NOT TO BUY ANY FROM HER! None of the hens I bought from a different lady have any lice (yet). I checked out all 11 of my hens and only the hens from this one lady have them, except for one other hen with a few bugs crawling around- no eggs (yet).

I came on here and found this thread (thank you!!) I put together a coconut oil and natural coconut cleaning solution to spray on them. I did my best to get all the hens sprayed, but I couldn't catch a few and it was starting to rain. I'm going to have to check out the Sevin spray and do a full clean out and treatment on all of them. I also found a blog who got rid of them by giving all her chickens baths in warm water with dial soap and apple cider vinegar. I don't like to use chemicals/pharmaceutical products, so I'm going to access what direction I want to take- knowing that the "organic" way seems to involve much more effort.

Okay, as far as this one sick hen... I feel like I'm a completely heartless person, but I kind of want her to die

. I don't exactly know why- well, probably because I had it in my head that I wanted 10 hens right away- but I brought home 2 production rhode island reds from the mite lady who didn't look so great to begin with- and these are the hens that have total lice infestation. One of them is the sick one. I think she's almost 2 years old and I'm the 3rd owner. Her beak is clipped, so she probably came from a big farm. (Again, I don't know why I brought them home.) I feel like this one hen is so infested, it's not worth nursing her back to health...and this is if it is only the serious lice infection causing all of her problems. I really don't want her to keep spreading these lice between now and when I can get this problem taken care of. My rooster and the other chickens are starting to peck at her more and more, too.

I'm looking for some advice here. What do I do with her, and should I be concerned about more than just the lice problem? I can't seem to find clues of other problems. Thanks!

She is worth saving if she is still alive and your responsibility. The mite lady is the bad person for letting you take them infested. now get some sevin dust or poultry dust and get to work. she is probably anemic and will need some extra good food to build her back up. Protein of some kind, maybe canned salmon, tuna. also there is a product called poultry Nutri Drench which just goes in their water. It can also be given in the mouth. You'll need to clean out your coop getting rid of all the old litter, making sure to treat it and not just dump it some where or the mites will find the chickens again. Get her away from the rest of your chickens because they will kill her because she is sick. okay get rid of old bedding, treat inside of coop with dust or sevin spray mixed according to directions then air it out before letting them back in. be sure to treat all your birds then in 10 days treat again the coop and bedding and birds. Then get some Epernix pour on and treat with that in 10days or use the powder again. what I like about the pour on is it treats both inside and external parasites. and it's not as messy as dust. but you need to jump on this fast so dust first. some say putting the dust into and old sock and dusting is easy so you might try that.
I hope you can pull her through, they look to use to take care of them to the best of our ability and after you've done all you can and she still dies, then at least you will feel you did your best. Please post back how it goes..

 

[CluckyJay]

If you don't want her, just put her down. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't let her suffer though.

 

[Miss Lydia]

If you don't want her, just put her down. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn't let her suffer though.

True but she will still have to treat the rest of her flock, I'm thinking.

 

[Romochickencrazy]

I know many of you are ok using pharma/insecticide stuff but I prefer not to.

Coconut oil (VCO) sprayed directly on the lice and eggs will have your problem gone in a matter of 1-3 days. I repeated treatment on day 3 as a precaution but there was nothing left by then.
Heals their red bum in a day or two.
I added a single drop of tea tree oil to about 4 oz of VCO but tea tree oil is not necessary as it's the VCO that will immediately break down and destroy the lice exoskeleton and eggs.
I spray their roost perches and you are done.

FWIW I don't know of anyone who has personally tried this method and wasn't satisfied.

That great info for getting rid of the eggs....

I'll have to give it a try. Just hope I can find some VCO. Thanks for the tip!!!

 

[leenie]

Really folks, if you have a small flock and get lice this is the quickest, easiest and healthiest way to kill off those buggers.

If you don't want to use the tiniest bit of tea tree oil on your birds don't use it. I think that's really just an added bug repelling smell measure and not at all necessary to kill the bugs and eggs.

VCO destroys the eggs and bugs by disintegrating their exoskeletons. Like the water on the Witchthc in The Wizard of Oz.

 

[leenie]

dupe

 

[Romochickencrazy]

Where did you find the coconut oil? Been looking at the food store with no luck. I pulled Wal*mart up on the computer & They might have it. Will find out tomorrow making a run to see. If I don't find it there do health food store carry it?

 

[leenie]

Any health food store will have it. Whole Foods and the like for certain. Amazon carries it as well. Walmart usually does from what I have heard.

I'd call a store and see if they carry it instead of driving around these days

 

[klmclain1]

Where did you find the coconut oil? Been looking at the food store with no luck. I pulled Wal*mart up on the computer & They might have it. Will find out tomorrow making a run to see. If I don't find it there do health food store carry it?

Walmart carries coconut oil - but not virgin coconut oil and it has to be the virgin because the other is so over processed that all the "good stuff" is removed. You can get it at Sprouts or Whole Foods if you have them...or any health food store. I've found it's usually with all the wholistic medicines/shampoos/etc - not the cooking section. I order mine online as it's cheaper in the long run, but for an emergency (like this) you'll probably spend $10 or $12 for a small container.