I am feeling awful about a mite situation that has developed and hoping someone can tell me if my plan is likely to work.
We have had chickens for 15 years. I first saw mites several years ago, and have treated with poultry spray and powder (permethrin) - successfully, I thought. We just came back from visiting family for a week and our favorite chicken (an extremely friendly 7 year old hen who had severe scissor beak as a chick) was looking poorly. Upon examination I realized she had A LOT of mites on her. I brought her inside, gave her two baths with Dawn, blow dried her, and then dusted her with the poultry powder and kept her inside in a dog crate. But she went downhill quickly and passed away last night. The number of mites on her (even after poultry powder!) was like something out of a horror movie. It was really, really awful. I obviously missed a terrible situation developing in my coop. I'm sure the mites infestation led to her death, and I feel terrible.
Some of my other hens have a few mites around their vents when I looked last night, but some seem to have none, and no one looks anywhere near as bad as the little one we lost. I have re-read about treatments and it looks like I can order Elector PSP from chewy, but it will take a few days to arrive. Amazon has another product called Fraxel with the same ingredient, but I haven't seen that recommended anywhere. Should I spray or powder the other hens with the permethrin dust today, or wait for the elector? And is it even going to work? I can clean out the coop and run the shopvac around and put in fresh bedding; I have seen a recommendation to burn the bedding but I dont think I can do that but I can drag it far away. I feel gross - I always thought of my coop as reasonably clean and nice! I am wondering if I will really be able to eradicate them.
Are there any mite success stories? Wild birds do build nests in the exterior eaves of the coop, I dont know if that is where they come from? Or if my past efforts weren't thorough enough? The coop is made of wood and we are located in Southern New England, so sadly they are not able to dust bathe outside right now. Thank you in advance for any guidance or inspiration, I feel awful and overwhelmed.
We have had chickens for 15 years. I first saw mites several years ago, and have treated with poultry spray and powder (permethrin) - successfully, I thought. We just came back from visiting family for a week and our favorite chicken (an extremely friendly 7 year old hen who had severe scissor beak as a chick) was looking poorly. Upon examination I realized she had A LOT of mites on her. I brought her inside, gave her two baths with Dawn, blow dried her, and then dusted her with the poultry powder and kept her inside in a dog crate. But she went downhill quickly and passed away last night. The number of mites on her (even after poultry powder!) was like something out of a horror movie. It was really, really awful. I obviously missed a terrible situation developing in my coop. I'm sure the mites infestation led to her death, and I feel terrible.
Some of my other hens have a few mites around their vents when I looked last night, but some seem to have none, and no one looks anywhere near as bad as the little one we lost. I have re-read about treatments and it looks like I can order Elector PSP from chewy, but it will take a few days to arrive. Amazon has another product called Fraxel with the same ingredient, but I haven't seen that recommended anywhere. Should I spray or powder the other hens with the permethrin dust today, or wait for the elector? And is it even going to work? I can clean out the coop and run the shopvac around and put in fresh bedding; I have seen a recommendation to burn the bedding but I dont think I can do that but I can drag it far away. I feel gross - I always thought of my coop as reasonably clean and nice! I am wondering if I will really be able to eradicate them.
Are there any mite success stories? Wild birds do build nests in the exterior eaves of the coop, I dont know if that is where they come from? Or if my past efforts weren't thorough enough? The coop is made of wood and we are located in Southern New England, so sadly they are not able to dust bathe outside right now. Thank you in advance for any guidance or inspiration, I feel awful and overwhelmed.
