Mites help!!

[EmmaSHenry]

My chickens have what I believe are mites, not sure what kind. We have cleaned and dusted their coop with DE and treated them with revolution about a week ago. A week later and they still have clumps of eggs around their vents, tried to clean them up and dust them with DE again and cleaned/ dusted their coop again. I have never been able to spot any bugs actually inside of the coop, just a few on the chickens but mostly just egg clumps. They are losing feathers on their bums and underbelly and I am really worried about one of them. She is super pale and lost a lot of weight, her feathers are also crusty in spots, I don't know if it's just mites or if she is sick with something else as well.

I'm wondering how often I am able to treat with Revolution? I was really hoping the first treatment would do the trick as I have heard really great things. I just eyeballed the dose so i'm afraid maybe I didn't apply a large enough dose, I put a few drops on each of them.

These buggers are causing me so much stress, I just want my ladies to be happy and healthy again! Help!

 

[boskelli1571]

My chickens have what I believe are mites, not sure what kind. We have cleaned and dusted their coop with DE and treated them with revolution about a week ago. A week later and they still have clumps of eggs around their vents, tried to clean them up and dust them with DE again and cleaned/ dusted their coop again. I have never been able to spot any bugs actually inside of the coop, just a few on the chickens but mostly just egg clumps. They are losing feathers on their bums and underbelly and I am really worried about one of them. She is super pale and lost a lot of weight, her feathers are also crusty in spots, I don't know if it's just mites or if she is sick with something else as well.

I'm wondering how often I am able to treat with Revolution? I was really hoping the first treatment would do the trick as I have heard really great things. I just eyeballed the dose so i'm afraid maybe I didn't apply a large enough dose, I put a few drops on each of them.

These buggers are causing me so much stress, I just want my ladies to be happy and healthy again! Help!

If you haven't actually seen any bugs tehy may already be dead. Debris including eggs can take some time to be sloughed off the feathers.
Did you treat the coop and nest boxes too? Mites are notorious for living in and around perches - the minutest crack can hold hundreds of them...
I would caution against using Revolution more than once a month on your chickens. It is a neurotoxin that can build up in the body and cause death if applied too liberally...
Use permethrin dust as well as the Revolution to defeat these little pests

 

[Painted Calls]

Lice and mites will always require more than one treatment. Treating once only kills the adults, but not the eggs. You have to treat again after eggs hatch to kill those as well. I've never used Revolution on chickens, so I can't advise there. I use Gordon's concentrate and spray them/coop every 7 days until all nasties are gone.

Scrap the DE. All it's going to do is make the lice sneeze and the mites cough. Permethrin is what you need.

 

[EmmaSHenry]

If you haven't actually seen any bugs tehy may already be dead. Debris including eggs can take some time to be sloughed off the feathers.
Did you treat the coop and nest boxes too? Mites are notorious for living in and around perches - the minutest crack can hold hundreds of them...
I would caution against using Revolution more than once a month on your chickens. It is a neurotoxin that can build up in the body and cause death if applied too liberally...
Use permethrin dust as well as the Revolution to defeat these little pests

Thanks! I sprayed the coop/ nest boxes with a water, oil and dish soap solution which I read helps smother out the mites. I pulled out the floor of the coop and cleaned that really well and sprayed with the solution and then dusted everything in the coop, all the cracks and crevices really well with DE.

I wanted to try to get my hands on some permetherin because I've heard this works really well for treating mites, but I i'm in Canada and it is very very difficult to find anywhere, I don't think it is legal to sell it here and really hard to have it shipped from the states for some reason (could just be the current border situation?). So permethrin is unfortunately not an option!

 

[EmmaSHenry]

Lice and mites will always require more than one treatment. Treating once only kills the adults, but not the eggs. You have to treat again after eggs hatch to kill those as well. I've never used Revolution on chickens, so I can't advise there. I use Gordon's concentrate and spray them/coop every 7 days until all nasties are gone.

Scrap the DE. All it's going to do is make the lice sneeze and the mites cough. Permethrin is what you need.

I cannot find permethrin in Canada or else I would be using it, I tried to find it everywhere!

 

[Painted Calls]

Oh I forgot about Canada! Hope you get it taken care of!

 

[HippieAtHeart]

Lice and mites will always require more than one treatment. Treating once only kills the adults, but not the eggs. You have to treat again after eggs hatch to kill those as well. I've never used Revolution on chickens, so I can't advise there. I use Gordon's concentrate and spray them/coop every 7 days until all nasties are gone.

Scrap the DE. All it's going to do is make the lice sneeze and the mites cough. Permethrin is what you need.

Do you remove the bedding every 7 days?

 

[HippieAtHeart]

Do you remove the bedding every 7 days?

@Overo Mare

 

[HippieAtHeart]

Also Emma how are your chickens now?

 

[Painted Calls]

Do you remove the bedding every 7 days?

I personally don't. I change all bedding when I first discover the bugs. Spray every nook, cranny and crevice, then put fresh bedding down. I will spray and turn over the bedding every 7 days after that.

Any leftover lice/mites will find the birds and they die when I treat the birds.