mites? how do i get rid of them?

[animal magnet]

i just picked up one of my silkie girls (she lives inside) to find a whole bunch of little tiny bugs barely even visible eating at her comb its bleeding and theres lots of them. so i picked up her sister to find she had less bugs but they were big white ones and they were even going in her eye

. they live inside with my injured roo who still has an open wound on his neck and im worried the nasty little bugs are gonna interupt his healing and hurt the others. how do i get rid of them? i havent checked yet but im hoping they havent spread to the rest of the flock outside i have 10 other chickens out there.

 

[Harry Rooster]

How awful. When you say they live inside, do you mean in the house with you? I don't know why someone who knows hasn't answered you yet, but I know from reading posts about this subject, that most always say to dust them with a garden & poultry dust with Permethrin, or you can use a spray with the same ingredient. Some say "Seven dust", but I wouldn't use that. I had a lice problem on one of some new chickens we just got, so I got the "Y-tex GardStar" brand of garden and poultry dust. They said it would take care of any of the crawley things they get. Some post on here say the dust is better than spray. Just don't get it in their eyes, keep faces out of dust, and you be sure to wear a mask and gloves while you do it, and change clothes and wash up when you're done. The best way to do it is (they say) get a peice of panty hose (cut off foot) pour dust into it and tie it up, usually takes 2 people to dust chicken. you hold their legs, lay them on their back on a table or something, and hold your hand on their chest to hold them down. Dust under the tail feathers (the vent area), and under the wings espically cause that's where they tend to bed and be worse in these areas, do the chest and neck espically under feathers on the back of the neck (hackles). I don't know what to do about the ones on her comb. Maybe they will just die after you dust the rest, but I don't think I would put any on her head. Maybe you could get a little on a dust on a Q-tip and apply it around her ears and on top of her head and on her comb that way, but I sure wouldn't dust her on her head or face. You can ask about that, maybe someone who knows more will chime in soon, but I just do know what they say about using the dust. I think Seven is a little too strong. Good Luck hope you get rid of those things. I would clean up her comb put some neosporin on the parts that were bleeding. (or vascline on the comb), it will smother the bugs and they can't live on there or her legs as long as the vascline is on there.

 

[mychickenbrood]

There is an excellent article (in my opinion) in the latest issue (March/April 2013) of the "Chickens," magazine, put out by Hobby Farms. It is too long to repeat here. You can probably read it online though.