MITES - Lots of MITES!!!!!!! Urgent!!

[peepinator]

tenderkat....

Thank you so much for your post!

Man, yesterday I had chicks hatching from the 2nd broody hen...(the one that is a silkie and who had quite a few lice on her when I looked). Since her babies were hatching, I couldn't do a thing till today so yesterday.....oh man, what a day....I had some permethrin dust that I bought a few months back just so I'd have it on hand. I've dusted chickens in the past, but not this many and certainly not babies. I just don't want to harm my new little fuzzy butts! So, anyway...I got a knee high stocking and filled it half way up with the powder and used it as a powder puff. It was pretty dusty, but I wore a hankerchief tied around my nose and mouth and just tackled each chicken one at a time making sure I got their vent areas really, really good & under the wings. As I dusted each one, I put it out the door of the coop to free range...then I put some dust in the areas that they dust bathe in-in the field....thoroughly cleaned out all the shavings in the coop, nests & run. I sprayed down the roosts & walls with a mild bleach and h20 mixture and then when it was dry, I sprinkled dust on all the roosts, put new shavings in the run, coop & nest boxes and again, dusted all the shavings & mixed it in. My one broody that had already hatched her chicks...I dusted her and her little fuzzy butts too...as someone told me that they would be just fine if I dusted them, and they appear to be doing great today. I did remove food and water as I dusted though and put them back when I was all finished. This morning after all the chicks were hatched from my silkie...I got a brooder box ready for her, shavings with dust in it....and put her chicks in it and took her outside and dusted her...MY GOD....was she ever infested.....at least a hundred of those creepy crawlers came out from inside her feathers and on top of her trying to escape the deadly dust....I had to take her outside three different times and dust her and then brush her off...these things were crawling on her babies, my sleeves, in the shavings....OMG...it makes my skin crawl just writing about it. After the third time of dusting and brushing off dead and live lice there appear to only be a few stragglers that I am sure will die. I dusted each of the babies as well. After I got that all finished up....I had to clean out her nest box where she hatched her chicks....so got it all cleaned up and refilled with dusted shavings and I'm feeling relieved. I will repeat this in 7 days...not waiting 10....and then again in another 7 days just to be sure!!!! EWE....those things give me the creeps. I keep my coop & run in immaculate shape...but if you got bugs...you got bugs....don't matter if the coop has clean shavings.

About your worm problem tenderkat....get yourself some Valbazen (albendazole).....after much research on here, it is the only one that is effective in killing ALL worms....some of the medications only kill certain worms, but this stuff treats & kills them all from what I've read. Mine don't have worms...YET...but I will treat them anyway. I bought some to have on hand awhile back from www.jeffers.com and everyone on here that talks about it swears it is the best wormer you can get. For maintenance, I think I'm going to try cayenne pepper since everyone says it works for prevention. 3 tbsp per gallon of feed I think is how people said you mix it. I use ACV just for gut health plus I give yogurt to my chickens every so often. I also just recently treated with acidified copper sulfate to protect against cocci (short for coccidiosis).

I feel so much better getting my chickens treated for these lice....they make me itch just thinking about them. I checked them awhile back but didn't have any....I will be checking every week from here on out and using preventive measures faithfully...don't want to go through this again. Not so bad with only a few chickens but I have 21 plus all the new chicks. One more hen will be hatching out chicks today or tomorrow....she's got 9 eggs under her

She has been dusted and so has her nest box!!! Good luck tenderkat! Let me know how your battle went! I am wore out I tell ya!!

 

[pattgal]

Quote:
The last thing I want to do is hijack this post but I've been dealing with lice and mites since last fall. I've gone through the dusting process with sevin at least three times and reaplied. I think whats happening with me is I am not cleaning the coop properly. they get the damaged feathers but mostly they keep twitching and look uncomfortable
With your bleach solution do you need to reapply in 7-10 days or is one time enough? and I'll have to do the hens all over again and reaply the sevin on them as well after 7-10 days right?
those darn bugs are tough. thank you so much for posting this, this was the most helpful so far

 

[WallTenters]

We have had great success with ivermectin pour-on for lice - knocks them out of the park. It does seem to kill mites as well, but our birds keep getting them again every time we free range from the wild birds. We've been diligent with our ivermectin and some permethrin dust on the worse-off ones and we have knocked the numbers way way down. The Orps seem to have the hardest time with them, and the roosters seem worse off than the hens.

As far as not eating the eggs, that's nonsense. Ivermectin is given to humans that suffer from river blindness. And yes, when you're giving the pour-on, you'll get some on your skin and it soaks in so fast. None of us have gotten sick and died over it, and we're probably more pest-free than before

The only caution w/ ivermectin is if you have any kind of collie dog or dog that might have collie in it's background - there is a genetic mutation that they might have a reaction to the ivermectin, so if you're using it on your birds no eggs for the dog and don't let them in the chicken coops for a week or so.