Mites, mites, mites....

[cocosandy]

I am at my wit's end. I have never had mites till this past winter when we've had strange weather, storms and warm spells, and lots of rain and flooding. My flock hasnt been able to dust bathe as much as possible tho I did treat with DE in their boxes and in their litter. I clean the coop almost daily, taking out the poo, and I have a helper who comes for a few hours on the weekends and does a full cleaning. I then go in and dust the nestboxes and the perch shelves and litter with poultry dust.
The mites seem to go away, and I check for them all the time....but every time I skip a day, they suddenly are back!
I even had a bad experience where everyone was OK but my polish was acting lethargic and puffy...she was fine BUT her head was full of them!!.....
So tonight, they are back!
My dog got a horrible little roo who managed to get himself into the dog run and I had to stitch him up...then I went out to shut the coop and checked and.....they were Baaccckkkk.....
AND the sores that my roo has around his vent are infested too...and probably caused by them.
It occured to me that mites are a sexually transmitted disease!!...I dusted everyone, and tomorrow I will do another round of pour on eprinex and...Im to the point where Im gonna use the injectable ivomec, but I am assured that eprinex is the same thing!
well, Ive been putting DE and dust around...the only thing I havent tried is Sevin.
Its in the hardware store for plants but I had read that its not suggested for poultry anymore...does it have a withdrawal time?? Is it dangerous for us or them?
I have some sprays that are all based in permetherin (sp?) and have used those.....even recently, like a few days ago!!
Id love some advice on this. Im at my wit's end and its been a terrible chicken day with a friend losing a chick that her kids were raising, and my losing 2 hens that I adored.
Oh well...Ive got babies coming in May and babies hatching all the time....
I just want to end this mite thing, and Im thinking that Im going to get some sevin and put it in all the dustbathing areas (along with ash and DE, which I have been doing) and on all the birds...and also eprinex them just for good measure.
The odd thing is that the ducks, who have been bunking with the chickens dont seem to get these mites...and the pair of turkeys that are now living her dont seem to get them...
advice please!! The cleaning and dusting Im doing regularly; could it be just that its been such a warm and wet year here? Many people are mentioning this round my town....Or maybe you have to keep killing them with different substances for a year to erradicate them?

funny thing is that after I sewed up this little roo and he is so raw from the dog playing w/ him, I flipped him over to check his stomach top be sure I hadnt missed anythign, and there was a lone mite crawling across the towel!! so I put some eprinex on him and will spray his hospital tank with permethrin tomorrow if he makes it....he almost lost his head and is tough as all get out...so we'll see....but its crazy that he sat there like a trooper for an hour and got sewed up and now he has to live with mites!

And, of course, no one is laying if there is even one mite in 100 miles of the coop;-)

Is it just me?....

Thanks for any advice!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

When you live in an area that can get wet weather, it really pays to have covered dust baths. The chickens need to be able to dust bathe every day, as many times as they need or want to. My chickens have a couple of dust bathing spots out in the free range areas, but I also made one for them in the covered portion of the run. They use it every day.

We have heavy clay in our area. It can be fine for dust bathing in dry weather, but is terrible if there is any rain at all. The chickens really enjoy bathing in the sand we supply or in dirt that has sand in it. It drains better, dries better and stays fluffier. One year they enjoyed peat moss in dirt. Plain wood ash is a traditional and useful dust bath additive. We also add DE to the dust baths, plus the coop and nest boxes as needed.

I use DE and it works for me, but it's one thing to be dealing with a few incoming mites, heading off a problem and another to be dealing with a situation that has gotten completely out of control. Sevin does show up in eggs for quite awhile, according to studies that have been done. I don't know about ivermectin products, as I haven't read any studies on that. It is used by vets for mites in many species, though.

I would not use Sevin and ivermectin together, unless you talk to a vet, first. That is a lot of pesticides to use on a chicken at the same time. Something you can do, besides adding things to the dust baths and coop, is to dust the chickens. Flip them over and shake the dust into their feathers, so it really gets in there, especially around the vent or any other areas that you see them. Wear a dust mask, whether you're using DE or Sevin.

Since I've done a better job of providing for their dust bath needs, the chickens have done more dusting of themselves and I haven't needed to do it anymore. We still keep an eye on them, though. I forgot, we did have to take extra care with a broody one year. Broodies and roosters tend to not dust bathe as much and are at a higher risk for mites. They would be good ones to check, to see if they needed to be flipped over and dusted.

Edited to add that I forgot about orange oil sprays. Some people have posted about orange oil pesticide sprays that they have also used on some of the wood surfaces on their coops. Maybe they could help with some info on that, too.

 

[cocosandy]

Thanks so much for all of that. I think Ill skip the Sevin at this point. I heard in the chicken whisperer chat room today that I should use my ivomectin injectable as a pour on. I was under the impression that I had to mix it with some oil if I was gonna use it as a pour on.
I hear you on the sand and ot that end Ive had the entire immediate chicken yard covered with sand for a couple of years. I also add DE to that and dust when they have had mites.
I realized that I have a sort broken booth gazebo thing that needs to be braced so is no longer good for farmer markets or booths at shows, so Iv e decided to cover the sandy part of the yard with that. I have a funny older showgirl who got so desperate this past winter that she was dust bathing in the big flowerpot of oyster shell;-)
The flock is so great when the sun is finally out and they all are laying on their sides with wings out throwing dirt all over...
they have managed to wreck the edge of every lawn around here.
So, I guess that as spring sets in I can hope for a respite from this problem, especially if I add a covered dust bath.
Ive also heard that some people are using frontline spray and Adams spray....
thankjs for the kick in the pants I needed to get that tent thing up. I have to tie it in place so Ive been putting it off....but I should have put it up a long time ago (tho I would have lost it in the big storm we had last month

 

[WoodlandWoman]

People use a lot of things that aren't legally approved for use on chickens. They work great for the parasite killing part, but you have to think about how much of that goes into the eggs, for how long and just how bad the ingredients are. I don't know what's in some of the pet products. You might want to check those labels and do some googling before using them on a food producing animal/bird. I think there's a lot more information out there on ivermectin being used on food producing animals, than some of the other chemicals.

I wish you luck getting the mites under control. They really are horrible little things. I hope the ivermectin and more dusting does the trick for you.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Sevin and Adams Flea and Tick.

Use the spray for immediate removal...you can dip all of your birds if you wish. After the dip, let them air dry and then dust them with Sevin.

Dust the roosts, nests, bedding material, favorite dusting spots...everywhere you can think of that your birds spend an extended period of time.

 

[cocosandy]

do you do any egg withdrawal for the sevin dust?...Im gonna use the ivomec because I have it here and I already use the poultry dust and DE...Im just gonna keep it up over and over until I never see another of those little buggers...they make me CRAZY!...and the worst thing is that after Ive seen them, I get all itchy...I shower and Im sure they are not on me, but even to think of them I get itchy....AND no one lays when there is even the hint of a mite in the coop.
I seem to start with the molting excuse but then after a few days there arent the feathers to prove it, so...they are coming if not there. It has to be that they are picking up eggs where they hang out or in the woods....so I have to make them unattractive to the mites (and I have to treat my dogs too, tho I think the mites like feathers...right?)
UGH!
Thanks for any and all advice...after so many years this is new to me...and its stubborn!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

After a single dosage of the Sevin, I usually treat once every 6 months. 3 months in really wet weather.

No, I don't do any withdrawal from the eggs but I probably should...

 

[Egg_newton]

I had mite/lice a few months ago. I use DE in the coop and dust bath. I dusted everyone with Seven Dust then did it again in tow weeks. Now everyone is external parasite free. But I just picked up a beautiful new splash rooster yesterday who has them little buggers.

Good thing he is quarantined. I dusted him last night before putting him in his holding cell. I will start worming everyone else tomorrow for round worms then a broad spectrum wormer for everything else. Poor chickens can come with so many "extras".

 

[dawg53]

i most strongly urge you to stop using the ivermectin, it is used mainly as a wormer and should only be used once within a 6 month period if you suspect worms, and then only used after worming with wazine17 first. do not eat eggs for 2 weeks after use and throw the eggs in the garbage. use sevin dust on all your chickens,ducks,turkey's, etc...just as rodriguezpoultry stated. dust everything again in 10 days to kill mite eggs that have hatched since first dusting. eggs are safe to eat after using sevin dust. remember, throw eggs away because of the ivermectin use.