New chicks have lice!

[sndkelly]

HELP! I have had 3 chicks hatch. One suddenly died this morning. When it did, I noticed lice start crawling from it. I have never thought about chicks having lice and have not had a problem in the past. I tried to find information on here but there is not much. I cleaned their box and dusted them with poultry dust and the lice just crawled off them. The chicks are active for the most part and eating but not as healthy looking as other chicks. I am worried about the effects of the dust on them. How often should I dust them? Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[sloanbychoice]

Wow, sounds like there’s a fairly big lice issue there.
I don’t know about young chicks, but maybe @Eggcessive wouldn’t mind chiming in? Been a huge help to me!

 

[sndkelly]

Wow, sounds like there’s a fairly big lice issue there.
I don’t know about young chicks, but maybe @Eggcessive wouldn’t mind chiming in? Been a huge help to me!

It is a mess and it’s strange because another mom just hatched chicks there before her and there was none.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you certain those were lice and not mites? Sorry for your loss. I haven’t dealt with lice or mites in baby chicks, but most of what I have read on here, most prefer not to use dusts or sprays on the chicks. How old was the chick when it died? Did you use permethrin?

 

[sndkelly]

It was definitely lice. I don’t like the dust but the feed store and what I read here said to use the dust. My 2 chicks left seem to be better today. They are eating and pooping more so hopefully we are on our way to health. This afternoon I didn’t see any lice

 

[aart]

Broody hatched chicks?
Have had broodies get infested while setting, discovered it while inspecting a chick.
Now I dust the nest and mama when I give her eggs.
You can put a few pinches of permethrin dust on mama, she will spread it to the chicks.