OH NO--my son's rash chicken mites?

[BellaLulaFarm]

On Saturday, we visited a friend's place, and my 4 year old was holding one of her chickens for quite a while. She noticed and said, "watch out, they start to have lice this time of year", and said that after one harvest the lice were so bad that she had to use Flea and Tick shampoo to stop itching. I assume now after reading some of the posts on lice and mites that she was referring to mites.

The next day my son started itching, and now has a fantastic rash, individual small welts up the inside of his right arm, his right chest and belly, and spreading a bit to his legs. I've seen scabies before (thankfully never in my home), and it could be scabies but is not that red. It is sort of in lines, however.

I had bathed him before he held any of our chickens (one of his favorite pasttimes), and I can get him a prescription for permethrin if the rash doesnt resolve with the Borax and Epsom salt bath he just took, but if it is chicken mites, could he have passed them to our chickens just by short term holding in the last couple of days? I've never seen anything on our birds--do we need to go through all the dusting etc for the potential of mites? I'll look under the perches for the blood dots and crawling, but other than that are there any other signs on the chickens?

Really not happy about the idea of bugs right now...

 

[Smoky73]

chances are if you have chickens, your birds will get them eventually, no matter what if they do not already. You can use DE for mites, or Sevin dust, or poultry dust sold in feed stores usually.
Mites or lice from chickens will not stay on people for very long, I would highly doubt that your son's rash is from that unless he is seriously allergic to them, but poultry lice and mites do not cross species, so they would just have been on him for a little while but not feeding, just crawling.

 

[Pye and Papa]

My daughter once had a reaction very much like what you are saying. It turned out to be poison ivy that transfered from the fur on her cat over to her. The straight line is a poison ivy pattern. My friend is a vet and she told me that the oils from the ivy can transfer very easily from animal to animal. Good luck

 

[jerseygirl1]

Absolutely!!!!!!!! And animals do not get the poison ivy rash, so if the chicks were in the poison ivy, yes, it would be on their feathers!!

 

[starryhen]

HI ... I will just say that there are mites and there are mites. What I call bird mites can infect animals, chickens and people and proliferate quickly and are hard to get rid of.
I think they may have gotten on one of my hens. She keeps jumping and shaking her head (like the animals with mites in their ears). There are also stick fleas which I do believe
can infest chickens. Anyway. We down here in Texas are experiencing a huge influx of parasitic insects we have never dealt with before.

 

[CMV]

Bird mites can't infect people long term, but they can make you pretty miserable in the short term. It sounds like you son may be allergic to them, so I'd get that boy some Benadryl quick. You are going to have to clean your house very well. Bird mites can't live on people indefinitely, but they can linger in your house for a while. Vacuum everything well. I assume you washed the clothes you had on, including any coats or jackets? Your home doesn't need any chemical treatment because the mites will eventually starve. You don't want to risk carrying them out to your birds, though.

Then you need to check your own flock. If you didn't take a good deal of care after visiting your friend then chances are good you may have brought some visitors home to your own flock. Do a complete bug check on everyone. Re-check in a few weeks to make sure they are clear.

Good luck. I hope your son feels better soon. I am allergic to mites, so I can sympathize with him. It's miserable being so itchy! The Benadryl will make a world of difference.

 

[Wynette]

Folks, think before you post.

Some of your comments regarding where parasites are coming from is uncalled for and rude. Don't go there.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Please don't take this as being rude, but this is a HUGE lesson in biosecurity! Any time you visit ANY other flock you need to change your clothes when you come home, scrub off your shoes and sanitize your hands! You may think the place you visited was the cleanest coop on earth but they still may have some disease or parasite that your flock doesn't have. This is how it spreads. 1 mite egg on the bottom of your shoe can cause a LOT of trouble for you and your flock. It's just better to practice good biosecurity from the beginning then deal with a sick flock after wards. (this also goes for farm shows, fairs, swaps etc)

If your son's allergic a little bit of benadryl lotion should help....no need to give him the pills for a rash. I think that works on poison ivy too.
Good luck!