I was picking up one of my girls yesterday and noticed alot of dried poop around her vent that was really matted into the feathers. I clipped some of those feathers down and noticed a clump of white at the base of one feather that looked like some pictures of lice eggs that I have seen posted.
Today, I checked my other girls when I got home from work and yippee -- they all have clumps of dried poop around their vents and what looks like lice eggs. when I went to touch the clumps of ?eggs? the feathers seemed to just pull out very easily. Is this kind of diagnostic for them being lice eggs. I have looked the hens over and don't see any live crawling lice or eggs elsewhere; but it was starting to get dark and I will have to check closer tomorrow in the light.
I've been a school nurse for 30 years and have seen plenty of insect infestations on little heads, but never on fuzzy butts, so any advice will be helpful. LOL
Tomorrow the temps are supposed to be above freezing for a change, so it would be a nice day to clean out the coop and do anything else necessary to irradicate them. Advice PLEEEEEZE. I have some food grade DE and "8 in 1 mite and lice bird spray" that I bought a while back at one of the pet stores just in case. It has 0.03% pyrethrins and 0.30% piperonyl butoxide. Will this work or do I need to get something else. How do you know if the lice eggs are non-viable old/dead/hatched ones??
If I was looking a kid's head, I have answers to all this.
Thanks,
Paula
Today, I checked my other girls when I got home from work and yippee -- they all have clumps of dried poop around their vents and what looks like lice eggs. when I went to touch the clumps of ?eggs? the feathers seemed to just pull out very easily. Is this kind of diagnostic for them being lice eggs. I have looked the hens over and don't see any live crawling lice or eggs elsewhere; but it was starting to get dark and I will have to check closer tomorrow in the light.
I've been a school nurse for 30 years and have seen plenty of insect infestations on little heads, but never on fuzzy butts, so any advice will be helpful. LOL
Tomorrow the temps are supposed to be above freezing for a change, so it would be a nice day to clean out the coop and do anything else necessary to irradicate them. Advice PLEEEEEZE. I have some food grade DE and "8 in 1 mite and lice bird spray" that I bought a while back at one of the pet stores just in case. It has 0.03% pyrethrins and 0.30% piperonyl butoxide. Will this work or do I need to get something else. How do you know if the lice eggs are non-viable old/dead/hatched ones??
If I was looking a kid's head, I have answers to all this.
Thanks,
Paula
