Potential Mites/Lice near Regina's Face?

[RiceHolisticGarden]

Hey BYC,

As we were tending to our older hens' bumblefoot, we noticed what appeared to be small, round, white/gray beadlike clusters near the base of the feathers of Regina's head. We initially thought it may have been attributed to the feed splattering on to the feathers as she ate, but the small beads seem too regular, ordered and localized to the base of her feathers for that to be true. It does not appear to be impacting their ability to carry out their daily tasks, but we were concerned that this problem may worsen/spread to the other chickens. Ultimately, we hope to get rid of whatever these small beads altogether.

Attached below is a picture for reference (apologies the resolution is not better, these beads were quite small).

Thank you!

 

[DobieLover]

It wouldn't hurt to treat her for lice.
Get some permethrin based poultry spray and spray her to the skin under both wings, at the base of her neck, part her chest feathers and get her there and under her vent. I would spray some of the poultry spray on a cloth and carefully wipe her face and head avoiding her eyes.
Repeat all this again in a week.
You'll need to check the rest of the flock and treat them as well. When I treat one for any type of parasite, they all get treated.

 

[krissyweso]

I second the permethrin. I had a mite/lice problem in my flocks recently, and I did the spray under the wings. You can find it at tractor supply. Look for it yourself, though. My store says they didn't have it, and I went in to look and found it in two different brands. Might be near the horse stuff.

Also, make sure you also look up the permethrin to water ratio. There are different ratios for on-skin and for spreading your coop. I believe it's around an ounce and a half permethrin to one gallon water.

I did it once, then again in 5 days, and it was a success.

Also, make sure you clean out the coops, spray them with the permethrin, let them dry, then put bedding back in. I also bought powder permethrin to use on my bedding.

 

[RiceHolisticGarden]

Hey BYC!

First off, thank you so much for the advice!

UPDATE: Since there were several health issues compounding, we ultimately took Karen and Regina to the vet. When discussing the potential lice, they were able to confirm that it was lice. Through research, we did find that there was a particular species of lice that liked to stay specifically near the face/neck area of chickens. Currently, we are giving them Ivermectin injections weekly for 3 weeks.

In addition, we have tried giving them regular dust baths with DE. We also bought Pyrethrin, which is the organic version of Permethrin. We plan on spraying the coop down when we clean it out, but we also have a beehive in the garden, so we had concerns because this is toxic to bees.

Since we are only spraying down the interior of the coop, which the bees should not be able to get into, would it be okay to use Pyrethrin in this situation?