poultry mites or lice --something unseen crawling on us! HELP

[georgih]

Hello everyone,
I have a skin rash and I think that it's due to chicken mites....after numerous trips to multiple doctors, treating our 4 cats, and 2 dogs, the chickens are the only ones left. The doctors have not been helpful. I know that I have to dust or spray my 18 birds, but what do I do about treating myself.? I have already been doused with Kwell, cleaned and washed everything every day...Help!
Georgianna

 

[Anderson SC]

Need Help do not know much about mites

How will DE affect the chicken eggs?

How does Sevin Dust affect the chicken eggs?

 

[Lollipop]

First off, you have to determine if lice/mites are present. To do this, pick a couple birds off the roost tonight and check under their tail and around their vent with a good flashlight. If you see any minute little bugs scurrying for cover, you`ve got them.

To treat them as radically as you can without affecting egg eddibility, get some Adams flea and tick dip. Mix it up as directed in a 5 gallon bucket, and proceed to dip EVERY bird on the place. Do it on a warm morning so they have a warm day to dry.

Clean out the litter from the coop and dust heavily with sevin dust. Don`t forget the nests. Replce with clean litter. If showering with hot water and soap, includiing a good shampoo doesn`t make you feel like they are all off of you, do it again.

Like I said, you can eat the eggs and this treatment will get the new ones as they hatch. In fact, you can still smell it for at least a month, but it`s not offensive. Good luck.......Pop

 

[Barn Maid Ann]

Are we talking about Adams flea spray (and dip) made for dogs?
Isn't that stuff awfully perfumey?! I haven't been around it in many years, but I remember it smelling REALLY sickening-sweet.

We found a few mites crawling on us when cleaning a poopie butt on a hen the other day. I have been itchie since, even after many showers later! I dusted with DE, and put it in the nest boxes, but I want to make absolute sure they are gone.
Also, I am assuming these mites will live on other animals?
I do believe my horse vet warned me about mites on the horses when I first got the chickens. I suppose I should treat the horses too, as the chickens roost in the stalls a lot of the time.

I have heard some say they used frontline on the birds. Would that be the dog stuff too? What would the dosage be?
TIA

 

[mylittlefarm]

Just in case don't use Hay... always use Straw. Mites and Lice are in Hay they tell me. Since we stopped using hay we have less problems with mites and lice.

I use a spray we get from the Farm Supply to spray for the little unseen critters. You spray the coop from top to bottom and the chicken too.

Once we spray the chickens settle down and seem much happier and so are our dogs since we don't use hay in their dog houses anymore.

 

[Mourningdove]

Quote:
Your absolutly right! Many years ago my daughter came down with a bad case of scabbies from a friend of hers who had chickens!

 

[ivan3]

willkatdawson wrote: OK I think I've figured this out. I checked our newly out of quarintene SP roo. He's a cochin and he has both lice and mites in the feathers around his vent.

Northern Fowl Mites have a penchant for parking on roo's posteriors (they prefer roo's feathers and not the fluff on the hen's derrieres if given a choice). Roos also don't hit the dust bath as often, or sun themselves as frequently as hens (sunning raises the temp. and drives off mites, dust baths choke them). Trimming the feathers that extend near/over the roo's vent will decrease the living space for these ectoparasites.

an alternative treatment is Eprinex pour on (half a cc on skin of upper back repeated once seven days after first application). This is not an `approved' use but is effective.

Spray the flea and tick spray on the roosts (or rub it in using a cloth). Mix DE and Sevin in their favorite dirt bathing locations.

Use a jeweler's loupe or magnifying headset and a flashlight to check the chooks about an hour after they've gone to roost (mites will be busy and level of infestation can be assessed).

Some meds and dosages and some pics:

http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/solutions.html

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html​

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

OMG!

I thought poultry lice/mites couldn't survive on humans!

Oh now I am TOTALLY disgusted.

I can handle alot of things, cleaning and skinning animals and fish, blood, guts, flesh, you name it (I work in a hospital ER) but the idea that after treating my roo I may have brought these litle nastys inside to eat on me?! THAT takes the cake!

ETA: Yes, I DOUBLE GLOVE when caring for a patient with possible scabies- I just have a thing with bugs eating on me- much less living INSIDE my skin! Oh my.....

 

[ivan3]

Here is a nice NFM for goose bump induction

http://www.denniskunkel.com/DK/Arachnids/23160B.html

That said, we treated our neighbor's poor Easter Eggers and Sussex last month. Cass and I were crawling with the buggers by the time we finished (Northern Fowl Mites). We noticed, as we walked back up the road to our place, that the mites kept moving up our bodies eventually wandering aimlessly on our necks and over and around our ears. Neither of us were bitten, just annoyed with the continual scratching and flicking at the `commuters'. We bagged our clothes in the garage (a bit of clorox in that load of laundry).

When our daughters were in grade school, we attended a PTA mtg. Cass elbowed me and directed my attention to a parent a few seats to our front. Her hair was adorned with Pediculus Humanis Capitis (wish I'd known about `Cattle pour on' back then). I'll take the fowl mites, thank you very much

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

Well thanks for that little tidbit! *puke* You wouldn't BELIEVE the people that come into the ER sometimes! They have everything from copious amounts of lice, to scabies, to ROACHES in their CLOTHES- that are ON their BODIES!

I try to let noobs take those patients

Give me a trauma or a code ANY day! As for the mites, I'll remember that the next time I have to treat, which hopefully will be none too soon!