Rooster abuse?

[yellowherb]

My mite treatment works great. It's not something most approve of though

I got hold of a flock of sultans who were infested heavily with mites and it turns out also round worms. I tried poultry dust, it didn't touch them. Then I tried ivermectin horse paste and discovered they had worms..ugh! Still had mites though. So I researched it and found a dog spot treatment and put a few drops on each chicken. No more mites. It totally broke the life cycle of the mite and did not harm my chickens at all. I'm sure there would have been a egg withdrawal but since I only hatch my eggs and do not eat them it wasn't a problem for me. The reports that Fipronil causes sterility is wrong. My eggs are fertile and my chickens mite free.

I know people do not agree with medications or chemicals being used but sometimes you reach the end of the rope and nothing is working. I classify this as "the big guns". And would only use as a last resort. Just reporting that if you have to, as I did, it did not harm my birds at all but worked brilliantly.

 

[Folly's place]

Fipronil does work, but is not approved for poultry, and permethrin spray works at least as well, and is approved. Try it next time! Mary

 

[rebrascora]

I think it is important to understand that it sometimes takes several applications over a period of weeks to wipe out a bad infestation, so it may appear that the first or even second application of whatever you used has not worked. I think this is the mistake I made last year as I started to panic that treatments were not working because a couple of days later there were more mites again, but with hindsight perhaps new mites were hatching out and replacing the ones that had been killed by the first or even second treatment. I was just about at my wits end and ready to torch the coop, when I finally got on top of the problem, but I am not sure the final treatment was any more effective than the first, just that I had eventually broken the life cycle. Interestingly, I also added a new dust bath with wood ash mixed in just before I finally got on top of the problem so, for all mites are supposed to live in the coop through the day and not on the birds, it was noticeable that the problem resolved shortly after that. I did also wonder whether it was worth dusting the coop with just wood ash or a wood ask compost mix. Has anyone tried that?

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are several things out there we sometimes use “off-label”. Some of the wormers people often suggest are approved for pigs or goats maybe but not for chickens. If you use them for chickens, that is off-label. That doesn’t mean they will harm the chickens or won’t work on chickens if you get the dosage right, it means they are not approved for use on chickens. It is possible using something off-label can harm the chickens or there should be a withdrawal period from using eggs or meat. There could be other consequences. What off-label means is that they are not approved for that specific use for whatever reasons. In general commercial operations can’t use them if they are off-label unless they get a prescription from a veterinarian. Then it is legal.

Sevin is still available and approved for use on plants. If you read the label and information that comes with it, you will see what is on the label. Treating chickens for mites or lice is not on the label.

Permethrin is a manmade insecticide generally based on a natural pesticide found in Chrysanthemums. There are many different forms of permethrins, some are on-label to be used to treat for mites and lice on chickens. There may be restrictions on how often you can use it.

I’ll include a link to a fact sheet on permethrins. For those that don’t want to follow the link I’ll put a few excerpts.

http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/PermGen.html

The U.S. EPA decided that permethrin was "likely to be carcinogenic to humans" if it was eaten.

A group of women used a product containing 4% permethrin over their entire bodies to treat a scabies problem during pregnancy. Another group of pregnant women used a product containing 1% permethrin to treat head lice. Exposure to permethrin did not affect the pregnancies of any of the women in either group.

Permethrin is highly toxic to fish and other animals that live in either salt water or fresh water. Permethrin is low in toxicity to birds, but some aerosol products made with permethrin may also contain other ingredients that can harm birds if they inhale it. Permethrin is highly toxic to bees and other beneficial insects

Permethrin was applied indoors near a window in an experiment where it was exposed to daylight. After 20 days, 60% of the permethrin that was applied was still on the surface.

Less than 1% of the permethrin put on the skin of people was taken into the body. If permethrin is eaten, most of it is quickly absorbed. The pyrethroids easily pass through the lungs into the body if inhaled, but no specific data on permethrin was found.