Severe Lice Infestation To cull or Not

[Judy]

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This will work fine on him. I'd take it easy on trying to remove the egg sacs, just treat them and let him have his feathers, you will win the battle sooner than you think. A dog or cat flea shampoo is fine if it is permethrins or pyrethrin; don't know about others though I believe people also use Frontline drops for dogs on this. I'd dust the coop with Sevin, too.

Sevin, pyrethrins and permethrin, and ivermectin all do the job. Things like DE and wood ashes may help some but you need strong medicine now.

I'll bet you will be rid of them sooner than you think.

 

[calicokat]

I agree with the others - this won't be so bad, and if he's your special guy, you'll be glad you went to the effort

We had a bad run with lice recently and a tip I found here helped. We took the Sevin dust and put it into a small - emptied - baby powder container. That made it so much easier for me to handle and apply to the birds.

I put a lawn chair in the coop about bedtime, and one by one I treated each bird. I put them in my lap on their back, and with that small bottle I could easily shake or squirt powder all around their vents, under arms, and bellies. Then flipped 'em upright and did crests (they were polish), top of tails and back. Since it was bedtime, they were a little less active and really settled down in my lap. I kept telling them, "think of is as a massage girls!" And speaking quietly and soothingly.

I was ready for a battle and kinda unsure I could handle it on my own, but it wasn't bad at all. We also took out all the bedding, sprinkled Sevin around and put in fresh bedding just because we were heavily infested. Then redid all this in 10 days.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

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He's not. He's the only one that is showing signs of them, but if he is as infested as you say then all the birds are infested. Trust me. Treat the lot of them and thoroughly treat the coop otherwise you are just wasting your time.

Good luck.

This is so true. +1

Lice crawl onto the other chickens.

 

[mrszlopez]

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He's not. He's the only one that is showing signs of them, but if he is as infested as you say then all the birds are infested. Trust me. Treat the lot of them and thoroughly treat the coop otherwise you are just wasting your time.

Good luck.

This is so true. +1

Lice crawl onto the other chickens.

He is the only one with them. He is housed far away from any of the other chickens. The two hens in with him were checked literally up & down. neither have ANY lice on them or any of the eggs. I will be treating all of them just for safe measure either way though.

 

[mrszlopez]

& I dont mind taking the time & effort to try and rid him of them again. I love the little guy sooo much i just feel guilty sometimes for keeping him around to go thru what he does.

here's my pretty boy

 

[Country4ever]

He's beautiful! ........definitely worth a little effort!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Awww, what a nice boy!!!

 

[ReikiStar]

Here are my two cents since we just went through this a few months ago with 3 rescued hens. One was totally infested

, one had them around her vent and the other didn't have any but we treated all 3 just the same.

Bathe him in a dog/cat flea shampoo that has PERMETHRINE not Pyrethrins. That's what we were told. We hate using chemicals but once in a while...you just have to. After we bathed them with the shampoo, we dunked them in warm water with organic apple cider vinegar in it. It also helped take out any traces of soap but it's another good parasite getter-offer.

We followed up every couple of days by spraying Manna Pro's Poultry Protector to get any eggs that might think of hatching the 7-10 days following. They've been lice free since.

Also, when a bird gets infested, its usually because their immune system is low (the one hen that was infested turned out to have Mareks and we had the vet put her down). Make sure your special boy is getting probiotics to strengthen his gut flora and give him vitamins/electrolytes while you're going through the clean up phase. He's stressed right now with all those buggers feeding off of him.

Have fun!!

V!

 

[bantyshanty]

I just came upon this & thought I'd put in my one cent (maybe it's not worth two?), but it worked for our human family & is cheap & non-toxic.

If you don't want to try the dog/cat permethrine flea shampoo (because bird lungs are sooo sensitive) and feel like having a good laugh as well

, what worked for my daughter and myself was one treatment with a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise. We both had some bad cooties picked up during camping. We somothered our heads with a jar each, put plastic wrapped over our entire scalps, and sat, for about 3 hours. It suffocated the buggers, we washed it out twice, and they haven't been back since. The vinegar in the mayo also loosens the nits (eggs) grom the hair shafts and makes them wash out mire easily. Will this work on a bird? IDK. You might want to check for others having success with the oil method, and of course you'd have to put plastic wrap over most of the pretty guy for a few hours & isolate him in a cage somewhere.

Might be foolish, or might be worth a try. Good luck! Don't give up on such a sweet fellow

 

[mrszlopez]

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thank you so much for this ! Im going to do exactly what you recommended. I have no choice but to wait for this weekend because im moving him into a new coop/run which wont be done until around sunday. he truly is worth the effort but part of me still feels like im doing him an injustice by putting him thru ALLLL of this stuff. DH thinks i should cull him, im thinking of trying all the measures first. I really appreciate all of the suggestions that everyone has offered !!!