Let me just say this beforehand. I am so sick of these stupid bloodsucking parasites! They are a pain to get rid of and they never seem to actually go away!
In July, I had my first outbreak of lice in my Silkie pen. I've never had to deal with these cretins before, probably because Central Texas was going through a drought for the first few years I've owned them, and last year was the first year we started recovering. This year, our rain levels have gone back to almost normal. In that first outbreak, all of my chickens got lice, but all the adults did just fine. All my chicks died though, and two out of my batch of eight 5 months old died. It wasn't a severe infestation. No real symptoms or anything. I didn't find out about the lice until one of the five months old dropped dead. There were eggs on the shafts of their neck feathers, and lice all on them, but NOTHING like a bad infestation. Anyways, I dealt with it, and the others recovered.
Now I have a second outbreak with my Silkies. I noticed after one of the remaining batch of now seven month old silkies became lethargic. I was sure she was going to pull through, because she ate a whole lot of food last night and was still kinda active, but by this morning she was beyond help. I immediately treated all my Silkies with Permethrin 10, but I'm not at all impressed with it, despite everybody saying it works great. I was also battling lice on my goat since July up until last month and that crap didn't do one bit of good getting rid of them. I treated them several times with it, but the same thing would always happen: A lot would die, but a lot would also live. I eventually had to very thoroughly wash them in Dawn dish soap, which took care of 90% of the lice, and then use the Permethrin 10 a few days later to kill the remaining ones. During my first outbreak in my chickens, I had to use a powder pesticide, which I can't remember the name of other than it started with "V", because I had to have the Permethrin 10 shipped to me. That powder stuff worked x10 better than this crappy Permethrin 10. I used it on my Silkies and the very next day, all the bugs were dead. No side effects on the chickens either, even though I'm sure some got in their eyes and lungs. Meanwhile, I drenched and rubbed the very sick hen with the Permethrin 10, as well as everybody else, and this morning there were some dead, but still a lot on her running around and actively feeding.
My question is, why are these stupid pests KILLING my older chickens, when everywhere I look online, it says lice only really kill very young chicks? My older Silkies also have 24/7 access to dirt bathing, however the very young Silkies in wire cages seem to do better with keeping lice away! Also, am I doing something wrong with the Permethrin? I followed the dilution directions very carefully, but considering how everybody says Permethrin is the way to go, yet it does next to nothing for my birds, I'm concerned I did something wrong.
I also just recently had a batch of seven chicks hatch in the same area as the Silkies are in. If these guys die, I'm going to seriously consider not breeding anymore. I'm beyond sick of tossing out dead bodies and dealing with idiotic people who can't seem to read a craigslist ad...
In July, I had my first outbreak of lice in my Silkie pen. I've never had to deal with these cretins before, probably because Central Texas was going through a drought for the first few years I've owned them, and last year was the first year we started recovering. This year, our rain levels have gone back to almost normal. In that first outbreak, all of my chickens got lice, but all the adults did just fine. All my chicks died though, and two out of my batch of eight 5 months old died. It wasn't a severe infestation. No real symptoms or anything. I didn't find out about the lice until one of the five months old dropped dead. There were eggs on the shafts of their neck feathers, and lice all on them, but NOTHING like a bad infestation. Anyways, I dealt with it, and the others recovered.
Now I have a second outbreak with my Silkies. I noticed after one of the remaining batch of now seven month old silkies became lethargic. I was sure she was going to pull through, because she ate a whole lot of food last night and was still kinda active, but by this morning she was beyond help. I immediately treated all my Silkies with Permethrin 10, but I'm not at all impressed with it, despite everybody saying it works great. I was also battling lice on my goat since July up until last month and that crap didn't do one bit of good getting rid of them. I treated them several times with it, but the same thing would always happen: A lot would die, but a lot would also live. I eventually had to very thoroughly wash them in Dawn dish soap, which took care of 90% of the lice, and then use the Permethrin 10 a few days later to kill the remaining ones. During my first outbreak in my chickens, I had to use a powder pesticide, which I can't remember the name of other than it started with "V", because I had to have the Permethrin 10 shipped to me. That powder stuff worked x10 better than this crappy Permethrin 10. I used it on my Silkies and the very next day, all the bugs were dead. No side effects on the chickens either, even though I'm sure some got in their eyes and lungs. Meanwhile, I drenched and rubbed the very sick hen with the Permethrin 10, as well as everybody else, and this morning there were some dead, but still a lot on her running around and actively feeding.
My question is, why are these stupid pests KILLING my older chickens, when everywhere I look online, it says lice only really kill very young chicks? My older Silkies also have 24/7 access to dirt bathing, however the very young Silkies in wire cages seem to do better with keeping lice away! Also, am I doing something wrong with the Permethrin? I followed the dilution directions very carefully, but considering how everybody says Permethrin is the way to go, yet it does next to nothing for my birds, I'm concerned I did something wrong.
I also just recently had a batch of seven chicks hatch in the same area as the Silkies are in. If these guys die, I'm going to seriously consider not breeding anymore. I'm beyond sick of tossing out dead bodies and dealing with idiotic people who can't seem to read a craigslist ad...
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