Tics on my Chicks

[casportpony]

Do an on site search on 'stick tight fleas'. I believe they can be removed by applying permethrin or ivermectin directly to them using a Q tip. Seems as if it should even work on ticks.

I too enjoy your artistic creations.

I treated some successfully with permethrin applied with a qtip as you suggested. I also tried oral ivermectin, but that had zero effect. Maybe next time I'll try applying ivermectin directly on them and see if that works.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

First of all, I was wrong about one thing: I am NOT vaccinated against Lyme disease. Such a vaccine doesn't exist in Sweden either. I am vaccinated against TBE (tick-borne encephalitis). I mixed them up. Sorry!

u seem to care for ur chickens alot!! Great chicken mama...they are lucky to have u

They are the joy of my life!

I enlarged your picture and I am pretty sure they are stick tight fleas.
View attachment 1387153

Okay, if you say so! I will try to look at them more closely next time and see if they look like tics or fleas. I googled those fleas and saw a closeup of one of them.

I was raised to believe chickens ate ticks and other bugs. My grandfather even got more chickens that free ranged in the yard if the ticks got really bad. Is this a myth?

It's not a myth, it's been scientifically proven that they eat tics, but some of the tics end up on the chickens, and not in them...

Why don’t you catch the hen and her six chicks and isolate them in a small chicken coop so that the chicks can grow without being a host to parasites? The chicks will be kept out of the tall grass and hopefully that will get rid of the tics.

I'm a firm believer in free ranging, for the physical and mental health and development of the chickens. I think that overall, it's better for the chicks to walk, hop and crawl over and scratch in lots of different types terrain, to eat many kinds of plants and bugs, to learn to recognize many different sights and sounds and discover which are dangerous and which aren't, and generally get lots of mental and bodily stimulation and have lots of fun, than to be cooped up between four walls with a flat substrate-covered floor to live on. So I think the pros outweigh the cons.

Besides, we don't really have an extra coop right now. We have something akin to a bunny-cage with an open floor, but that would still expose them to short grass...

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Small update.

The oil method didn't work. The tics were still there hours later. So pulling them off it is.

And yes, the bugs indeed seem to be tics. I took a long, hard look at them, and even the tiniest ones have the trademark minuscule black front body with lots of legs and huge flat rear body. There was perhaps one or two who were competitors for liceyness, but other than those, they were tics.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Small update.

The oil method didn't work. The tics were still there hours later. So pulling them off it is.

And yes, the bugs indeed seem to be tics. I took a long, hard look at them, and even the tiniest ones have the trademark minuscule black front body with lots of legs and huge flat rear body. There was perhaps one or two who were competitors for liceyness, but other than those, they were tics.

@Henrik Petersson, Thank you for starting this thread, it has been very educational. Welcome from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

 

[casportpony]

This source is usually pretty reliable:

• Ticks - http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2551&Itemid=2830
• Fleas - http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2396&Itemid=2656

Added:
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/ectoparasites/fowl-ticks

 

[Henrik Petersson]

Small update again.

I've been away from the chicks for a few days, and when I got back, I noticed, to my surprise, that they had less tics/bugs than they had before.

Today I noticed the reason why: The chicks occasionally peck at each other's faces. I take it to mean that they eat bugs off one another.

 

[Peppercorngal]

Small update again.

I've been away from the chicks for a few days, and when I got back, I noticed, to my surprise, that they had less tics/bugs than they had before.

Today I noticed the reason why: The chicks occasionally peck at each other's faces. I take it to mean that they eat bugs off one another.

Yay! Now there's some good news!

 

[aart]

Cartoon made me LOL.
Great thread with all it's contributions and updates.

 

[LittleWillowFarm]

Use a tick spoon to help get off the tick easily. You can find them for cheap on amazon.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

And now, I've seen a chick peck at the comb base of another. They probably remove all those nasty buggers.

AND today I saw them dust bathing for the first time! They'll probably survive this summer's parasites.