Worms and Lice

[Chickengirl47]

I have checked most of our chickens vents lately, and a few of them I saw had little straw colored Lice, or Mites. What can I do about Lice/Mites? One of our chickens with the lice has been acting sickly.

Also, our little Ameracana pullets like to sleep in the nesting boxes in my coop (they started sleeping in the nesting boxes with their momma at a very young age), and one morning I saw that their poop had Worms in it!!!!!!! How can I get rid of worms??


Thanks,

 

[cafarmgirl]

Definitely need to treat them for both as lice/mites and worms can kill them. You can dust the birds with Sevin dust or get some Poultry Dust from Tractor Supply or feed store. You will need to strip and treat the coop as well. I prefer the Sevin spray for the coop, to me it's easier to get the spray in all the places the bugs like to hide but you can use dust there as well. You will have to keep retreating the coop and the birds every 7 to 10 days so that you kill the eggs that hatch . Otherwise you will not get rid of them. It can be difficult to get rid of a mite infestation unless you keep at it.

There are several dewormers that you can use on chickens but Valbazen and Safeguard are, in my opinion, two of the best. I use the liquid Safeguard for goats as I find it easy to administer. Standard size birds get .5 cc, bantams get .25, repeat in 10 days. You need to discard eggs until 10 days after the last dose. You might want to consider deworming on a regular basis, maybe twice a year depending on your climate, in order to prevent heavy worm overloads in your birds.

 

[casportpony]

Poultry dust or 5% Sevin powder for mites and lice. Dust poultry and their coops.

For worms I use fenbendazole 10% (Safeguard or Panacur, liquid or paste, doesn't matter, the dose is the same) 50mg/kg by mouth and repeat in ten days - This is the amount my avian vet recommended.
1cc = 1ml
50mg/kg = .5ml per 2.2 pounds
1ml of liquid has 100mg
1ml of paste has 100mg

Ignore the dosing instructions on the bottles, they're for horses, cattle and goats, chickens get more mg/kg, trust me, lol.












-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Yes, Valbazen (albendazole) is a good wormer and it's most effective when given at 20mg/kg, which is ~.2ml per 2.2 pounds. Those that know me know that I'm really anal about weighing and dosing according to weight, so that's what I always suggest.

-Kathy

 

[Chickengirl47]

Is there a more natural way to get rid of lice/mites and worms? Will Diatemaceous earth help?

 

[casportpony]

Is there a more natural way to get rid of lice/mites and worms? Will Diatemaceous earth help?

No. What do you use to worm your cow?

-Kathy

 

[Chickengirl47]

We worm our cows with something called Molly's herbal wormer.

 

[casportpony]

Maybe try that.

-Kathy

 

[Chickengirl47]

Do I put it on the floor of the coop or on my chickens?

 

[casportpony]

What? The herbal wormer? How do you give it to your cows?

-Kathy