Yes chickens can have fleas

Lolacan

Chirping
Jan 1, 2018
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Stick tight fleas. I was unaware for quite a while that I had them on my flock since I've never seen one before. But one of my Polish hens got listless and thin when she used to be active and good weight. I did a thorough hands on and her face was covered with these blood sucking fleas. Then I started to notice a few of my birds seem to get dirty poofs-turned out to be caked with these fleas. They are hard to get rid of and can be carried by You , get on your dog, etc. I also noticed that they shook their heads a lot. The fleas seem to like light colored chickens more. I just can't believe how fast this problem grew undetected.

I wanted to post these pics because I find so many people are unfamiliar with them. These are my pics. They do look bad, but the chickens are clearing up. Notice on a few I had to cut their head feathers to treat them for the fleas. They actually are small enough to pass for pieces of dirt. So far I've treated with Frontline, Poultry dust, permethrine spray, Ivomec drops. Next I have Malathion to spray when I get a warm day. I also need to wash heads on a warm day because the Vaseline put on the facial fleas has made everyone get dirty hair.

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They are improving. No more clumps. Very few fleas. But between the Vaseline on their faces and dirt, I have a bunch of shampoos to do this week as it will be warm
 
They are improving. No more clumps. Very few fleas. But between the Vaseline on their faces and dirt, I have a bunch of shampoos to do this week as it will be warm

Are the fleas dying and falling off with the vaseline or are you having to pluck them off. Some people say that you still have to pick them off with tweezers even if they are dead, hence "sticktight".
 
We've had this problem recently, they kept coming back every time we treated, even now there's a few hanging around. In the end we got some D.E. and for the combs and wattles coconut oil, coconut oil kills fleas! It contains lactic acid which break down the fleas body, fleas have a built in instinct to stay away from lactic acid so it works a a repellent repellent too
 

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