Chickens and Lice

[savingdogs]

Sooooooooooo I sold some chickens and the buyer informed me my chickens had lice. She wasn't upset (she still got an excellent deal) but I had been dealing with some feather loss in my chickens for awhile so was glad to see a culprit. I have thought they molted a long time and certain ones would have rooster wear that would never seem to improve, but I never observed any bugs. However the worst feather loss is on the most skittish ones so it is a little hard to check out very well.

The buyer suggested (and people on here concurred) with using DE and cleaning the coop and repeating two weeks later, and dusting the birds with DE. Well the coop cleanings have gone well, but the dustings were more effective on the least skittish birds who, as I said, don't have as much problem. One has pretty severe feather loss so I made sure I got her extremely well.

I see no change at all.

The person I bought the chickens from suggested that if the DE and coop cleaning did not work, that I should move on to using "Sevin". So I sent Hubby to the feed store and told him to "read some labels."

Well he was in a hurry and came home with this stuff marked SEVIN but holy cow, I wanted to wash my hands after just reading the bag. Surely I don't want to use this nasty stuff on the birds, is this for dusting a coop? It seems so toxic, I cannot imagine putting it where eggs will be layed or near my animals whose products and bodies I might consume.

I'm tempted to take this Sevin back.

But I don't want lice. I still have never actually SEEN any lice but again, the chickens I can pick up and pet and handle don't have the problem. But I was told they will all have lice if one does. I was told to observe the vents (where there is actually feather loss on most) and I frankly don't see any thing there, just no feathers.

Any thoughts on the self sufficient way of dealing with this? I don't want to buy harsh products or worry about pesticide in the eggs or where the animals will soon be free ranging. It seems like feather loss is a better thing to have than all this poison.

If I MUST use something like this, how long is this in the soil and what not? I shudder to think. I would post this at BYC but wanted the Self Sufficient take on what to do....not....Sevin.....unless there is a truly important reason I should subject my home, lawn and coop to this.

 

[savingdogs]

I should also mention that the coop, while easy to clean, does have lots of uncleansable crevices and such that I dusted heavily with DE but have my doubts about how really clean it is. The design of my coop was made more for cheapness than cleansability unfortunately. It is too small to get inside but is long and low and holds a lot of birds, but is hard to reach into the far corners.

 

[sunsaver]

I was using a deep litter of shredded leaves and straw for the coop floor, and under that was a bed of sand and DE mixed. They often could be seen taking dust baths, and i never had any problems. I would try the seven dust, but dont leave it on the coop floor where they might ingest it. You could dust them with a salt shaker ( HOLD YOUR BREATH OR WEAR A MASK) then treat the coop, wait until late in the day, then clean the coop out and put fresh litter and DE.

 

[gettinaclue]

I was speaking to a lady yesterday and she said that she uses the over the counter flea and tick stuff you get at the pet store. One drop on the back of the neck for small birds, 2 drops for large birds.

I have never heard of this, and have not researched it. She said she had great success with it when she had a problem about 4 months ago or so.

 

[sunsaver]

I was wondering if that might work, that or kitty flea powder.

 

[old fashioned]

We dust ours after or near dark when the birds are sleepy(ing) they are much easier to handle then and two of us have to work fast.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I'm dealing with mites right now, and will be using Sevin. I actually wanted to use Eprinex, a cattle dewormer, but I don't want to shell out almost $40 for more dewormer than I really need.

Mites will become a really bad problem if left untreated, so I want to kill them dead the first time! I will clean out the coop and pressure wash it, then spray it with liquid Sevin, then dust all the birds with Sevin as well. Most people say to just wash the eggs (which I have to do anyways if I sell them.). Sevin is actually one of the less harmful stuff out there.

I don't have time to try DE, because I can't be doing an ongoing battle, though I will say I used DE on my goat when she had lice and it worked well.

 

[savingdogs]

This is marked for "lawn"....do we have the right type of Sevin dust then? it says NOT to let it touch the skin of animals.

Maybe he got the wrong concentration/type of Sevin? Katie does yours say that?

I'd call the store and quiz them but in case you guys forgot I can't use the phone.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I'm pretty sure it's the same stuff. 5%? My chicken raising friend told me it's what is commonly used.

I tell ya, these mites can make them anemic, cause feather loss, lower egg production, and even death in serious cases!! I don't want to mess around with them....and the worst part is when I get eggs sometimes they get on my hands!!! I hate them!!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

yeah its sevin - the chemical thing. but there are a lot of folks on BYC that use it just fine.

i'm a little squeamish about it - especially since many of our birds will be retired to the pot. i'm a huge fan of DE. but there are folks who will tell you DE is horrible also. its a huge debate.

but the DE was at our feed store for like $0.33/pound. you read that right. and you could get as much/little as you like. i think they've changed that so i dont know.

i think i also read that you can use wood ashes for their dust baths.

just like anything - there's a natural way and not. Aggie's quick fix could work just fine.

but i have to say - i always giggle when someone says to deep clean their coop. i mean - you can only get a hen house so clean! and my hens are outside most of the day and there's tons of bugs out there. so it always seems funny to me.