The Poultry Keeper

Jillus · Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 3

One of my chickens has looked a bit off for a while, not really eating and has not produced an egg for about a week, when I took a closer look at her today I discovered she was infested with lice. I started right away on dusting her with Red Mite powder as that was all I have to hand but tomorrow intend going to the pet shop to get something more appropriate.

By the time I had finished I had lice crawling on my skin and some in my hair. It was foul ( excuse the pun) anyway I am now clean but what I want to know is, are these the same lice that the kids used to get and can I get them transferred and living on me and does anyone know the best method to eradicate the whole lot. She does seem to have a horrible lot of them as some of her feathers were caked with eggs.

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1356 Location: Leicestershire

Lice are host specific, so the lice on your birds will crawl up your arm and will probably try to bite you but they won't be able to live for long on you, and it works the other way too, so if your children came home with a dose of lice from school they won't be able to pass them on to your chickens.

You can no longer buy louse powder for livestock - well not one that's going to do any good, you can only get deterrents which will be herbal based and some people swear by them, but an infestation as bad as this will need something stronger. Probably the best thing to do will be to buy something for dogs or cats and use that, or for pigeons. The other way to go is to use something for cattle - Eprinex is the best, but if you've no access to a cattle farmer then go for the dog/cat option.

I usually find though that a bird that has a bad lice infestation has other problems health wise too, most birds will have a few lice but they can normally cope with them.

Itsybitsy

lillie02 · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 50 Location: Wales

I used frontline for cats it killed all the lice overnight and my bird was covered in lice.

You can buy it from Pets at Home etc now not just the vets.

Jillus · Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 3

Thanks for the advice, hopefully the lice are all dead now and wont reappear in a hurry. But I intend to do a belt and braces job and powder everyone again next week.

closer2 · Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 21 Location: Tiptree, Essex

I've just discovered the same on one of my ex-batts. We have the herbal powder, but also have Frontline, as we have five cats (to be six tomorrow, we're rescuing an Ocicat). How much Frontline do you need to use please? How many chickens would a normal size cat tube do?

Elly · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 288 Location: Norfolk

We used frontline spray(not spot on) for cats and put 1 squirt under each wing and 1 up the knickers (making sure it went onto the skin). Next day no more lice and have not seen any since.
We have daily visits from a trio of pheasants and think that was the orignal source. Shame we cant treat the pheasants too Laughing

Keep smilin
Elly

slider955i · Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 35 Location: westmidlands

BLUELACED · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Leicestershire

Slider I got mine off ebay but they have clamped down and removed the sale as it is POM, god knows why it's a treatment for fleas! Anyway I can give you the web details if you want. I have looked and they still sell on ebay but they advertise it as just 'flea spray' crafty Laughing

Do you want me to PM you the link as this is very cheap frontline Wink

Elly · Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 288 Location: Norfolk

Got mine from the vets as wanted to do the chooks ASAP. It wasn't cheap but we use it on the cats too.
Keep smilin
Elly

CP · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject:

You can buy the spot-on over the internet without prescription. Wink

Pekinout · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 1032 Location: Cornwall

Molevalley Farmers sell lice powder, the type that kills and not the preventative type. Think it's about £8

jubilee · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 113 Location: nottinghamshire

You can buy the frontline spray over the web, from abroad, and the louse powder with knock down effect, the sort which you used to be able to use on the bird and contains permethrin, is widely available, it says you must not use on the animal, but by the time you've dusted beds and bedding, rugs and dust baths, they are going to get it on them anyway, i still use it on my birds being careful around the eyes, and haven't had a bird drop dead yet! frontline spray is a miricle, it kills everything with legs on your birds, it is expensive, but worth every penny not to have things running about on the chooks! and by the time you've spent a bloody fortune on the repellant natural crap, you might as well bought frontline in the first place!
I'm sorry but to a point i have to disagree with itsybitsy, lice that infest chickens aren't always the biting lice, they are infact quite rare and thankfully mostly found in the USA, the common louse does NOT bite, it lives on dead skin and feather debry, so is best killed by using a non absorbtion treatment. Head lice and biting lice are a totally different speicies. The common louse is the one that most chickens get infested with.