[northfifeduckling]

I am having trouble treating our boy's bottom lice, his skin looks very raw and it just does not get any better, despite regular powdering. As hard as I look every night I can find no evidence of mites. Is there something like spot on which does the job just fine for the cat which is designed for birds? I am a bit frustrated, before I had chooks, only ducks, parasites were never an issue! These birds are real beastie magnets!

[BlueDaisy]

erm, try googling xeno 450 - it does small furries and birds - not sure if it's good for chooks though.
And some chicken forum people say to use frontline spray, but I'm not sure what sort of dose or withdrawal period would be recommended for either one.

[shetlandpaul]

use sheep or dog spot on at 0.2-0.4 depending on the size of the chicken. remove as many egg clusters as posible make sure the spot on gets to the skin at the back of the neck. cream his bum with a southing cream baby stuff should be fine or spray with anti septic if it looks infected. treat again 2-4 weeks later. you will need to treat them all as he will have passed them on. lots of birds have them just some seem to get them worse.

[TheCaptain]

We 'spot-on'd my lot yesterday as they've had a massive issue with red-mite, Scats have a special offer on at the moment.  We used the feline version, all chickens still alive today which is a result.  We've withdrawn eggs from 'sale' for a couple of weeks just to be on the safe side.  The wife did an online search for some kind of oil/powder that a local cattery uses to keep the tick/lice/mite population down.  Name escapes me but seems like a good option to keep on top of it once you've Spot-on'd them.

Will post the name later once I've been in touch with Mrs Captain.

[Elissian]

I use cat frontline, just a drop on the back of the neck to treat lice, though i rarely seem to get them. But this summer i've had dreadful problems with red mites, i normally use ppoultry shield to great effect but this year it's been useless. i think its because it works when the house is soaked for a few hours whereas this year the stuff was drying within 10 mins of being sprayed on. I've now discovered a wonderful product called diatom powder it works by dehydrating the insect and destroying its shell and they can't build up a resistance to it unlike chemicals. It works on all insects so would kill lice too and its safe for the chickens to eat as well. google it, i can't recommend it highly enough and believe me the mites nearly drove me to consider giving up the chickens.

[northfifeduckling]

Elissian, what do you do about eggs - do you eat/sell them after spot-on? I'll check today for diatom at the merchants, it has been mentioned before!

[shetlandpaul]

no you cant. it a two week gap.

[northfifeduckling]

might just use it on the cockerel, he's suffering the most. I've been dusting all the birds (not the ducks, though, can't catch them), that's safe as it says on the box?

[Elissian]

As Paul says leave the eggs for 2 weeks with spot on. As for the diatom it works really well but it has to be continuously replaced in the house each time you muck out. Having had the dreaded red mite i'm more than happy to fork out for the powder, I don't want them back they're a nightmare and the powder keeps all the other bugs away so no lice killer needer either