Ill Chicken..Help Wanted!!! FINAL UPDATE :(

My RIR's have a form of louse, they live on the chickens so can not be red mites, i've been dusting them off with louse powder and it seems to be making a small improvement but i have some Daitom ordered (DE) and will be using that.

This post is not about my first question but i would like an answer, they are young girls, one has just started laying, then suddenly she has stopped, can this be due to the louse?

So they are all infected with the louse, one of them it appears more so, she is naturally small and the youngest, good news is she is walking around and eating, bad news, her feathers seem 'rough' and her behind is yuky... the feathers are normally fluffy there like in the other chickens but they are stuck together and looking very very dirty. I have also noticed under her wing it is very dirty and again the feathers are stuck together in a dirty way. She is walking about but some times plonks herself down and seems to be crying out, maybe in pain or for help. Someone has suggested worms, do these seem like the symptoms?

All advice, what to do etc, is welcome, please, i need to help her.


This is her. (her wing is clipped) (the white tint is louse powder)


Her behind.


Her with another girl. You can see she is young and small.


Attempt at photo of her behind with another girl.

Get some Ivomec...this will take care of the lice and any mites or worms they may have (other than tapeworms). If the infestation is as bad as you say then it can definitely cause a drop in egg production and sickness from all the stress. Good luck.

Just went out to check on her and sifted through the feathers, it is very bad and she is very weak, please someone

IVOMEC!!! The best thing you can do for her is to get rid of them! Supportive care isn't going to do any good if she's still covered in them. You can't make her better until you get rid of the problem.

You can try bathing her in Ivory dish soap. I know that it will kill fleas, but I'm not sure about mites. It's worth a shot if you're not going to get the Ivomec.

Get some 5% Sevin or permethrin/pyrethrin dust on those birds or you will lose them.

DE does help control populations but is not enough for a bad infestation. Ivomec is very effective against the ones that bite but not the ones that live on the feather shaft.

Ivory would be an interesting experiment, but your birds are in real trouble and need definitive therapy today.

You must repeat the treatment in 14 days to kill hatching eggs. And you must treat the entire coop.

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/mf2387.pdf

i grab the ivomec too, kills internal and EXTERNAL parasites, almost over night, in places you cannot get the dust on. go to vet , get a small bottle, cost 5 bucks maybe, get a 1cc syringe divided into 1/10th cc and i dose with the needle on, goes right between the beaks with a little prying with your fingers. we worm everything twice a year, or if looking a little off.

They are all on layers mash but are there any treats (fruits etc) i can give them for addition vitamins and minerals? She is eating and moving so there is still hope!

Definitely give them a booster food of the following:

1 cup of crumbles or their pellets broken into crumbles in the blender
1 mashed boiled egg yolk
3 tablespoons of yogurt
some water til moist - or - unsweetened applesauce or applesauce baby food til barely moist
You can add honey or karo or gatorade if you'd like.

Give that to them to boost their nutrition about once a day, preferably first thing in the morning. It'll build their blood back up. They're all going to be varying degrees of anemic. On the other thread I had mentioned how quickly parasites can take a bird down and kill it. That's how they do it.

Also it would help tremendously if you put organice apple cider vinegar (OACV) in their water at a rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. The reason for organic isn't the philosophy, but because it's made by bacteria rather than chemically. The result is that it contains still living beneficial bacteria which will help the birds to produce vitamins, including B, which is helpful for their energy. The living bacteria also will dissolve any undigested foods which m ight slow the crop. (Common during any stress.) The OACV also acts as a safe electrolyte without worries of salt overdose. They'll need that as the heat will effect them more strongly.

On the mash, here's my reasoning:

crumbles: because it's a balanced food, easily dissolved.
Egg: absolutely PACKED with blood building nutrition without risk of vitamin/mineral overdose. Also easily dissolved.
Yogurt: a good source of protein as well as living bacteria to rebuild the gut population so that the bird produces more vitamins for itself without risk of overdose. This will also help ward against secondary bacterial gut problems d.t. stress.
Applesauce: birds like it. The applesauce easily dissolves (unlike grated or whole apples) but the pectin is still intact. Th epectin will cleanse the gut of any undigested food resulting from stress, correct the pH of the gut so that it's more friendly for good bacteria and unfriendly for bad. And what chicken can resist it?

thanks a lot, I really appriciate it! Will be done first thing tomorrow morning! Wish me luck with them!