[Lardman]

The last couple of mornings there has been a large pile of feathers in the coop, it looks like my blackrock is pulling her own feathers out at night. Shes getting rather bald around her vent and around the leg area.

I have diatoms in their dust bath, nest box, perch and sprinkled in the coop. I haven't given the coop a "deep" scrub clean for a while but its emptied daily, and given a quick spray with poultry shield.

Shes too flighty for me to hold and check for lice and I don't think Id manage to dust/spray her daily either - Im persona no grata since I confined them to the run.

Is there anything else I can do - should I pick up some frontline spot on ?

[AJB123644]

To deal with lice I bought some louse powder from a farm shop.  I havent luckily had any lice but the stuff I bought you basically sprinkle a light dusting round the house, leave for a few hours and then hoover up any excess dust.  That should prevent any serious cases of lice you might get.

[lisa80]

hubby often dusts under  girls wings with diatom  i know what you mean about handling them some girls just done like it ,but if its lice its got to be done really chances are if it is your other girls will have them too :(i have read on here that people use various treatments if you do a search on the topic you will get some useful info :)you could wait until shes pirching at night to treat her might not make as much fuss if shes half asleep

[Brian Green fingers]

I find it's easier if you hold them by the feet and flip them upside down and dust the powder on them. The feathers open up enabling the powder to get right in. They don't seem botherd by it.

[joyfull]

if you get an old pillow case and put some louse powder or whatever is your chosen powder inside it then get your bird (if they don't like being handled then either last thing at night or early morning whilst they are sleepy) and place her in the pillow with her head sticking out. then gently massage in the powder so that she gets a good covering. Either that or treat with something like frontline which as it hasn't been tested on poultry you can get from a vet who will advise the correct dosage (they will make you sign a declaration as this is untested). Treat all your birds and do a deep clean as well this way you remove any from the bedding  

[Lardman]

Does it seem like lice then? Id rather not treat them unless its needed.

Frontline spot on does seem like the best idea, I still have no idea how / where they've come from though...

Treat all your birds and do a deep clean as well this way you remove any from the bedding 

The bedding is changed daily, Its just a scatter of hemcore. During the better weather I was breaking down the coop and scrubing out with a soaking of poultry shield weekly. I was a bit worried about getting everything wet in the current conditions.

[joyfull]

My vet gave or rather sold me the frontline spray but I think most on here use the drops. Whilst the weather is like this when I clean mine out I use stalosan F which is a great powdered disinfectant and I rub this into all the nook and crannies, next I put hemcore down and then diatom. Before treating her I would get hold of her and check closely to see if she has lice attached to the feathers down near the base, how old is she - she could be moulting in which case she will be fine 

[Lardman]

I've had her 18 months now and she was POL then. I thought she'd moulted the last time we had snow.

Getting hold of her in the light isn't easy - sometimes I do think its about time we evolved and grew another pair of hands .. 1 pair just isnt enough to hold a struggling chicken and check it over.

[karlooben]

i have used the frontline drops and they worked well but next time i will be using the spray it will last a lot longer  .

lardman the wildbirds are probably to blame for giving your girls lice i am blaming them for giving my girls worms 

[Lardman]

i have used the frontline drops and they worked well but next time i will be using the spray it will last a lot longer  .

lardman the wildbirds are probably to blame for giving your girls lice i am blaming them for giving my girls worms 

Don't you have to spray multiple times though?

I had no problems for 12 months with the girls down here on the patio, after I moved them off up the garden in a run they're been nothing but agro - worms, sneezes, sleeping in the nest box, laying eggs in the middle of the coop, and now possibly lice... 

If I didn't know better I say they missed me 

[karlooben]

am not sure lardman as i havent used it yet , i have been told that u need to do 2 little sprays on the back of the neck per bird . i used 3 pipettes of the drops on 20 birds an that wasnt really enough .

[Rubellite]

I'd make a real effort to check her for lice, I didn't think they were such a problem in the cold weather. If you can't find signs of lice and she's just moulting, to drench her with chemicals wouldn't be the best idea as her immune system would be stretched to the limit anyway. Carry on with the diatom rather than the chemical lice powder.

[Lardman]

I grabbed hold of her the other night and couldn't see anything.

I've left her a couple of days and I think I can see new feathers coming in. Shes perky but I've not had an egg from her for a while.

[Roughlee Handled]

Sounds like she is moulting.