Help! I bought a Silkie at a Poultry Show today and she's infested with some type of pest and also

[Silkie75]

I'm pretty new to the chicken world and in June 2012 I purchased seven 2 day old Silkie chicks (I was hoping for pullets but ended up with 5 cockerels and 2 pullets instead.. lol). I've already sold 3 of my cockerels and today, I took my remaining 4 to our very first Poultry Show. I know they are only 4.5 months old, but it was close by (NYS Fairgrounds) and I also wanted to see if anyone was selling any Silkie pullets/hens to add to our current flock. HERE'S THE PROBLEM: So today at the show we found 2 blue Silkie pullets and bought them. I was prepared to quarantine them and was/am going to do this for about 3 weeks to 1 month- away from my current Silkies (someone told me that would be the safest amount of time.) I figured I'd bathe them first- and put them in their new quarantine cage. Note: these 2 were not from the same breeder... I bathed the first one (#1) tonight, and all went well, she was so good and so cute! I bathed the second one (#2) and all of the sudden, around her beard, I noticed these white clumpy/egg looking things attached to the base of her feathers. I KNEW this wasn't normal, as I just bathed my 4 Silkies the night before for the show today. I took pictures and I will upload them here. When I was blow-drying her, I also noticed these little red flea/tick/mite guys on the towel (dead) and I saw a few on her that were alive. UGHHHH. So now both of the "new" Silkies are quarantined SEPARATELY out in my garage. I re-checked #1 and I saw one little red pest on her. I think #2 gave it to her on the transport home as they were in the same cage (I was going to quarantine them together.) I sprinkled DE on them and on their pine shavings. (Both of these Silkies are about 4-5 months old). From reading tonight, I "think" these are mites and what is all around #2's beard are mite eggs (they are on her feathers very tightly.) A website I was reading said the eggs can form at the base of the feathers around the beard. YUP! I am so disgusted and upset that a show wouldn't check birds- or is it not a normal thing for shows to do? (This was my 1st ever chicken show and I'm pretty new to Silkies in general). Although, you couldn't see the eggs until she was wet. Now I'm concerned about my original 4 Silkies who I've raised since 2 days old and are perfectly healthy. Right now those 4 are on the exact opposite side of the house in their coop- but they were at the show and in the car on the ride home- but in a separate cage.) I'm SOOOO glad I decided to give #1 and #2 baths today- otherwise I would've put them together in quarantine. Tractor Supply was closed by the time I found these eggs and mites (or what I think are mites). So now I don't know what to do about the 2 in my garage. I think #1 will be fine (as soon as I find out exactly what these are, and how to treat her.) On the other hand, #2 seems completely infested with these pests AND eggs! ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY GREATLY APPRECIATED! (BTW, I think this was my first and last Poultry show.)

 

[leadwolf1]

DE is not going to get rid of those pests...here are 3 different things that you can use.

1. Adams flea and tick spray.
2. Sevin 5% powder
or,
3. Ivermectin pour on

You will need to treat everything. Pour out all bedding..spray or coat the pen...allow to dry if using spray. Replace bedding. Spray that and mix around. Spray or powder the whole bird before putting back into fresh bedding.

 

[puglady]

Wow, that really stinks, I'm sorry that your going through this. If it were me I would follow up with those running the show. You might not even need the breeders show number if it was a small show and there were a limited number of blue ones showing. Sometimes breeders sell outside of the arena area out of the back of their cars/trucks etc. Around here there's a fee involved in this and those running the show will still know who the seller was. Although silkies and some other crested breeds are susceptible to these, IMO, the breeder should have a responsibility to take care of them well ahead of time (they take at least 2 treatments) or to pull out of the show. If they are known to bring infested birds hopefully they will not be allowed to sell again or perhaps the staff will need to diligently check all of that sellers stock prior to selling at the next event.

 

[Silkie75]

Thanks leadwolf1 and puglady...

leadwolf1- Not sure if I wrote in my post, but at the time I discovered this tonight, Tractor Supply (where I thought I would find the best treatment stuff) was long closed. The only thing I have at the house is DE (pet grade), so I figured I'd try it. Out of your 3 options, do you think one is best? I'm going to Tractor Supply tomorrow (it's either that or CountryMax around here). Thanks so much for your response and advice!!

puglady- I actually know exactly who sold her to me. Here's the thing, like I said, this was my first Poultry Show (and might be my last). This person WAS showing birds, but there was also a row where it was only sale birds- where he also had a bunch for sale. I'm finding that this is a very tight knit community and me being a newbie, I certainly don't want to cause an uproar. I hope you understand where I'm coming from. The bird was only $10. I don't really want to spend tons of money on her trying to get rid of the eggs and pests PLUS jeopardize my own flock- which I already may have. I also have dogs, but I read that if these are in fact mites, they can't live on a dog. I have a cat too, but haven't seen anything about that yet. This was a large fairgrounds poultry building. The person who sold her to me showed us feathers on her and said she used to have mites but doesn't now and we should see this by the new feathers that were growing in. I don't "think" he knew... but maybe I am being naive. I think I'm going to stick to raising my own from now on.

 

[puglady]

I actually do know where you're coming from and sell pullets at local TSC swaps myself. I'm getting more and more into heritage/rare breeds and hope to show birds in the next few years. I too was at a small show in NH yesterday, its very funny how small of a community it is. I have a very tough time believing that they didn't know. If no one lets the show people know whats going on with the "infected" stock I've got a feeling that its just going to continue. Its no fun being a "tattle-tale" however if the last person had done so perhaps you would not be in the situation that you are now. I suppose at least they were semi-honest and told you that the birds had been infested in the past.
I have had one bird with lice/mites, she is a crossbeak we named "Sweetness". Crossbeaks arn't able to goom themselves very well and are susceptable to lice/mites. Several months ago we got a large group from a farmer that was not very forthcoming and had put her in with the group of birds we were picking up. We only noticed the crossbeak when we had her back at our small back yard farm. Thank goodness they were in iso. We picked off all of the feather shafts from her showing the eggs. The other birds showed no signs but had been in the same pen with her at the farmers. We treated ALL of them with sevin dust (off label), took the bedding out, treated their iso area, sprinkled DE in their iso area and put fresh bedding back. We repeated the process in 7 days. The other birds showed no signs at all at the beginning or the end of the process but we chose to err on the safe side. Sweetness now gets seven dust as part of her weekly special care routine even though I have never seen them again. I can recommend the sevin dust to you but haven't used the others and am unable to comment on their effectiveess.

 

[Lescas5795]

Can you put the sevin directly on the chicken or only in bedding?

 

[puglady]

I've done both. Be very careful not to get it in their eyes etc.

 

[lilchick]

Be sure and pull or cut the egg incrusted feathers off her.

I use sevin dust and it works quickly and have not had any problems at all using it.

I keep sevin in an old salt shaker and "season" them on butt, under each wing and along back and tail area.

Occasionally pick the chickens up and spot check just above vent area where the bugs tend to congregate.

 

[leadwolf1]

For the sevin, I think it works best and you get the best coverage if you put the sevin in an old pillow case. Leaving the bird's head out, put them into the pillow case. Pretty much shake, gently, until the entire bird is covered.

If there are enough creepy crawlies to easily see, she needs more then just a powder puff dusting. I would repeat in 10 days.

IMO the Ivermectin pour on is the best for quickly getting rid of pests. The Adam's flea and tick works well, also but the smell is pretty intense. The cheapest, by far, is the Sevin dust. People have had good luck with it...myself, not so much.

 

[Silkie75]

OK- I'm definitely going to try the Sevin Dust and the pillow case. Can/should I do Ivermectin AND the Sevin Dust? I'm going to Tractor Supply shortly. And I'm going to either pull or cut the egg infected feathers- ugh... I've never done this before... what would be best? Will it hurt her to pull them? (BTW, I'm sure she's in more pain being infected, it just hurts me to hurt them.) Anyone know if these look like mite eggs or lice eggs? For some reason I can't upload the picture of the actual pests (common problem with backyardchickens.com for me). They are an orangish color and you can see the little body of blood in them. The pic of her head is already stored here, so here it is again for anyone new. Thanks!! (Also, this might be a stupid question, but, after bathing her yesterday, and bathing my 4 Silkies the night before, and comparing pics... her eyes look droopy around the front of the eyeball. Like the skin is not tight to the eye. Is that a symptom of something? I might just be over-analyzing.