Checking that I’m using ivermectin right for lice

[Magpie2]

I found this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ivermectin-pour-on-dosage.727707/
I thought it was very helpful but I want to make sure I fully understand what I’m doing so I’m starting my own.

I’m treating chickens for lice. I have “Ivermectin Pour-on for Cattle 5mg/mL, USP”
Not sure what USP means but I think I understand the rest.
From what I read in the other thread, the dosage to use if it’s 5mg/mL is 0.05mL (0.045mL) per pound.
As far as I understand, it’s applied in drops at the base of the back of the neck.
Please let me know if this is all correct.

Im wondering though, should I spread the placement of the drops out at all or wait a bit for them to dry and put them in the same spot? If I spread them out, should I stick to the spine and neck?

I also read that it should be reapplied once every three weeks. Is that how long it stays effective for or is that just if you’re worried about the birds being re-exposed? How many times should I apply it and how frequently if I’m not worried about them picking up new parasites and plan to stop as soon as the lice is dealt with?

Thanks!

 

[Sally PB]

Here's a link to what I know about it:
the-chicken-chick.com/control-treatment-of-worms-in-chickens/#:~:text=Ivermectin%20pour-on%2C%20applied%20to,the%20supervision%20of%20a%20veterinarian.
The thread is about treating worms. Ivermectin can treat both internal and external parasites.

PAY ATTENTION to dosing!

Here is some more information.
https://bitchinchickens.com/2019/04/29/ivermectin-for-parasite-control/

We had some discussion about this very subject on this thread here on BYC.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...of-our-flock.1286630/page-20153#post-28004786

 

[Sylver Queen]

Jumping in on this one in case anyone can help. I read a the article above that says to stick to one to two drops ivermectin pour on 5 mg/mL concentration for chickens, but mine are still crawling with lice several days later. Should I up the dosage?

Also want to use it on my baby turkey for internal parasites. Anyone know if that will work? Dosage? Thanks for any info!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Jumping in on this one in case anyone can help. I read a the article above that says to stick to one to two drops ivermectin pour on 5 mg/mL concentration for chickens, but mine are still crawling with lice several days later. Should I up the dosage?

Also want to use it on my baby turkey for internal parasites. Anyone know if that will work? Dosage? Thanks for any info!

Ivermectin can be helpful in treating Mites, but there's probably better solutions. It's not the best dewormer.

If you have mites on your Turkey(?), then use a Permethrin based poultry dust or spray. Make sure to treat housing as well.

What internal Parasites does your baby(?) Turkey have?

Do you see worms in the poop or have you had a fecal float?

How old is she?

 

[Sylver Queen]

Ivermectin can be helpful in treating Mites, but there's probably better solutions. It's not the best dewormer.

If you have mites on your Turkey(?), then use a Permethrin based poultry dust or spray. Make sure to treat housing as well.

What internal Parasites does your baby(?) Turkey have?

Do you see worms in the poop or have you had a fecal float?

How old is she?

Thank you so much for replying! I'm seeing intestinal lining shed and lots of blood tinge in the cecal poops, so I'm treating for worms. Turkey is 2 months old but a special needs baby because he has a deformity wherever one leg is turned the wrong way at this point. I have not had a fecal float on baby turkey yet. But I know there are many internal parasites in the area because of testing my chickens. I got this turkey from the neighbors, pretty sure they've got all the things going on. ;-) I went ahead and started him on fenbendazole.

And I was able to answer my own question about my chickens! They have poultry lice, and my sleep deprived brain didn't connect that since they don't suck blood ivermectin will not work. Going to have to stick to my organic methods of spraying them down at night, which of course they love. The ones who dust a lot don't have a problem but all the boys and the ladies who don't dust as much are crawling with them, disgusting. Poor babies.

 

[Magpie2]

Thank you so much for replying! I'm seeing intestinal lining shed and lots of blood tinge in the cecal poops, so I'm treating for worms. Turkey is 2 months old but a special needs baby because he has a deformity wherever one leg is turned the wrong way at this point. I have not had a fecal float on baby turkey yet. But I know there are many internal parasites in the area because of testing my chickens. I got this turkey from the neighbors, pretty sure they've got all the things going on. ;-) I went ahead and started him on fenbendazole.

And I was able to answer my own question about my chickens! They have poultry lice, and my sleep deprived brain didn't connect that since they don't suck blood ivermectin will not work. Going to have to stick to my organic methods of spraying them down at night, which of course they love. The ones who dust a lot don't have a problem but all the boys and the ladies who don't dust as much are crawling with them, disgusting. Poor babies.

I’ve now used ivermectin as a preventative measure now but the birds were low risk to begin with. I’m pretty sure it works on lice regardless of their diet. Normally we’ve used permethrin but I didn’t want to have that stench in the house and I was treating my indoor birds. Ivermectin stinks too but you let them air off outside for a few hours and you can’t smell it anymore.

I didn’t have access to ivermectin for a while though so I’ve been using and researching other methods for them.

When treating lice on birds, it’s good to first know what kind you have or at least where they live on the birds. The kind we dealt with liked the area around the vent and I wasn’t able to confirm any but I read that those ones like to be under the wings too so while I treated the entire bird, I focused on those areas more.
The lifecycle is also very important. Many methods will kill the hatched lice but not the eggs so you need to treat to kill the first batch and then the eggs that hatch later. Once every seven days is usually what I’ve read people do, but more frequently wouldn’t hurt if you’re using less potent methods.

The one method that I’ve tried that definitely works was a soapy bath. The bird had been injured and suddenly needed to come in the house, the injury was small and had been treated partially outside so she went straight into the bath as soon as I brought her inside. I filled two buckets with warm water and added soap to one. I scrubbed her down in the soapy water and then rinsed her in the clean water and repeated this with fresh clean water until I no longer saw specks appearing when I rinsed her.
This would be extremely tedious for an entire flock but it does work.

She was miserable but she liked being blow dried. (Don’t use the heat setting unless you know your dryer is Teflon free)
Also white towel so I could see if anything crawled off her.

I’ve heard that vinegar can kill the adult lice and the nymphs so you might have some luck with spraying vinegar water in targeted areas every few days.

Diatomaceous earth has apparently worked well for some people but results sound mixed and it probably wouldn’t work well for you if you’re struggling with the birds who don’t dust as much.

What are you currently spraying them down with?



Also how’s your poult doing? My indoor birds are all special needs and I have one bantam cockerel with a severe hip deformity. His leg was almost twisting backwards when he was little but I was able to correct a lot while he was still small. His bad leg is smaller than the other still and the knee doesn’t bend much but he’s doing very well.

His twisted leg. His outside toes were curled under too but they were an easy fix once he was a little bigger

A good shot of how his hip sticks out

He’s almost all grown up now and doing very well. He’s very wiggly these days and his fluffy feet obscure a lot so I don’t have any good pictures of his legs now unfortunately. I’m going to make him a jolly jumper of sorts soon so he can take some weight off of his good leg

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you so much for replying! I'm seeing intestinal lining shed and lots of blood tinge in the cecal poops, so I'm treating for worms. Turkey is 2 months old but a special needs baby because he has a deformity wherever one leg is turned the wrong way at this point. I have not had a fecal float on baby turkey yet. But I know there are many internal parasites in the area because of testing my chickens. I got this turkey from the neighbors, pretty sure they've got all the things going on. ;-) I went ahead and started him on fenbendazole.

And I was able to answer my own question about my chickens! They have poultry lice, and my sleep deprived brain didn't connect that since they don't suck blood ivermectin will not work. Going to have to stick to my organic methods of spraying them down at night, which of course they love. The ones who dust a lot don't have a problem but all the boys and the ladies who don't dust as much are crawling with them, disgusting. Poor babies.

Could be from worms or possible Coccidiosis. If possible, get a fecal float to see if you need to treat for both.

 

[Sylver Queen]

Could be from worms or possible Coccidiosis. If possible, get a fecal float to see if you need to treat for both.

Thank you! He responded well to fenbendazole and poops have cleared up nicely.

 

[Sylver Queen]

I’ve now used ivermectin as a preventative measure now but the birds were low risk to begin with. I’m pretty sure it works on lice regardless of their diet. Normally we’ve used permethrin but I didn’t want to have that stench in the house and I was treating my indoor birds. Ivermectin stinks too but you let them air off outside for a few hours and you can’t smell it anymore.

I didn’t have access to ivermectin for a while though so I’ve been using and researching other methods for them.

When treating lice on birds, it’s good to first know what kind you have or at least where they live on the birds. The kind we dealt with liked the area around the vent and I wasn’t able to confirm any but I read that those ones like to be under the wings too so while I treated the entire bird, I focused on those areas more.
The lifecycle is also very important. Many methods will kill the hatched lice but not the eggs so you need to treat to kill the first batch and then the eggs that hatch later. Once every seven days is usually what I’ve read people do, but more frequently wouldn’t hurt if you’re using less potent methods.

The one method that I’ve tried that definitely works was a soapy bath. The bird had been injured and suddenly needed to come in the house, the injury was small and had been treated partially outside so she went straight into the bath as soon as I brought her inside. I filled two buckets with warm water and added soap to one. I scrubbed her down in the soapy water and then rinsed her in the clean water and repeated this with fresh clean water until I no longer saw specks appearing when I rinsed her.
This would be extremely tedious for an entire flock but it does work.
View attachment 3950507View attachment 3950508
She was miserable but she liked being blow dried. (Don’t use the heat setting unless you know your dryer is Teflon free)
Also white towel so I could see if anything crawled off her.

I’ve heard that vinegar can kill the adult lice and the nymphs so you might have some luck with spraying vinegar water in targeted areas every few days.

Diatomaceous earth has apparently worked well for some people but results sound mixed and it probably wouldn’t work well for you if you’re struggling with the birds who don’t dust as much.

What are you currently spraying them down with?



Also how’s your poult doing? My indoor birds are all special needs and I have one bantam cockerel with a severe hip deformity. His leg was almost twisting backwards when he was little but I was able to correct a lot while he was still small. His bad leg is smaller than the other still and the knee doesn’t bend much but he’s doing very well.
View attachment 3950509
His twisted leg. His outside toes were curled under too but they were an easy fix once he was a little bigger

View attachment 3950511
A good shot of how his hip sticks out

View attachment 3950514
He’s almost all grown up now and doing very well. He’s very wiggly these days and his fluffy feet obscure a lot so I don’t have any good pictures of his legs now unfortunately. I’m going to make him a jolly jumper of sorts soon so he can take some weight off of his good leg

Your special needs critters are adorable and lucky! Thank you for your response, and I'm sorry I'm tardy with mine. Life is crazy right now and it took me being down with COVID to actually check my posts.

I have definitely bathed and blow dried a chicken, but not for the lice! Maybe I will organize myself to take care of that one day, but they would all need to be done at once or they would reinfect each other and I don't think I could do it all one day, haha. Thank you so much for the idea though! I currently use a product I purchased from Southland Organics called Desecticide. It's basically soap with essential oils from the smell of it and I mix it with water and spray it on their bodies. It helps knock back bad infestations but can't fully treat because it's on contact only and there are always some hiding.

Unfortunately I did not have a good result with my deformed baby turkey. He is still alive and we're still doing the thing, but at over 2 months old one leg has bent so far back it can't even touch the ground. He's in a split with one up in the air and the other leg used to look usable but it took me so long to figure him out a wheeled cart that his good leg is now growing into an awkward position trying to support him from a belly position all day. It breaks my heart that I couldn't figure out how to help him better using what I had, but I work hard every day keeping him clean and taking him out in his sling for a walk about the yard. Keeping him properly fed is a challenge because some days he gets to food by himself while I'm at work and other days he does not. But I've rigged a way to put him in a sling and hang him from a doorknob and he eats while I'm at home.

If it was indeed a valgus deformation then there was likely never going to be anything I could do about it, but I wish he had had more than 3 days of walking and eating and drinking like a normal turkey. Even so, he is loved and he always shall be, and he doesn't feel sorry for himself so I will just keep taking care of him the best I can.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you! He responded well to fenbendazole and poops have cleared up nicely.

Glad the dewormer helped.
Thank you for the update.