How often should I use the Poultry Dust

[youngbirdmom]

I have a quarantined chicken who has been high stepping and has some bald patches. I gave her a dust bath using poultry dust for mites today but it’s my first time using it. In the Spring and Summer, how often should I be powdering the chickens down? How often do I powder the quarantined hen while she’s still high stepping and picking at her feathers?

She doesn’t have any bumps on her feet to cause the high stepping and her feet are clean. She also isn’t losing vision to cause the high stepping. I am hoping it is just mites. She was left outside for two nights because of an impacted crop and she buried herself under the coop and she was immobilized for a few days. We got that part all sorted out and she is recovering smoothly. She just started high stepping when she was able to start walking. It was one leg first and then both. And I noticed some bald spots.

 

[azygous]

Are you aware of the difference between mites and lice? Most of the time what people think are mites are really lice. Lice mostly live on the chicken while mites only come out at night to make a chicken miserable. Mites are related to spiders and have eight legs. Lice are close cousins of insects and have six legs. This is a good way to tell which or on your chicken. You do need a hand lens to magnify them.

Lice are easily gotten rid of with poultry dust. Lice do not bite. They feed off dander and dead skin. Mites live deep in cracks in a coop. They wander out of hiding at night and crawl up the legs of the chickens and bite, sucking blood. They are ten times worse than lice as they can cause anemia and death. The only way to get rid of coop mites is to spray heavily into all the crevices of the coop with a poultry approved insecticide.

The high stepping could be from scaly leg mites, different from coop mites as leg mites do live on the chicken underneath the scales of the feet and legs. You can't see them, but you will know they are present when you see the scales lifted up to reveal what appears to be a dirty crust. These type mites spend their entire life cycle on the chicken. Soaking and then coating the legs and feet in castor oil is the most effective treatment.

 

[youngbirdmom]

Are you aware of the difference between mites and lice? Most of the time what people think are mites are really lice. Lice mostly live on the chicken while mites only come out at night to make a chicken miserable. Mites are related to spiders and have eight legs. Lice are close cousins of insects and have six legs. This is a good way to tell which or on your chicken. You do need a hand lens to magnify them.

Lice are easily gotten rid of with poultry dust. Lice do not bite. They feed off dander and dead skin. Mites live deep in cracks in a coop. They wander out of hiding at night and crawl up the legs of the chickens and bite, sucking blood. They are ten times worse than lice as they can cause anemia and death. The only way to get rid of coop mites is to spray heavily into all the crevices of the coop with a poultry approved insecticide.

The high stepping could be from scaly leg mites, different from coop mites as leg mites do live on the chicken underneath the scales of the feet and legs. You can't see them, but you will know they are present when you see the scales lifted up to reveal what appears to be a dirty crust. These type mites spend their entire life cycle on the chicken. Soaking and then coating the legs and feet in castor oil is the most effective treatment.

Thank you for the explanation! I was thinking the leg mites because that was what came up when I read about high stepping. The other hens who have been in the coop and living normal lives aren’t showing any signs of illness or high stepping. It’s just the hen that was outside and had buried herself under the coop. Even for leg mites I was seeing to use the dust so I got it just in case because she does have some big bald spots forming. I will try soaking her feet and legs and applying oil tomorrow.

She is just having a rough month and I am trying to do everything I can to get her out with her flock again safely.