Stubborn Lice

rick

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I've ordered some Ivemectin today (the 'Petlife Harkers' link on Tim's lice page here) because I've been fighting an up down battle with lice on Linden (the Sablepoot cock.)
On the whole my experience agrees with Chrismahon's recent comments that its not necessary but this bantam lad has such dense feathers and a tendency not to dust-bathe (would be interesting Chickenfan to know if he did at your place - maybe its the arrangement here but I don’t think feathered feet help matters and maybe my birds are a little more prone to these things due to the space.)
The others use the dust-bath and that helps get things under control quickly with just a bit of nit-snipping and DE application very occationally.
Have been carefully patting DE into Lindens pants for 3 weeks now and, apart from making me public enemy No 1, it's having little effect!
Question is how much for a bantam? I was thinking just one drop? Also am I right in thinking to keep the treatment well away from others (i.e. a week of Flubenvet?)

I went for 3 drops based on 2 drops for the average pigeon (at 500g) - Linden is about 1kg so I've under dosed by 25% to be on the safe side and see what happens over the next few days. Harkers for pigeons is 0.35% Ivemectin.
 
Boys tend to dusbathe less and preen a lot less than girls. Birds with feathered feet are more at risk from parasites.
 
Thanks Dinosaw. 2 days after treatment and they’re still running around :( I could try an extra drop and 4 next Monday but I'm wondering - if they are the kind of lice that live on debris, dead skin etc and don’t bite will it still work?

... asked our vet and she said that it wouldn’t (would eventually kill them but would take months to do it as they don’t bite.) She's sprayed Linden with Frontline which should do the trick (apparently can reduce their fertility but as I'm not breeding from him there’s no problem, and no eggs to withdraw of course.) Poor little fella - he's suffered lice, regular dusting, drops and being sprayed lately but hopefully it will be sorted now!
 

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