# What is this? Also lice prob. PLEASE help.



## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Found so far that 2 of my 9 chickens have lice. The 1 (chloe) has had numerous health issues since she was a pullet. The other (sophie) has been sneezing for over a year (VetRx did not do a thing to help with that). Noticed recently that Sophie has been going to bed with Chloe which for Chloe has been the bottom nest box for the past few months. Both (Chloe had it much worse) had tons of balls of nits on their bum area surrounding the vent. Gave them both a flea dip. Maybe not the best idea but I'm desperate. Managed to get what looks like all the nits off Chloe and I think I got them off Sophie. Girls were so good about it. Sophie laid there sleeping through the whole nit pulling process. I also cut the feathers down to nothing where the nits were. Both are dusted with DE. The other 7 will be too as soon as I get done posting this. Is there anything else I can do?  

Also, while bathing Sophie, I discovered this air bubble at the base of her neck on the right side between her neck and wing.  What is this now? Chloe didn't have that. Neither has any other chicken I've had to give a bath to. 

Please, any thoughts and advice are very welcome.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Probably a ruptured air sac. Just keep an eye on it, it should resolve on its own.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Okay. Thanks robin. How did she get this? 

As for the lice situation, can my dogs get these icky buggers? Girls are in the entrance of our house to dry in kennel right now.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I have never heard of them getting them but that doesn't mean they can't. Well, I decided to look it up, the answer is no. They might get on other species but they will not survive because they are specific to avian species. 

Maybe for no specific reason. In humans its called blowing a bleb. A weakened area in the lung that ruptures and allows air from the lung to escape in to the chest cavity. In humans it can be deadly rapidly. In poultry due to their different physiology its not as life threatening.

The bleb will close up on its own 99% of the time and will quit leaking air. It only becomes a threat when the accumulated air begins to build a lot more than your girl's and puts pressure on vital organs.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Whew. Boy you're a wealth of knowledge!  All 9 have those lovely lice. Poor girls. They all look so healthy feather wise except for Sophie & Chloe. They all got a dose of DE for the night. I'll have to tackle the problem in the morning. What a FUN way to spend my only weekend off.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I used to work in Respiratory Therapy. Seems I remember more than I thought I did. LOL


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

In case anyone else is having a problem with lice, this is what I ended up doing to deal with them (after much researching on-line on some trusted sites to find answers). The 2 hens with the worst case of lice and nits, I did give a flea dip with dog flea/tick shampoo. That really helped. The warm bath also loosened up those nits so I could pull them off. The spots of them that I couldn't get off, I smeared vaseline on. That smothers the nits. For the whole crew, I gave them a dusting of garden & poultry dust I bought at TSC. It has permethrin in it. I also got their dust bin filled with fresh dry wood ashes again. The wood ashes smother the nits and lice. I did a check of all 9 of them a few days later and I didn't see any sign of lice and no nits either. So far so good, they all are looking fine. 

When chickens can't take their dust baths like they need to, these darn buggers show up fast. I had them set up with a bin to bathe in all winter which worked really well until the Spring melt came. Didn't realize their roof on their run had been leaking right into their bin.  Needless to say, that roof is going to be fixed as soon as the rest of this unending winter weather we've been having here goes away.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

So far I have never had a lice problem at all on my chickens. I have to wonder why. However we have had lice problems on the kids, they bring it home from school. How do they get lice issues??? If they never leave the yard, or can it be brought in by birds???


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Yes the lice can come from wild birds. I had a wild starling that had made its way into my coop a month prior to discovering my girls had lice. Also if you have a chicken that gets sick, somehow those buggers just seem to appear. Being our winter has been so hard this year, a lot of people up here are having troubles with them who like me, have never had this problem before. Chickens rely on those dust baths to keep any mites & lice away. When that is compromised, then both have the ability to set in quick. This is the first time since I've had chickens that I've had a lice problem. I've had chickens for 4 years now. Boy this subject sure makes me itchy. I about crawled out of my skin when I discovered those icky things crawling around on my babies!


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Yeah I know that feeling the school called me and said they found one on my daughter at school so I went out and bought the stuff and I was itching all over just thinking about it. Luckily for my daughter it was only 1 but other kids at school had been infested with them and they were getting on everyone. Now I spray my kids heads before they head to school every day. I don't want lice in my house. I scratch enough just thin king about them.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

hildar said:


> Yeah I know that feeling the school called me and said they found one on my daughter at school so I went out and bought the stuff and I was itching all over just thinking about it. Luckily for my daughter it was only 1 but other kids at school had been infested with them and they were getting on everyone. Now I spray my kids heads before they head to school every day. I don't want lice in my house. I scratch enough just thin king about them.


This may or may not relieve your cringing. Lice on poultry is species specific, they can not survive on humans.

I looked that up for someone here last week.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

robin416 said:


> This may or may not relieve your cringing. Lice on poultry is species specific, they can not survive on humans.
> 
> I looked that up for someone here last week.


Thank Goodness. I don't need more issues lol.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Ya, when I had found that on another reputable chicken site, I was sooo relieved. Still had the itchy scratchies though. Ewww, ewww, ewww. Felt so sorry for my babies. Chloe and Sophie were so good about laying there while I pulled off those nits. Sophie even went to sleep on me since she was all cozy warm wrapped up in a towel.


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