Treatments for insects on birds...when normal medicine's not available

Recently I treated a hen that was affected by fly-maggots

However it occured to me that some folk out there might wonder what to do,
if you don't have vet-available type medicines on hand.

Many poultry keeping folks live in suburban or fringe areas where the city
or a vet are just a short distance away

However many, like me, live in some pretty remote areas. If you haven't got
something in stock at home, then you just have to get by without it.

Here's a few general rules, gained by my experience

Hereabouts we get "stickfast flea" this is possibly the same as is known in
some warm climate areas of the USA as "sticktight flea"

A constant background sorta low level infestation is always around, but
numbers fluctuate throughout the year with different climate and rainfall

plus some hens simply attract more of these pests to them than others

Having their night roosts above a concrete floored area helps prevent their
life cycle, so existing adult fleas live life to the full, but cannot
successfully reproduce so eventually die out

Unfortunately no matter how lovely the perches I have set above the concrete
floored area of their shed, a couple of hens will always insist on
roosting, usually just sitting on the dirt floor, elesewhere in the shed

So I do have stickfast fleas in fluctuating numbers

This is a pinhead sized parasite usually attaching around the skin on the
hen's face and comb, and some hens susceptible to getting them in their
(wing)- arm-pits

Every few months I notice some hens are affected by stickfast fleas so ! mix
up a new batch of spray, just using one of those 500 ml (=US 1 pint) trigger
finger spray bottles, with a Pyrethrim spray concentrate I got from a city
edge Vet. I had to call in advance for them to order it in. It cost $13.50
some years back for a 125 ml bottle, but it is a 100:1 concentrate, so has
lasted me for many years. It is now actually past its recommended expiry
date but I've always kept it in the friegd so should get another year or so
out of it

Before I had this spray available I used 2 other systems

"Vaseline" as in the petroleum jelly applied to babies bottoms and car
battery terminals to stop corrosion.........no the babies don't corrode !
you can plaster this over the hen's comb and around the facial skin, however
this is a mucky job and usually requires 2 people. It does a good job but
the vaseline, is just too thick and pasty to apply, unless it's a pretty hot
time of year

An easier system, which is not 100 % effective but still seems ok is to use
normal Canola cooking spray.

Yeah just grab the pressure spray can from the kitchen, which contains 100 %
edible and safe canola cooking oil spray and spray the hen around the head
and armpits etc

Insects breath through their skin, they do not have lungs or gills, so a
thin smear of oily coating means they suffocate and fall off. Sucking
insects first withdraw their mouth/sucker-part so minimises the chance of
skin infections

Note I also use similar for removing ticks I find attached to native
"Bobtail" Lizards, which become semi-friendly and live in my garden (aka
Shinglebacks, a variety of skink, born at over 5 inches long they get to
over a foot long)

I'd recommend using a proper Vet available pyrethrim spray but if not
available, a reasonable level of control to keep things in check can be
obtained with what's around the house

Oh yeah. last night "Lucky" didn't volunteerily return to the chook-house.
It set up camp perching near my backdoor as evening came on. I carried it
upto the chookshed.


cheerio

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Patsy....."So is killing NOT wrong anymore ?"
Trudy....."We don't have to worry about Right and Wrong anymore, ZOOT
decides for us"
.................The Tribe episode 2:49


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