The dangerous louse to poultry is the large “ray-black”, who works on the head, neck and vents, is hard to find as it lurks close down on the skin at the roots of the feathers, and is so blood-thirsty that one or two are enough to kill a young chick. These lice are with chickens all the time, but especially during July and August. Search for them on the head, neck and throat.
Bowel disease in summer is a sign of lice; the sleepy disease, in which the chicks are sleepy or drowsy, is a sign; refusal to eat; puny looking body, and slow growth; sudden deaths; gradual wasting away; constant crying; loss of feathers on the head; and other symptoms that appear surprising or remarkable. Even in the cleanest of house, when not a sign of lice can be seen, look on the chicks for the large lice. Not only on chicks but the large body lice are nearly always on adults. A chick will never get lousy unless the old fowls are near, and that is the reason why brooder chicks grow faster than those under hens. The large lice will kill ducks suddenly. They kill nearly all the young turkeys that die. Whenever you notice a sick fowl dusting itself look for lice.
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| Lice in a poultry bird |
There are as many remedies for these pests as there are “cures for warts” among school boys, and yet the lice flourish. Here are some of them:
Wash the fowl with a decoction of absinthium (worm-wood).
Oil of fennel dropped on the head or neck will drive away lice.
Clean the coop or hen-house thoroughly and whitewash it equally as thoroughly. Rub the roosts with a mixture of kerosene oil and lard; if this is kept up for a time the vermin will disappear.
Fumigate the hen-house with a pan of live coals and a handful of sulphur. (Also be very careful you do not set in fire by so doing).
Apply kerosene freely to perches and wherever the lice may find refuge.
Put a little, a very little, kerosene on the fowls’ neck-feathers, and this will drive away the lice from the fowls. Be careful not to put on too much, as it is irritating. A good ointment for lice is made by mixing a cup of lard with a teaspoonful of kerosene.
To clear a house of fleas, mites, ticks, lice and such parasites, clean it, wash it with hot lime wash, sprinkle the floor with a solution of carbolic acid, and grease the roosts with a mixture of one pound of lard, one pint of raw linseed oil, quarter of a pint of kerosene and a quarter of a pound of sulphur.
For lice among pigeons, clean the house, or cote, thoroughly, and sprinkle it with camphorated water, and supply the birds with plenty of bathing water.
Green twigs of alder put into the coop, or house, and removed next day, will be found covered with the vermin.
If handfuls of wild thyme be thrown in the coop and about the hen-house, lice will rarely trouble the fowls.
To clear singing birds of lice, keep the cage clean, immerse it in scalding water, and let the bird bathe frequently. If lice are on the bird, take a piece of flannel and put some turpentine on it. Catch the bird and wrap him up in the flannel as closely as you can, without hurting him, leaving only his head exposed. Hold him for a few minutes and then release him, and the flannel will be found covered with lice, or some lice, at any rate. Fire or scalding water is then the best treatment for the lice after being caught.
Among the numerous parasitic pests of fowls, is one which we may call “red mites”. They are noticed as being in countless myriads on the walls and roosts. Another class of mites, parasitical, are found under scales, on the combs, and on the legs below the feathers. If unmolested, the comb grows thicker at the base, darker, and furrowed. The feathers of the head and neck fall off. The disease is infectious, and when a fowl is attacked, it should be caged apart from the flock. The treatment must be external. The parts may be painted with kerosene or washed with carbolic soap. Another good treatment is to wash the affected parts and then anoint them with sulphur cerate, which may be obtained at any homoeopathic house. Another good ointment, and one that can be home-made, is two parts of sweet oil or lard to one part kerosene. “Scabby or scaly legs” in poultry are due, perhaps entirely, to these parasitical pests, and they may be entirely removed by a little care-washing the leg and rubbing it with the kerosene ointment, or a very little pure kerosene. A dozen pellets of Sulphur, in the water-cup of the fowl under treatment, renewed every day, will aid in the cure enabling the fowl to regain a healthy skin and comb much sooner than without it.
One ounce oil of cedar mixed with a pint of other oil and put on the neck, back, etc., of chickens is said to clear the lice away. Only a few drops should be used, as grease is repugnant to fowls.
For young chicks: two parts glycerine, one part carbolic acid, the two mixed with five times their bulk in water. Apply freely to sprouting feathers.
In conclusion, and in the words of an experienced poultry-man, “lice means work”.