treatment for chickens with ticks

[zed]

I have 3 chickens that have free range of the garden, they have a house but would rather lay the eggs under a hedge and go up in a fir tree to roost. The treatment for ticks that ive read says its better to treat the house than the chicken but this i cant do, what treatment can i use for the chickens and can the eggs still be consumed?

[crazychick]

Are they infested with ticks or mites? Either way, they are generally blood sucking, so a systemic or topical medication will work the best. For systemic (they take it orally, it goes into blood stream and kills the pest when the pest sucks on blood) I prefer Ivomec- the liquid sheep or cattle dewormer. Get the injectable, but give it orally. If the hens are standard large sized hens (Isa brown sized) I give about 0.4-0.5 cc. If they are leghorn sized, give 0.35-0.4 in the mouth. Repeat in 2 weeks. It helps to dust them with a louse powder as well, to cover all your bases- again, repeat in 2 weeks. Personally, I eat the eggs when my hens have been treated with ivomec, but if you prefer, you can wait 10 days before eating them again. Ivomec is used as a dewormer in people in the third world, so I figure it can't be that toxic and when I deworm all 80 of the horses on my farm, I know I get a goodly dose of it and haven't died yet...

Laura

[Sandy]

If these critters are running around on the hens they are not ticks.. they are more than likely lice

If they are attached..then they probably are ticks..and they need to be removed or they will cause blood poisoing... also they will paralize the birds respiratory function and it will die

And you need to treat them as stated above by Laura...