What are the most common chicken diseases? Chickens have two frequent health problems: Mites and Poultry Lice. Mites are more common that lice. They live almost everywhere! You will find these creatures inside the chicken coop and even on the skin of your feathered friends.
Mites
There are a lot of different types of mites which can harm your feathered friends. Chicken Mites, Northern Fowl Mites and Scaley Leg Mites are three of the usual types of mites. These mites feed on the blood of chickens – some are nocturnal and some suck on blood all day long.
Mite infestation can cause myriads of problems. Your chickens may lose appetite, lose energy and become weakened. Lowered production of egg is not uncommon. In serious cases, it may even cause death.
Infestation of these mites results in weakening, loss of appetite, emaciation, lowered egg production, lethargy, and sometimes death.
Poultry Lice
Lice are less common than mites. However, it is still a big problem. Lice are extremely small insects without wings. They have mouths which can chew but they do not suck blood. Instead, the poultry lice chew on skin scales and the feathers.
Poultry lice generally cause irritation to chickens. The effect of infestation is unhealthy chickens. The birds will be weak and has lowered resistance.
Prevention
We all know that prevention is always better than cure. Birds like crows and sparrows can carry mites. Rodents can also bring mites to your chickens. It is important that you protect your flock form these creatures.
Always make sure that your chicken coop is regularly cleaned and checked from mites and poultry lice. The beddings should always be fresh. The nesting boxes should be scrubbed and disinfection. Furthermore, you should check your chickens from signs that they are infested. You should also make sure that the food and water that you give your chickens is clean.
Solution
If your chickens are already infested with the parasites, you need to act immediately. Don’t wait for days before you act! It might be too late.
There are several products which can treat chickens from mite and lice infestation. For scaley leg mites, Petroleum Jelly is effective. You can just use this petrolatum every two days until you see that your chicken scales are smooth.
Sevin Power and Orange Guard are two effective solutions against both lice and chicken lice. The sevin powder can be used directly on chickens. On the other hand, the orange guard cannot be directly used on the bird.
