Really BAD case of Scaly Leg Mites

[cityfarmers]

Hi, we are kind of new at this, so I'm hoping the community can give me some feedback and tips about my silkie girl's bad case of scaly leg mites...
We only have 2 hens and we are still learning things from friends and websites like this. I didnt realize my hen had this problem, as I had no frame of reference, and now her feet are really bad.
I feel horrible!!
I believe we acquierd her with this and I didnt recognize it right off the bat. She went broody very soon after we got her, and we managed to correct that, but she has been acting strange and not laying eggs ever since. We thought it was a byproduct of the broodiness... Anyway - long story short - now we know, and I have been frantically searching the internet for treatments and tips. It seems that people are divided on the Vaseline/Oiling the feet vs. Ivermectin. So I have decided to do both based on the severity of her condition.
I oiled her feet 6 days ago, followed by treating with 3 drops of Injectable Ivermectin (10mg/ml) on the back of her neck.
What I am not clear about is how long this should all take to start clearing up??? and when (or if) to repeat the Ivermectin treatment?? Was that an appropriate dose? Should I put it directly on the feet?
I plan to repeat the Oiling/Vaseline several times. I also cleaned to coop and treated the other hen.

Any advice you can give me would be welcomed!

Here are some photos.



Thank you..

 

[The Birb King]

I have this issue too but not as bad. Try soaking the legs in warm water then add a thick layer or Vaseline. You could also sprinkle Saturday Lime inside your coop when you clean it out I heard it prevents parasites. Also, provide a dust bath for them with sand, wood ash, or Saturday Lime. Good luck!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi there!
We rescued 3 silkies and their coop from owners who were looking to rehome them - they told us little to no information, except they lost one of their chickens to a raccoon attack.

The day we got them, we noticed their nails were WAY TOO LONG and many nails/toes seemed to be twisting - clearly, they were not getting attended to, and did not have anywhere to scratch. One was so bad that she had a bloody toe. We believe it may be broken.
It's been 4 days with our ~2yr/old silkies now, and we've determined one of them, Daisy, is injured (jokingly aka Lazy Daisy for now, since she's clearly uncomfortable and isn't free ranging as much as the other two). At first we thought Bumblefoot, then we did a bath soak on her feet - and saw that these giant clumps of what looked like MUD ... are part of her scales. Poor girls feet are so deformed. She is very hesitant and awkward when walking, lifting her feet up all the way for every step - it's as exaggerated as they can get. She also avoids walking as much as possible - has been trying to fly a little. She will stand on one foot or the other - often avoiding both feet at once.

Tonight, after further research we realized she has a bad case of Scaly Leg Mites. I am currently pregnant, just entered my 3rd trimester - so I'm going to be wearing gloves for extra precaution when handling them, as the last thing I need is any kind of mite or bird illness. We also have a 3y/o and would like to know best protocol for handling... or not from a sanitary point of view.

So - based off of research... I'm planning to do a Rubbing Alcohol soak 2-3x per week for 3 weeks, and pray we see improvement for our poor Daisy and that our other two birds don't catch it, and/or heal up rapidly.
I'm also going to order a mite spray to help kill the mites.

I have a few questions:
1. Does this mean their coop is infected? I saw a bunch of TINY RED SPIDER LOOKING THINGS CRAWLING AROUND THE COOP - when I looked really close the other day.
2. How about the other chickens? We have not noticed any issues with their free ranging/walking etc, but they all sleep in a double nesting box together and take dust baths under our lemon tree or palms together.
3. Can this transfer to humans/onto clothes etc?
4. Can we eat the eggs they lay?

Please & thank you for your help.
I am slightly discouraged - as this is our first experience with chickens and we had no idea there would be immediate problems to deal with as they didn't inform us of anything at all. I'm hoping we don't need to buy a new coop for them yet.

THANK YOUUU!!!

Welcome To BYC We're glad you're here!

The person you are quoting posted just the 1 time back in 2023 so it's unlikely they will respond.
I see you have a thread which has responses, so you may want to look at those.
Hopefully you can get the SLM treated and have no further issues.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rescued-3-silkies-scaly-leg-mites.1611765/

 

[COBUCOOP]

Welcome To BYC We're glad you're here!

The person you are quoting posted just the 1 time back in 2023 so it's unlikely they will respond.
I see you have a thread which has responses, so you may want to look at those.
Hopefully you can get the SLM treated and have no further issues.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rescued-3-silkies-scaly-leg-mites.1611765/

Thank you so much @Wyorp Rock! I see the two responses.

 

[earlybird10842]

Bumping this post so it's on the top of the forum. good luck and

 

[newchooker]

I have the same issue but far worse. Just bought a new house with 5 chooks. One has scaley leg mite so bad it can only hop on the one remaining leg. the affected foot has a toe hugley malformed and grossly enlarged (about the size of a large mans thumb). The chook shed is filthy so they probably have every mite under the sun. Yucko!
I cant see how this can be fixed. Should it be amputated or can it be saved? Should she be euthenaised?

 

[cityfarmers]

I have an update! It's been almost 2 weeks since the Ivermectin treatment.
The growths are loosening and falling off. It's evident that her toes are damaged and deformed underneath. It looks painful. I will continue rubbing polysporin and Vaseline into her feet. It helps loosen the growths.
She seems to be feeling better. Moving around a bit more, clucking.
The pharmacy suggested repeating the ivermectin treatment two weeks after the first dose.

 

[tandykins]

Hi, we are kind of new at this, so I'm hoping the community can give me some feedback and tips about my silkie girl's bad case of scaly leg mites...
We only have 2 hens and we are still learning things from friends and websites like this. I didnt realize my hen had this problem, as I had no frame of reference, and now her feet are really bad.
I feel horrible!!
I believe we acquierd her with this and I didnt recognize it right off the bat. She went broody very soon after we got her, and we managed to correct that, but she has been acting strange and not laying eggs ever since. We thought it was a byproduct of the broodiness... Anyway - long story short - now we know, and I have been frantically searching the internet for treatments and tips. It seems that people are divided on the Vaseline/Oiling the feet vs. Ivermectin. So I have decided to do both based on the severity of her condition.
I oiled her feet 6 days ago, followed by treating with 3 drops of Injectable Ivermectin (10mg/ml) on the back of her neck.
What I am not clear about is how long this should all take to start clearing up??? and when (or if) to repeat the Ivermectin treatment?? Was that an appropriate dose? Should I put it directly on the feet?
I plan to repeat the Oiling/Vaseline several times. I also cleaned to coop and treated the other hen.

Any advice you can give me would be welcomed!

Here are some photos.



Thank you..

WOW. That is...yeah..the worst case I've ever seen.

If you're new to keeping chickens you would HAVE to have acquired them like this. This isn't something that happened quickly..

I know this post is old but I'm putting together a local information session for my village on chicken behaviour and welfare (I've seen one too many chickens with bad scaly leg mite or bumblefoot and uncaring or ignorant owners not knowing how to treat them). Would you mind if I use your pictures as a reference for them?

 

[cityfarmers]

Hi there!
Thank you for the reply.
Sure I don't mind if you use the photos.

You are correct, we did notice some build-up on her feet when we first got her. It was much less at that time and I was inexperienced with chickens, I thought it was just poop and other debris on her feet.
One we realized what it was (thanks to reading this website forum) I started treatment she quickly improved. I felt horrible for not catching it sooner.
I used the ivermetin once a week for several weeks, plus the vaseline. Eventually the crusts all came off and she could walk again, but she sadly lost most of her toes.
The toes were bleeding and atrophied from the mites, they dried up and fell off over time, after that she would walk around on little stumpy feet. She did very well. She gained back her weight and became more active, and was laying eggs. She lived quite happily for another few years after that.

We have learned so much about keeping chickens since then. Notably: I will never buy a chicken from that farmer again!

 

[tandykins]

Hi there!
Thank you for the reply.
Sure I don't mind if you use the photos.

You are correct, we did notice some build-up on her feet when we first got her. It was much less at that time and I was inexperienced with chickens, I thought it was just poop and other debris on her feet.
One we realized what it was (thanks to reading this website forum) I started treatment she quickly improved. I felt horrible for not catching it sooner.
I used the ivermetin once a week for several weeks, plus the vaseline. Eventually the crusts all came off and she could walk again, but she sadly lost most of her toes.
The toes were bleeding and atrophied from the mites, they dried up and fell off over time, after that she would walk around on little stumpy feet. She did very well. She gained back her weight and became more active, and was laying eggs. She lived quite happily for another few years after that.

We have learned so much about keeping chickens since then. Notably: I will never buy a chicken from that farmer again!

We all start from a base of not knowing what to look for in our chickens - and I think a sign that we're going to be great chicken owners - is that feeling of, "I wish I'd caught it sooner". What alarms me is when I encounter an owner who says something like, "Well they seem to get around just fine and they don't live long enough for it to kill them before I eat them.". When that statement is rapidly followed by, "They're such bad layers." I want to slam my head against a wall.

Thank you for your permission to use them. I'm hoping that it will help prevent a case of scaly leg mite somewhere in my community.

I actually just noticed a few lifted scales on my head roo last night. We had a hen wander into our yard from someone else's flock with a bad (but nowhere near as bad as yours) case of scaly leg mite and just mosey on in to our coop with the flock. I removed her as soon as I realized I had a chicken in there who wasn't mine (it looked a lot like two of mine so it was a few hours) and hoped I'd gotten lucky.

It seems I haven't -_-.

Ah well. Coop needed pressure washing anyway.