Scaly Leg Mites - Need Best / Easiest / Quickest Solution - Scaley

[justusnak]

Nifty....this is what I did with my little rescues. There were so many of them, and mmost of the had those leg mites. I grabbed a big jar of vasoline, rubber gloves..and coated each ones legs and feet thick. There was no way I could wash, soak,scrub all of them. They were not used to handeling. So...less stress, was to just vasoline them. It took a few weeks....I coated them about every 4 or 5 days. Mites were all gone. I still have stubs...and he seems to get leg problems from time to time, I think because he has no toes. So, I try to coat his little feet and legs still....to keep them from freezing...because he can not get onto a perch.
For the coop....a good cleaning...DE if you can...if not, Orange oil works great on the nest boxes and roosts. Let it air out a little bit, then put your litter back in. Mihgt have to do this a few times...but it really works..and non toxic.

 

[Picco]

You have to be careful of some oils. Since the bird's legs are irritated they may try to scratch them and get the oil off. Make sure the oil is non toxic. Some people use kerosene with success, but I would never put something that is toxic on them if there was any chance of them ingesting it. I don't know if cooking spray would have enough oil in it to do much good. Vaseline is safe and cheap. I've used Red-Kote wound spray (from the makers of Blue-Kote) and found that it is easy to use. It is made with scarlet oil which is used to heal wounds, keeping them moist. it is pinkish so you might have to watch for pecking, but since all of the chickens should be treated there wouldn't be an "odd bird out".

I use a powdered "poultry dust" insecticide that I buy from the feed store and sprinkle all surfaces. I have also used Sevin, a pesticide spray used for plants. You may want to check out the pesticide section of your local greenhouse. there is usually a line of safer/organic products that might work well for inside the coop. I have never used it, but insecticidal soap would probably work really well and would be very safe.

I like to keep my flock as natural as possible and not to use chemicals but I have found that chemicals are the only way to go with scaly leg mites if you have a large flock. I have too many birds and too little time to Vaseline applications frequently.

 

[M.J]

i have the same problem and the some told me that mint oil or vicks vapor rub for it has mint kills scally leg and i put it on my birds this morning and so far it seems to be the best suggestions ive gotten good luck

 

[Yardegg]

I think everyone who keeps chickens long enough will eventually get ectoparasites like mites, lice, etc. I've had a real problem with my feather-legged breeds like Buff Brahma Bantams. So much so that I have all but phased them out of my coop in favor of Wyandotte Bantams (a clean legged breed). Treating your birds and your coop are quite different issues. Since I still use the tried-and-true method of bathing the birds and applying "Vet-RX" or some other oil-based remedy, I will focus on cleaning the coop, or barn, in my case.

My barn has a gravel floor covered with bedding. It is impossible to remove all the shavings, straw, and shredded paper I have put down for the last ten years or so. You can't rake, shovel, fork, or scoop the stuff off the floor. I admire those of you who have concrete floors that can be cleaned easier. Here's what I have to do to "de-bug" my barn and roosts --

I remove all chickens from the barn and treat them as described. I close all doors to the barn to prevent them from coming in while I work. I take a 20 gal. hose-end sprayer and add the appropriate amount of pyrethrin or peremethryn barn and stable spray concentrate. Starting with the farthest, uppermost corner, I spray the daylights out of all surfaces. Gravity helps the process. When I reach the door (walking backwards) I stop spraying, exit, and latch the door. About eight hours of saturation does a good job of killing and repelling almost all insects. Before I open it back up to the chickens that evening, I spread a healthy layer of cedar shavings. Cedar has some repellent effect on mites and lice, but I'm not sure just how much. Then I dump Sevin dust on all their dusting spots in the yard (if it isn't raining).

Hope this helps. Wild birds, mice and other critters will reintroduce parasites that will reinfest your barn and your birds eventually. For now, I think this is the best I can do at my place.

Best Wishes,
Yardegg

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Okay, so everyone agrees that the picture absolutely shows scaly leg mites?

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Well, here's what I've done so far:

1) Removed the roosts
2) Removed my nesting boxes
3) Removed all the shavings
4) Swept & vaccumed the inside of the coop
(Pause.... this thing hasn't been this clean since I built it 3 years ago)
5) Sprayed the whole inside of the coop with an indoor pest insecticide like this one. (I figure it is safe for inside the house for peole to be around... should be fine for the chickens.)
6) Closed up the coop and let it sit for about 4 hours to dry.
7) Sanded down the roosts and painted them to help keep mites from finding easy places to hide.
8) Put in new shavings

When the girls go to bed we may begin the Vaseline treatment... but I'd sure like to be absolutely positive this is scaly let mites. Anybody think it could be anything else?

Any other suggestions on treatment?

Oh... one last thing: Why do "leg mites" just attack the legs, or do they?

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Pretty sure this is what they have Nifty from all the pics of scaly leg mites I have seen....everyone has given you really good advice on what to do...the vaseline is a recomended treatment on alot of sites and it will not harm the birds......it will have to be done a few times to smother and kill all the mites...the mites can hide under the scales without too much notice until its in a full blown infestation... I think there are different types of mites that chickens can become hosts of......

If you google scaly leg mites in poultry lots of pics and articles show up....

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Okay, we did it. We grabbed the RIR which was the worst and gave her legs a bath in warm water and baby shampoo. We put tripple antibiotic on her legs and then Vaseline.

We then put her back on the roost and grabbed the other 7 girls and lathered their legs up too (no wash).

What a process... sheesh! They didn't seem to be big fans of all the goop on their legs and it sure didn't help their roosting abilities (slip and slide). Good think I rotated my 2x4's today so the wide part was facing up! They also started rubbing their beaks in their legs which couldn't have been good.

Ugh. I hope this helps!

BTW, while in process on our Black Australorp / RIR mixed hen we noticed some bumps, growths, lumps, bulbs, etc. on her legs.

Any idea what these are... or are they just normal for a hen of 5 years old?

BTW, how wicked is that picture? Makes me think of the old hag's hand in Snow White (the one that gives her the apple).

 

[Yardegg]

Here is an example of the type of chemical insecticide I use in my barn. I get mine at the local farm store, so I assume it's available in your area as well. Anyway, click on this if you are interested.

http://www.bugpage.com/pyrethrin.php

Yardegg

 

[therealsilkiechick]

when we get rescues in with lice and mites, we bathed them all first and use baby shampoo. shut them in the runs to dry after rinse from the sun. while they are drying we take adam's flea and tick spay or sevin dust and cover all bedding in the coops with it. i'm severly allergic to sevin(found out the hard way w/a trip to the ER,lol). so if hubby is doing it that's what he uses it works the fastest but is a stong pesticide. u have to wear gloves, face masks and make sure not to inhail or have skin contact. i use the adam's if i do it but it takes a little longer to get them all.

after they are dry we catch them one at a time and use one or the other on them. then we baby oil their legs and put them in the coop till all are done. then the drop doors go up they are free to do what they want.

we wait 3 days but most pests die in the first 24 hours. then we chase them all in the runs again and do another bedding change and then DE everything in the coop and they are good to go.

hope this helps not so much work involved and not as messy either,lol
silkie