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

[dawg53]

Not to mention, chickens soaked in gas make for a lovely fire hazard in the coop.

I'm sure it would work but I'm thinking I'd try just about anything else but dipping the birds in gas.

Mmmmmmm, BBQ chicken!

 

[Math]

For you, the castor oil is more available, cheaper, and it left my bird's scales so supple, soft and fresh looking~even months later! I've had no recurrence of the scale mites since using it and their scales look like young bird's scales. Here's a pic of my rooster's feet last fall and they were treated with the homemade NS after this pic. It seemed to work for a bit but it didn't really...it came back and looked much worse than what you see here...the scales were hooved up, twisted to one side and gnarly looking. I didn't get to really see how much they had worsened until I washed off the residue of the NS. Then I changed plans on treatment, since I had been reading about castor oil. Here's the back of his legs a week or so after the castor oil...you can see fresh yellow scales growing and some lighter, older scales getting ready to slough. And his legs on 6/26/13...3 mo. later after the use of the castor oil..... And the front view..you can see here how thickened and twisted the scales had become from the mites, but what you can't see here is the scaliness, dryness and how darkened the scales were previously. I wish I had a pic of them now to show you....all that twisted, thick portion you see on the leg on the left in this pic is gone and his legs look brand new. No redness~just soft, golden and pretty! And 3 mo. after the castor oil treatment.... The castor oil treatment lasted, it worked in one treatment, it continues to keep his scales very shiny and new looking and I believe it helped him grow back his spurs that some ignorant person cut off of him. His spurs have grown a full half inch since this pic, but you can see how short they were in Oct. of last year, how much growth they had up to March of this year....6 months to gain 1/4 in..... and it only took 3 mo. to grow the additional 1/2 after the CO was applied in March. That's wonderful! I've since found that African American women are using castor oil treatments on their hair and are reporting up to 6 in. of growth on their hair, so the spur and scale growth on the bird is understandable to me now. Hope this helps! I'll try to get a pic of Toby's feet now and post it to this thread as a follow up on the castor oil benefits.

Thanks for all this information. I treated my roosters legs with castor oil. After a months his legs look much better and better.

 

[crazyfeathers]

I am treating my girls for SLM also, it is defiantly trial and error. My thought is if you find something that is effective, use it. Some individuals have strong opinions and can't keep an open mind. I used to be on BYC everyday but due to the "know it alls and opinionated individuals" I only occasionally visit this site. I've read all 62 pages of this thread unfortunately all of the good information could have been found in the first 5, the rest was one individual pushing their cure after saying some things work better than others for SLM. We all care about our fowl or we wouldn't be here searching for answers. Remedies such as kerosene and gasoline were used back in the day because there were no other alternatives, that is not the case now. I understand why some may try this route and its only because they read it worked, no need to criticize, we are all here to learn. Best of luck to everyone who is batteling SLM, hang in there and the only dumb question is the one that is not asked.

 

[Beekissed]

Are you folks treating with the castor oil dipping them or painting it on? And are you using it straight-up or mixing with mineral oil, etc? I've been painting on mineral oil with a bit of tea treeabout once a week for the past few weeks and not seeing a whole lot of improvement. I'm reluctant to dip my booted birds because of the feathers being soaked, but also because painting is easy to do without extra help.

Aside from the castor oil, has anyone used DVL Dusting Powder for scaly leg mites, either in the coop or on the birds themselves? The can says it treats mites, lice, etc but I wasn't sure if/how one would use it for slm. As well I wondered if it was the kind of thing that soaks into their skin/system or just kills bugs via contact. Can anyone chime in on this? I may just contact the company itself, but asking here anyhow.

With the CO, I don't paint nor do I dip, but just pour the oil into my hand and massage it with an upward motion into all the scales. I don't mix it with anything else, as it holds all the properties necessary for ridding the mites on its own~thick, viscous oil for smothering them and also insecticidal properties to kill them and ward them off. One good slathering and then I let that do its work for awhile....usually I don't need to repeat the first application, as I start to notice results just days after the initial dose. The scales start to look more supple, the redness fades and the old scales start to be pushed up by new scale growth and eventually just slough off.

After using it to good effect that first time, I now use it as a preventative in the late fall, before winter sets in, and I've not had a recurrence of mites since. I also rub it into their combs and wattles when temps get severe...seems to help prevent frost bite too by bringing more circulation to the area and as an emollient that works as a moisture barrier.

 

[chix in france]

Hi all,

I read this thread around 10 days ago when I found one of my chickens had a bad case of leg mites. I have not picked her up for a while and was very sad to see the state of her legs, and upset that I did not notice it sooner. She is a pekin and so has feathered feet which disguise it. I read this feed and then set about working out what I had in the house that could work to help her. I was heading off on a trip the next day so no time to go to the vet. I wasn't keen on WD-40 although I could understand the concept, and I didn't have any petroleum jelly. BUT I did have OLIVE OIL.... which I figured would not do her any harm and would help to moisturise the scales and hopefully suffocate the blighters.

Well 10 days on, I have now applied liberally olive oil four times, gently rubbing it into her scales. She had scabs covering the pads, toes and upper leg area and very sore looking scales on the top of her feet with lots of lumpy scabs. A right old state.

So did it work? YES!!! her upper legs are back to normal, clear of scabs and healthy skin is back, all the big lumpy bits have fallen off. Her lower legs the pads are clear and healthy again. There are just a few scales still a bit raised on her toes so I will keep treating until they are all flat and normal again.

Bad side effects? Only that she has picked up more dirt on her foot feathers than normal but I will bath her once her treatment is finished.

Benefits;
-No risk to your or her health or eggs....

-Very minimal cost, plain old cooking oil would probably have the same effect, you are likely to already have some in the house

-She does not seem upset to have the oil put on, even when they were really bad and I just dunked her feet in the oil, she was not bothered, so I can hope that its relatively pain free for her.

I hope this is helpful to anyone else reading...

 

[AlisonT100]

I was rather ignorant of this condition, and much to my shame, did little about how it had affected one hen - and one hen only...

We always Ficam-W the shed, use top notch wood shavings, and as a belt and braces, mite powder both the ladies and their home.

I don't know how poor Gribbly ended up infected, but what I did last week was buy own brand petroleum jelly and slather Gribbly's legs in it, right into her feathers at the top of her legs. I did this for 3 nights on the trot, then had a gap of 3, then came to slather her yesterday and I was completely and utterly gob-smacked by the way this revolting crust literally crumbled off the poor lass in chunks (which, as it fell to the ground, was immediately nabbed by my RIR, Roxy, as a snackette. That made me slightly sick in my mouth, and I hope to goodness it doesn't harm her. It was an amazing sight, seeing Gribbly's beautiful pink, clean, smooth legs.

So I say "Petroleum Jelly All The Way"! It might just have been Gribbly, but I did almost puke at the smell of the crust...which was as nasty as sour crop when Evelyn barfed all over me and my husband began dry heaving...

Chickens are FAB...but they do get some truly unpleasant illnesses.

Good luck with fighting it

Alison, Cheshire, UK

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I've been using cooking spray for my birds' legs. One can does the majority of my flock and it takes a fraction of the time.

 

[as110]

These were taken 3 days ago. There are hard growths on the top of the leg close to the feathers and she is missing feathers on the underside too but she does not have red or irritated skin there.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Is this leg mites? I have treared with epsom salt soak and vaselibe 3 times in the last two weeks. I separated her in the last 4 days during the day and put her back on the roost for the night, but she went to the top and I think it hurts to come down do tonight she sleeps in a large box in the basement. She came from a farm where they had too many birds. Here is the picture from today after I scrubbed it with an electric tooth brush.

These were taken 3 days ago. There are hard growths on the top of the leg close to the feathers and she is missing feathers on the underside too but she does not have red or irritated skin there.

Yes, that's leg mites. That's build up and excrement from the mites. It is likely quite painfully. My first birds were that bad when I noticed my first winter. It can be cleaned up. It sounds like you're doing the right things. It will take a bit to get past the crusts to get back down to the scales.

 

[TinaMcrorie]

Hey everyone!

We've got scaly leg mites. A couple of our 7 hens look affected, but one of our RIR looks the worst... by far.

I've tasked Emily with researching how to treat them, but I wanted to post here to leverage the great wisdom of the group. Here are my questions:

1) Is this really scaly leg mites?
2) What is the BEST solution?

I know there are LOTS of suggestions (Vaseline, DE, orange oil, WD-40, etc. etc. etc.). I don't know how many of these are old wives tales or super excellent solutions that seriously work.

So, if you have experience with whatever you see in the pic below, and you effectively treated it, please reply with what worked best / easiest / quickest for you and your girls.

Thanks so much in advance for your help and ideas!

Hi I have rescued a badly treated hen who has extremely severe leg mite. Soak her feet every day in warm water and cover in vaseline. Put 3 drops of imvervctin flea drops got from vets as not licensed for hens. Once a week soak her legs in surgical spirit and again apply vaseline. It works but takes time each day.