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

[Beekissed]

I made my own NS and had made it thicker, thinking it would be more effective, but I found that the thicker formula was not as conducive to getting to the scale mites as the thinner formula. If making your own, the NS has sulfur powder (found at just about any garden center), pine tar/oil (found at sport's shops...they use it in baseball) and mineral oil. I'd make it a little soupy like the original formula because that seems to penetrate under the scale better than the thicker consistency, which seemed to coat the whole leg but didn't solve the problem of reaching back under the scales and soaking into smaller spaces.

I used two whole containers of the thicker formula before realizing that it wasn't the ratio of ingredients that failed but the consistency of the lotion/balm. My mistake. The next batch will be thinner, less viscous than a balm or butter.

Meanwhile, the castor oil was simply lovely for this problem and worked in one treatment....the scales have returned to the appearance of the scales of a young bird on my flocks, who are old enough for social security! In the course of my investigation about the castor oil, I found that it is great for a hair treatment for dry, damaged or frizzy hair and actually nourishes the hair follicle better than the silicone based products for this purpose. Who knew?

Good given internally for worms, topically as an insecticide and makes a wonderful emollient for skin, hair and even scales!

 

[LaLa Chickie]

I am throwing this in here as FOOD FOR THOUGHT. There are many bugs that can infest a chicken, lice, mites, fleas, ticks and of course leg mites. Leg mites ONLY infest the leg under the scales. It takes YEARS before leg mites can kill a chicken. BUT lice/mites can take down a chicken relativley fast if there enough of them to suck out the life on a chickens body.
Scaley leg mites invade undere the scales to get to the soft skin, they work their way into a joint and eat away everything till the joint dies and then a toe falls off. GROSS yes!
Within a pen of chickens, I have seen only one have them and no one else....
I am GUESSING these free or rescued birds had ALOT more going on then just leg mites....I have rescued and rehomed or kept , lost count after 40, and not ONE has died because of leg mites or anything else for that matter....I like to think I practice good animal care..LOL
OK, I get off my soap box......

I just LOVE the bird!

When my "Lady" died, for sure something was going on. She suddenly had these little bugs all over her face, tiny little brown things, she had the tiny little white ones on the skin at feather base. It all happened so fast. I think she was having some female issues. I don't know. It was so sudden and those bugs didn't appear until we had the "Rooster" rescued..anyways, we adopted him out and Lady died in my arms after 5days of my trying so hard to treat her. She just got to where she would stand, stare, not move and then lay down and she had been the "Queen" before the Rooster showed up. I felt so sad for her to lose her position. Anyways, I didn't see leg mites, but at the time I didn't even know that's what the Rooster had until someone identified it in a photo I posted here cause he was so Handsome..Thanks for your input. Everyone is doing very well now. I have 7 Hens and one of them is 14yrs old...

 

[LaLa Chickie]

I made my own NS and had made it thicker, thinking it would be more effective, but I found that the thicker formula was not as conducive to getting to the scale mites as the thinner formula. If making your own, the NS has sulfur powder (found at just about any garden center), pine tar/oil (found at sport's shops...they use it in baseball) and mineral oil. I'd make it a little soupy like the original formula because that seems to penetrate under the scale better than the thicker consistency, which seemed to coat the whole leg but didn't solve the problem of reaching back under the scales and soaking into smaller spaces.

I used two whole containers of the thicker formula before realizing that it wasn't the ratio of ingredients that failed but the consistency of the lotion/balm. My mistake. The next batch will be thinner, less viscous than a balm or butter.

Meanwhile, the castor oil was simply lovely for this problem and worked in one treatment....the scales have returned to the appearance of the scales of a young bird on my flocks, who are old enough for social security! In the course of my investigation about the castor oil, I found that it is great for a hair treatment for dry, damaged or frizzy hair and actually nourishes the hair follicle better than the silicone based products for this purpose. Who knew?

Good given internally for worms, topically as an insecticide and makes a wonderful emollient for skin, hair and even scales!

You give Castor Oil to your chickens for worms? How? None of mine have it, just wondering.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't give it to my birds for deworming but I wouldn't mind giving it if I needed to do so! It has been given to humans for many a long year for internal parasites. Here in the mountains castor oil was given every spring as a dewormer to children and adults alike. Back then it was nasty but now it is odorless, tasteless and colorless...or so they say. I've not tried it!

 

[ChickyNamibia]

Hi Beekissed, what at the ingredience of this NuStock. My daughter in law is pharmacist so maybe she can help me by looking for something similar that is available in Namibia. It was only half a year that I doctored and I guess the photo's look worse due to the enlargening to make the scale visible. There is a lot of yellowish skin inbetween the scales but that is harly visible on the photo. The rooster and one hen are involved, the second hen does only have one little spot which I treat as well but I want them to get rid of that stuff since I have the feeling it hurts because I see them every one in a while standing on one leg only. Fortunately his legs do not look like those that froggiesheins described up top. That poor bugger must have had pain for hell.
Well we'll keep trying and I'll keep you posted. Castor oil will be available here as well. Should clear and new motor oil not do the trick as well. It is just some tighter concistancy that will keep the oil on the feet instead of running away, right?

 

[Beekissed]

The ingredients to NS are in the post above but I'll list them again...Sulfur powder, Pine Tar, Mineral oil. The consistency that works best is a little like when you warm up lotion and it gets runny. I used to think that runny consistency was a nuisance so I thickened mine with bag balm and lard. Big mistake. The thicker, but more adherent, formula didn't penetrate under the scales but merely sealed off the spaces between.

If I were you I'd try the castor oil first....if anything I'm more pleased with the results of the castor oil for scale mites than I am with the NS, though the NS has so many different uses around a farm that it's handy to just have on hand at all times. It's a good for so many things.

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.

 

[petersmarine33]

Hiya from yucky UK,

So what is the compound you are using??? Sounds goooood!! Please let me know, as I have chooks, Alpacas, horses, dogs and ferrets.
Anything that can help is a huge bonus!

Seems to me that the old fashioned rotation of ground would help. For instance, if Spuds/potatoes are grown in the same ground for more than three years, blight becomes rampant. Leave the ground for three / four years and plant with other crops, then the blight dies. Complimentary / sympathetically disease opposing crops, like marigolds with onions for example, eliminates vegetable disease. SO, why can't this same principle apply to livestock ?
One main problem may be the lack of space.

ERGO, hygene and cleanliness with handling; feeders, water supply;feed; new stock; hatching eggs; etc etc must be the alternative, n'est-pas?

B.R.
Pietro.

 

[ChickyNamibia]

Hello Beekissed,

well I too think that my cocks feet look much better since I bath him once a week and dip him into cooking oil, but I will go and get some castor oil and continue on that. The bigger of the 2 hens does not really get along as well as the cock but she has no option than to be bathed as well once a week. I will continue this until all the old scales are gone and than just continue dipping until they are fully healed. What is so cute to me is that my cock always falls asleep in my husbands hands while I wash and bruch his legs. He really enjoys this whilehis white lady is a little anxious. His brown lady always behaves like she is due to be murdered but she will just have to get used to this though she is only dipped for prevention. She only has one little spot which I don't want to spread so she can not be left ut. Thanks for the pics. Tell me where exactly are you in the big world. Talking of inches you should be sonewhere in the US.
By the way we are not living on a farm we are living in town but when it comes to our pets you might consider the thought of a farm.
Have a lovley day

 

[Beekissed]

West Virginia! It's in the Appalachian mountain region of the eastern portion of the US. Very rural, very wild and smack dab in the middle of some more settled and domesticated states, so we do things a little differently than most folks. It's the "natural law of fang and claw" here, as Mr. Darling would say.

I used castor oil on those birds in March and you can still feel it on their scales here at the end of June...never known an oil to stay so long and work so long. I'm quite pleased with the price, the natural-ness of it and the effectiveness of it. It's also available about anywhere in the world that has a pharmacy.

 

[Keepitathome]

The ingredients to NS are in the post above but I'll list them again...Sulfur powder, Pine Tar, Mineral oil. The consistency that works best is a little like when you warm up lotion and it gets runny. I used to think that runny consistency was a nuisance so I thickened mine with bag balm and lard. Big mistake. The thicker, but more adherent, formula didn't penetrate under the scales but merely sealed off the spaces between.

If I were you I'd try the castor oil first....if anything I'm more pleased with the results of the castor oil for scale mites than I am with the NS, though the NS has so many different uses around a farm that it's handy to just have on hand at all times. It's a good for so many things.

What about replacing the mineral oil with castor oil in the NS recipe? I tend to stay way from mineral oil, being a petroleum product.