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

[Fancychooklady]

How are leg mites transmitted? How does a chicken become infected?

Sorry for all these questions, but I'm totally ignorant on this subject, but I'm an extremely curious person.

My "patient" is a six-year old Brahma hen. Am I right to conclude a chicken's overall physical health and age may have something to do with susceptibility? 

I feel badly now that I may have caused her pain when I squirted the eucalyptus oil on her legs and feet yesterday. She's going to get the epsom salt bath and castor oil treatment first thing this morning. I may just "Bag Balm" the rest of the flock to head off having this spread. Will that work?

Cnemidocoptes mutans is less than 0.5 mm in size and spends its entire life cycle 10-14 days on its host ( your chicken ). Skin scrapings can be done but the symptoms usually speak for themselves . Regardless of what product you use , the idea is to smother them . So the thicker you lather it on the better. I prefer Vicks as it is usually a one application , sometimes 2 deal.

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2540&Itemid=2816

 

[jamiebelle1207]

What a great resource. My buff orpington has a few tough, raised up scales right at her ankle. I am new to chicken keeping and purchased her as a laying hen. I thought maybe this breed just has different-looking feet than the others. Anyway, after a few blog posts alerted me to the issue, I came here to figure out what to try to do.

We started last night. I plucked her out of the coop at dusk, wrapped her in a towel (she isn't fond of being handled), and stuck both legs in a bucket of lukewarm water mixed with a little apple cider vinegar. She soaked for 3 minutes. Then I took a never-used tooth brush and gently brushed around and under the bad-looking scales. I dried her legs off and coated them liberally with A&D ointment, being sure to get it up under the bad scales. She tolerated all this much better than I had anticipated, but it did take two people to get the job done.

I am going to clean out the coop today.

The other two chickens, one pullet and one who's been with her since I bought her, don't have bad-looking legs so hopefully this is isolated to just Clementine.

We will repeat the treatment every other day for a while and hopefully that will be sufficient to clear this up. We love Clemmy, she's our best layer of the three.

 

[S5apiotrowski]

This thread is very informative - Thanks to all! We picked up one hen that has one foot with awkward scales, similar to the picture at the beginning of the thread. We had been painting it with tea-tree oil (twice over 1 week), and several of the scales sloughed off with healthier skin showing underneath. The hen seemed to find the tea-tree oil soothing. However, the thickest and ugliest of the scales didn't appear touched.

I found this thread earlier today - We just did a nice foot soak with warm water and epsom salts and then did a foot dunk with a mineral oil/tea tree oil mix with a little vaseline on top to seal it in. We have some DE as well for the hen house. Hopefully this will help finish the job!

 

[maeve27]

Have you tried coconut oil?

 

[149east]

thanks Yes we did finally get ahold of some sulphur, and Yes it was from a fodder store. She's now been integrated with the flock for over a month and, fingers crossed, I think we might have beaten it!! thanks for your reply

 

[S5apiotrowski]

The mineral oil and vaseline have helped a lot. We still have about 2 large scales but the entire foot looks much better and our hen doesn't seem bothered anymore. We may try one more treatment this weekend. None of our other birds are affected.

Have you tried coconut oil?

We have not - but I think it may work - I think the oil occludes the environment mites are trying to live in - suffocating them. I don't think it would hurt any... but I don't think it would be any more effective than less expensive treatments... If you try it, let us know how it works.

 

[katsmajic]

Awesome thread, thanks all for the tips.
I noticed one of my girls limping the other day and that her feet looked really knarly....and to make it worse i think shes broken her leg too (over enthusiastic rooster while shes been limping i reckon).
Looking at pictures she has scaly mites checked the rest of the the girls and the rooster, 2 girls have scaly legs too but the others all look fine. I'll treat them with petroleum jelly with tea tree oil in the morning.
Poorly girl is in a dog crate in the house with us, i soaked her legs, didnt scrub but rubbed them then rinsed and resoaked in water and apple cider vinegar then smothered her in oil. She's eating and drinking, laying eggs etc, nestled happily in lots of hay (ran out of straw), i got petroleum jelly and vet wrap today and am going to splint her leg tomorrow when i soak her again, i didnt want to drag her out again today for splinting after shes snuggled up after soaking.
I asked at the fodder shop for some FGDE and got a blank look, he's looking in to it for me....so in the mean time i need something that will kill off mites in the coop, thinking of just making up a spray with tea tree oil??

 

[katsmajic]

I cant start a new thread on my phone. But need help....this is getting upsetting...ive just jellied all the girls and put the splint and bandaged up the broken leg and now ive got a girl who is sitting down using her wings to balance her andstruggling to walk...we had this with another girl about 6 wks ago I did the warm baths the finger up the vent the beroca and oil etc but she died after 2 weeks...I know these are rescue girls and I dont know their history but its getting really upsetting now.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I cant start a new thread on my phone. But need help....this is getting upsetting...ive just jellied all the girls and put the splint and bandaged up the broken leg and now ive got a girl who is sitting down using her wings to balance her andstruggling to walk...we had this with another girl about 6 wks ago I did the warm baths the finger up the vent the beroca and oil etc but she died after 2 weeks...I know these are rescue girls and I dont know their history but its getting really upsetting now.

It's sounds to me that there is more going on here than leg mites. I always worm new birds, spray or dust for external parasites and give them a multi vitamin in their water for the first week or so. Wings down and lethargy could also be a sign of coccocidiosis or botulism.

 

[katsmajic]

I did worm them and have done a few times since...tie it in with horse worming etc.they all had some berocca when I had the first sick girl and ive put calcium powder in their water a cple of times...