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

[TheSpiceGirls]

I'm 2 1/2 weeks into painting my hens legs w/ castor oil and WOW, why didn't I discover this sooner. The three who had a mild case, they look GREAT. The scales are going back down and while the dirt sticks to the oil when I first paint it on, by the nest day, it's all come off. And it's not sticking up under the scales anymore so I can tell those scales are now tightening back down.

The one hen who had the worst case of it, it had been going on for a while, her legs look better. But the scales are still raised. Those will probably next go back down and I'll have to wait for her to shed those.

But the one hen who was really biting at her feet, enough to make them bleed, that has all stopped.

I'm so relieved.

 

[sunflower4you]

The castor oil is working for me, also, but I am only using it once a week and my girls had a pretty severe case. It has helped with the dryness and cracking, though. I think I will increase the frequency of application. I am also battling a feather picker that has caused injury to one of my scaly leg girls so she is getting all creamed/oiled up!

@TheSpiceGirls - How often do you apply the castor oil?

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

The castor oil is working for me, also, but I am only using it once a week and my girls had a pretty severe case. It has helped with the dryness and cracking, though. I think I will increase the frequency of application. I am also battling a feather picker that has caused injury to one of my scaly leg girls so she is getting all creamed/oiled up!

@TheSpiceGirls - How often do you apply the castor oil?

I did it three times the first week and twice the second. They just got their first paint of oil last night for this week and I'll do it again this weekend. I think after that I'll scale back to just once a week.

I should look up what the breeding cycle is of scaly leg mites and mirror that.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I put him in about 1/2 inch of apple cider vinegar with a few drops of melaleuca(tea tree oil), then poured the remainder on his feet. I'll try to do this a couple times a day. Would that be good?

Tea tree oil can be quite toxic to chickens, better to soak and use a mineral oil, Vaseline , Vicks or campho-phenique . A wound spray such as terramycin will help with the eye injury. Keep those boys separated , if at all possible. Once they start fighting , it will only get worse.

 

[silkiecuddles]

I really need help with my chickens' mites. How do they get them and how do I get rid of them? I think more than just my brahma rooster has them, and I want to tend to the others before they get worse. I put new hay and pine shavings in the chickens coop a few days ago, before I saw how his legs looked. HELP!

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I really need help with my chickens' mites. How do they get them and how do I get rid of them? I think more than just my brahma rooster has them, and I want to tend to the others before they get worse. I put new hay and pine shavings in the chickens coop a few days ago, before I saw how his legs looked. HELP!

Go back and read some of the beginning entries of this thread. Basically, you need to oil up their legs to smother the mites. People have used a number of different kinds of oils. I'm currently using Castor Oil and painting it on their legs/feet 2-3 times a week and I'm noticing a big improvement after three weeks.

 

[Beekissed]

The castor oil and the campho treatments have the triple purpose of being natural anti-parasitic/insecticides, antibacterial and antifungal agents, so I'd choose one or the other as a preventative/curative treatment over just base oils. The castor oil is the thicker of the two and has more staying power, needing less reapplication so it's my treatment of choice for prevention of the spread of scale mites. I now apply it every spring and fall just for kicks and giggles and have had no further problem with scale mites.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

The castor oil and the campho treatments have the triple purpose of being natural anti-parasitic/insecticides, antibacterial and antifungal agents, so I'd choose one or the other as a preventative/curative treatment over just base oils. The castor oil is the thicker of the two and has more staying power, needing less reapplication so it's my treatment of choice for prevention of the spread of scale mites. I now apply it every spring and fall just for kicks and giggles and have had no further problem with scale mites.

Yea, I did try Vasoline a few years back and it was horribly messy and difficult to get up under the scales. It got all over their feathers and made their bellies dirty.

The Castor oil is much easier to paint on w/ a bush and I'm seeing results MUCH faster. So I'm sticking w/ that route. Not to mention I bought WAY too big a bottle of castor oil. Will probably last me a decade. Yea, the dirt sticks to it but by the next day, it seems to mostly come off. And so far, their belly feathers are mostly clean.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Vicks salve, Vaseline, caster oil, kerosene, even axel grease are all about as effective as the other in curing or controlling scaly leg mites.
What I never hear anyone mention is that if one bird in your flock has scaly leg then the entire flock is infected to one degree or the other.

Treat for scaly leg at night when it is easy to catch each and every bird, and then keep the treated poultry separated until you can treat all birds that night.
Repeat this treatment every week until cured, then start over in 6 months counting from the first treatment. It also helps to treat your roost poles with Permethrin laced used motor oil, this helps prevent re-infestation. You don't just feed only the malnourished birds in your flock do you? No, you feed the entire flock in kind of a prophylactic treatment against hunger. Mite, lice, and all other parasite treatments are no different.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
No, they aren't. Some work to smother the parasite and some work to as an irritant. Some work to prevent further inflammation from the infestation and work to regrow healthy scale and skin while also acting as an antiparasitic and antibacterial agent. They are not all as effective as each other at all, as documented by the many posts on this thread of one method not working or the mites recurring, while other methods affected results that lasted, while still other methods worked more quickly and promoted a quick return to healthy scale.

Saying all work equally is misleading. And, yes, one bird can spread the parasite to other birds over time and exposure. That's how many flocks get exposed to the mite in the first place, when a bird or birds are introduced into the flock from an outside source.