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

[AndreaS]

So I just read this entire thread.
I have a broody who I'm trying to beak and noticed today that she has some scales lifting on her legs. Odd thing is, I just cleaned out the coop and dusted permethrin in the bedding and nest boxes two weeks ago. I check my girls fairly regularly and hadn;t noticed anything until today. I suppose since the leg mites burrow and live in their legs, they could have been there for awhile and I'm just now seeing signs of it.

It's about time for my girls to get their twice a year worming anyway, so I guess I will worm and then follow the epsom salt soaking followed by regularly slathering of bagbalm or oil and tea tree protocol.

I do have one question if anyone reading this knows....I've been using Valbazen for my wormer. Does it kill external blood sucking parasites? I know Ivermectin does, but I'd prefer not to have to buy the huge (expensive!) sizes that are available locally.

It seems to me that using a wormer that kills external parasites followed by the leg slathering treatment is probably the best bet....although I know lots of folks here don't agree with worming.

Andrea

 

[sunlitmoonlight]

Hi all - just read this thread ...

One of my newly rescued hens had a really bad dose of scaly mites, far worse than in the pic. I would like to share with ye how I treated them with great success. I soaked her feet and legs in warm water with iodine in it. Ratio was about half teaspoon to 1 litre of water. After about 3 to 5 minutes of soaking I used an old toothbrush and gently brushed her legs and feet, whilst in the water. Then rinsed her legs off with warm water and patted them dry. Then smothered the legs and feet with vaseline, taking special care to very gently push vaseline under the scales. There was an immediate change and within 5 nights of treatment, most of the affected scales and lumps that had formed had fallen off. Within about 10 nights of treatment, she had beautiful legs and feet. About every fortnight I smear vaseline onto all our chickens legs. We dust them once a week with DE, clean their house once a week and dust the house with DE as well. So far, things seem to be all quiet on this front. Hope this helps someone else with this awfully painful disease.

 

[bigzio]

Great post and I love the vaseline treatment too. I prefer 5% sevin dust over DE for a complete treatment. The 5% sevin never ever fails to work.

 

[Snack Giver]

OK thanks to everyone who wrote on this thread. I finally figured out why my Barred Rock hen's legs looked so ugly... the poor girl has mites! it makes me feel bad that they are painful, too. So starting yesterday I soaked her in a warm water in the sink sink for a few minutes and later applied mineral oil. Then today I soaked again in warm water and applied a thick layer of vaseline all the way up to her feathers. I am going to keep up treatment and maybe next try orange oil too. I know we just need to smother the mites. Each time I hold and bathe my lil BR I give her crickets afterward as a reward treat. Now she has suddenly become easier to catch! Anyways, thx people.

 

[TeePants]

Huh, one of our 'hot mess' silkies we got this past Sunday has scabby looking legs- the other is fine, but this one's legs are dry with upraised scales. We decided to err on the side of caution, and after bathing them for normal mites we coated his legs in vegetable oil. Needless to say he's not amused. We'll switch to vaseline as I imagine that will be easier to get onto his legs.

Is it possible that normal mites, or his feathers coming in on his head, would make him scratch his face? Because his eye's been swollen and it started to get better but recently it got worse, and I caught him scraping at it with his claws and had to clip them really short to keep him from making it worse.

 

[craftbug1021]

am treating 17 birds for leg mites, I am dunking their legs in veg oil, that I have in a coffee can and just hold them over it and let their leg dangle in it a minute. The ones that are worst infested seem to enjoy it. Problem being they are silkies, and they sleep all on top of each other so now I have a bunch of greasy birds!!! And it rained yesterday so you can imagine....I am getting ready to clean the pen out, replace the straw with wood shavings. Has anyone ever used neem oil with birds? I dont want to use clorox or DE, if I cant breathe it I dont feel like my chickens should.

 

[craftbug1021]

just found leg mites and red mites today on all my silkies, I found the leg mites 2 days ago. soaked there legs in veg oil by putting the leg down in a jar of oil. Now I have 13 oily silkies, didnt think about them sleeping on top of each other. Gave them all a bath today, oiled their legs again tonight but blotted them this time. have 3 EE I am just going to rub their legs with oil hoping that will do it for them. They do not like to be held and I just got them so they are not used to daily hugs yet. I changed all the bedding in the coop and am praying this will take care of it as they also just started laying.........Tired chicky

 

[stephanie1992]

could this be leg mites. her feet look funny to me. best pics i could get

 

[tonia1968]

Been reading all the info on scaly leg mites, very helpful so will try some of the ideas. Also one of our chickens had some blue on its crown and wasn't eating properly?

 

[poonam]

Hey there just wanted to ask what finally worked for you out of the treatments you tried.