What's wrong with my girl's leg? Mites? Scaly, swollen, and white!

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kikster

kikster

In the Brooder
10 Years
Jul 7, 2009
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She's a bantam Cochin, and recently my son started saying that " 'Chick-fil-a's leg is all boily" I asked him to show me today what he meant, and he was right! There is definitely something wrong with her foot. The other one appears to be okay. When I was out checking on her this morning, she just kept fussing, and standing on one leg, while pecking at the affected one. She's about 1 1/2-2 yrs old. Can anyone tell me what this is or what would cause it? Is there anything we can do for her? We don't know of a vet that works w/poultry in our area, I'll be researching that after posting this.

It was really hard to get a good pic, but here's what I got.


Is this scaly leg mites?

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232323232%7Ffp537%3C%3A%3Enu%3D4738%3E898%3E256%3EWSNRCG%3D3284%3C456%3A2347nu0mrj


232323232%7Ffp537%3C6%3Enu%3D4738%3E898%3E256%3EWSNRCG%3D3284%3C3%3A578347nu0mrj
 
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I think that's what it is; you could do a search option on the menu bar above to make sure. I the recommended treatment is worm with ivermectin (Ivomec) which is a wormer for cattle sold at feed stores. I don't know if a regular vet will sell you some or not. For bantams give 5 to 7 drops by mouth. Do not eat the eggs for the treatment period and a couple of weeks after. I believe there might be a way to administer ivermectin on the skin, but I'm using the Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow and that's not mentioned in here. It's advisable to put Vaseline on the legs for the scales to get better but Damerow says they'll never return to normal. You'll probably need to treat all your chickens.

The book also recommends that you paint roosts with a mixture of one part kerosine to two parts linseed oil. My roosts are painted with food grade diatomaceous earth. I just add water to make a whitewash.

Good luck, sorry I can't be of more help.
 
That's scaley leg mites. You need to cover(heavily) her feet and legs in vaseline and dust her with Sevin dust or spray her with Adam's flea and tick spray! The vaseline will smother the mites that have burrowed under her scales. Repeat in a coupld days and then once more in a couple more days. In a few weeks, you will see her scales start to fall off, revealing fresh ones! If your one has mites, then so do the rest, so dust/spray everything down! Good luck!
 
Sure looks like Scaly Leg Mites to me, too, based on other pics I've seen on here. Treat as others have prescribed. Good luck!
 
Man, that stinks! I always thought everyone said DE would help prevent that, and we dust their house, and pen with it all the time. Does DE not help with this?

@Fiberart57, I have that Chicken Health Handbook as well, and it seems to just say cull the infected bird, because there's no hope. I pray that's not the case.

Those that have had mites before, does it affect your chicken/flock forever? Do they ever go away, with proper treatment?
 
Quote:
No culling necessary! Scaley leg mites can be treated with the vaseline and some sort of mite remover(sevin dust or Adam's spray). It's not "infected" witha disease...just has bugs which is usually brought in from wild birds! No, it doesn't affect your flock forever, but is something you want to check for every couple months! Good luck!!!
 
Meant to add, the chickens legs can return to normal after a good treatment with vaseline and dusting--I have had great sucess with this. The first chickens I ever owned had them and I was first horrified to know there was a mite burrowed under their poor scales, but after treating with vaseline and dusting/spraying, they were like new!
smile.png
There is hope!!!
hugs.gif
 
Thanks so much, I'm worried about my little girl
hit.gif
. We will do our best to get rid of this problem, that darn book scared me and my son, as we were reading it today. He was like "CULL?!?"
ep.gif
 
The white bumpy 'scale' is hardened mite poop. One of the best things you can do for her is to soak her legs in a warm bath with flea and tick shampoo added. Let the scales loosen (it could take a while) and use a nail brush to gently scrub the affected area. Don't go crazy so you don't hurt her healthy skin. After patting her dry apply a good coat of vaseline. This will help soften the scale and smother remaining mites. Repeat every 2 days until she is good as new.

The coop will have to be cleaned thoroughly. All of the bedding has to be removed and everything swept down. Make a mixture of Sevin dust and water and use an old spray bottle to spray along the floor where the walls meet, the roost, the laying boxes and any cracks you can find. The mites live in the cracks and come out at night to live on the chickens and suck their blood. If the infestation is bad enough they can kill your chickens.

Open all the windows and doors to air things out and add new bedding. Treat each chicken with a good dusting of poultry lice and mite dust. Sprinkle in on good and ruffle their feathers with your fingers to get the dust down to the base of the feather shaft. Dusting their butts and breast area is very important. When you start to dust start at the neck and work your way toward the butt. Any mites that run will run toward the back end and not toward the eyes and face.

Dust everyone again in 10 days. The dust kills the adult mites but not the eggs that are waiting to hatch. You have to break the life cycle and the reapply in 10 days will do it.

It's a lot of work but worth it especially with winter coming on.

A note on DE. It is a preventative....not a wonder dust like most people believe. It WILL NOT stop an infestation once it starts. Unfortunatly you have to use chemicals for that.

Good luck.
 
another good thing to note is that scaley leg mites only live on the chickens. They do not infest all the wood surfaces and cracks and crevases like other mites do... DON'T cull, totally not neccessary.
 

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