A rooster adopted us! How do we debug him?

[Fluffybuttz]

A neighbour's rooster adopted us this past April, probably sensing that we're animal sanctuary wannabes, despite us not having or knowing anything about chickens. We don't have money for a livestock vet visit. He seems to be doing okay so far with us muddling through, though I've been worried about pests since he free ranges most days. Who doesn't need a surprise house chicken?

His feet look like they possibly had/have scaly mites, but it doesn't look like they've gotten worse. He takes plenty of dust baths, and I sometimes find a tick or a teeny weeny red bug on me while and/or after holding him. What kinds of things can we do to help him with pests?

We'd ask the neighbour, but they seem to've not been honest with us about how/why he got kicked out of the clan. They've got a lot of chickens, like enough to keep them in a big barn, and we're all in farm country Minnesota. Cheers!

 

[Eggcessive]

There are a couple of kind of body mites possible on chickens, and scaly leg mites. There also is body lice that affect chickens. The common red poultry mite may only be on the chicken at night and hide inside the crevices of the coop during the day. The northern fowl mites may be found day and night on the chicken. Lice are tan and elongated, fast moving and their eggs are see as white clumps at the base of feathers. Permethrin garden dust or 10% spray will kill mites and lice. Repeat treatment in 7 days to get newly hatched eggs.
Elector PSP is another treatment that works, and is a bit more expensive.

Scaly leg mites are treated usually with oil such as castor, mineral, vaseline, Nustock Cream or Vicks rubbed into the scales 2-3 times a week for several weeks to smother the leg mites. Some may use ivermectin pour on 0.1 ml per every 2 pounds of weight applied to the back of the neck over the spine. Here is a good link about treatment:
https://www.amerpoultryassn.com/2021/09/scaly-leg-mites/

Here are a couple of good links with pictures to read about lice and mites, and scaly leg mites:
https://poultryhealthinspection.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk6711/files/inline-files/Lice & Mites of Poultry - McCrea 8162_0.pdf

https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

 

[Eggcessive]

Have they kicked him out of their flock for some reason, or do they have another or too many roosters? We get a lot of posts about frostbite on combs, wattles, and feet from MN members each year when birds are not inside out of the cold air, or get wet during January and Feb. If combs or wattles get wet, they can freeze during near zero weather. Wind plus cold and moisture is what causes frostbite. I can post links to read about that if you need.

 

[Fluffybuttz]

Have they kicked him out of their flock for some reason, or do they have another or too many roosters? We get a lot of posts about frostbite on combs, wattles, and feet from MN members each year when birds are not inside out of the cold air, or get wet during January and Feb. If combs or wattles get wet, they can freeze during near zero weather. Wind plus cold and moisture is what causes frostbite. I can post links to read about that if you need.

They do have multiple roosters, even still. They still talk to ours and I'm so curious about their conversations! He (Rowan) had severe frostbite on his comb and some on his wattle when he showed up, poor lil guy. I read somewhere on here I think that another adopted rooster's frostbitten comb grew back 50%, so I'm hopeful! Since he's solo and we won't adopt more chickens before winter, we're gonna keep him inside in a kennel. We were planning to adopt some eventually but he moved up the timeline by a lot, heh.

Neighbour told us they didn't really know what happened. Their dad passed away last year sometime, and they told my other neighbours that Rowan was part of their dad's flock and wouldn't be integrated. My husband has known their family his entire life. We're so confused as to why somebody would lie about that that we haven't been able to go over and talk to them about it. When I get over it I'm gonna bake brownies or something and take them over there.

I appreciate your bug and medicine information! There's so much information on rooster pests (Edit to add: Double thank you for the info on Vaseline. We were not looking forward to trying to dip his feet in olive oil. He's very sweet but very large and very energetic). We could only find partial information whenever we researched how to treat them, and we didn't wanna hurt him. Thank you so much, and may today bring you joy !