My Rhode Island has got really yucky legs all kind of scaly. Thing is we already did the coop and sprayed for mites? Red mites though? Do I have to get another spray for this???? She seems happy enough but I noticed one of the other hens has started to get it too. Last year my lovely Hen Eleanor had legs the same and when I asked our Vet he said it was fine it was just the way she was? But then the last two Hens I took to our Vet are dead and the baby chick I took he held it upside down to look for a willy when I asked if he could sex it????? What should I do for her? She is also losing her feathers though some folk say its just a molt - She is happy but also incredibly thin. She has always been really boney so we call her drum stick - because there isn;t any meat on her. She just seems thinner than ever lately. She is very active though and her crown is red and she is laying. Oesdog.
If she has scaley mites, you can spray her legs heavily with PAM to suffocate the mites. You will probably have to do everyone for a few days, but it should help. Vasoline, vegatable oil, crisco, etc will all work, but you can't beat spray-on application!
You can also put Eprinex ivermectin on her skin over her shoulders. This should kill all the mites. 5 drops from a syringe on a bird that size. Comes out to .5 cc, I think. I, personally, would do all your chickens. Make sure it goes on the skin only, if you get it on the feathers it won't disperse itself over the skin surface sufficiently to adequately kill the mites. It may take a while for the legs to go down to normal size. Make sure the mites in the coop are gone, or your chickens will just become re-infested. Also, I don't think you can eat the eggs for 2 weeks after treatment.
WD40 spray works great also. You need to smother all the mites, so sprays are great for getting in all the cracks. Just finished treating mine for two weeks everyday... didn't know what I had either before I came on BYC... thought all chicken legs were just that ugly. Now my birds have gorgeous chiken legs! If you let this go it can do a lot of damage and is hard on your birds.
