Crossbeak hen—need advice

[kpenn26]

Gabby is my 1.5 year old Wyandotte. She has been a crossbeak from the beginning. She adapted well and is able to eat, although she is smaller than her sisters and always looks scruffy because of her inability to groom well. Recently I noticed one of her nostrils is completely occluded. I’ve tried moistening it to see if I can remove the occlusion but it is hard and thick. Should I try to surgically remove?
She also has had scaly leg mites at some point, and I’ve tried ivermectin, Vaseline, and I soaked her legs in elector PSP probably a month ago. There has been no change. Her legs have looked like this for quite some time. None of my other hens have any trace of scaly leg mites. I don’t why she does—maybe because she cannot groom well. She is beginning to limp some now. Any advice would be appreciated. I do not want to cull her as she is a lovely personality and still lays consistently when in season.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

We have a cross beak about the same age, but a silkie.

We also get SLM every couple of years, because they're silkies too. With either the Ivermectin or the Vaseline, the treatment has to be done a week to 10 days later, or there could be mite eggs that got missed. I'm wondering if that's what happened, as they should start showing improvement. SLM is a long process though and takes months for them to regrow the scales on their legs.

As for her nostrils, I do not know if it's needed since their mouths are always open. She must've grown to adapt to it if you just noticed it and it's closed off. We use a dremel to trim our silkies beak. If that's what you have, I'd be tempted to use that on the nose a little bit and see if that's just like scar tissue there.