Flaky legs?

[CaliTX]

Someone gave us a hen last night and I just saw her feet this morning and they are very pale, flaky.. almost chalky looking? She also has diarrhea. I apologize for the low quality pic, I just had my cell phone. I can grab the good camera if needed.. what is this and what should I do to treat her? She is rather lethargic, I had to pick her up off the roost and put her outside.

 

[willowbranchfarm]

I cant tell from the picture but she probably has scaly leg mites. Put petroleum jelly (vaseline) on her legs.

 

[CaliTX]

Thank you. After I posted this I went through searching the forum and found you can also use vegetable oil? So I put some in a bucket and scrubbed her legs with a toothbrush. Would vaseline be better? And how often should I reapply?

 

[willowbranchfarm]

I would use vaseline but ive never tried the oil so I don't know about that. Depends, I would try 1 or 2 times a day.

 

[CaliTX]

Thank you!

 

[willowbranchfarm]

Glad I could help.

 

[Suzie]

Ouch! I have read on the forum ( in the past) that it is not a good idea to scrub the legs with anything abrasive - normally as willowbranchfarm says vaseline is very efficient and you only need to apply every few days - the idea being that the vaseline smothers any leg mites and also offers the added benefit of making the legs resistant to water too! I would reapply maybe once or twice a week ( make sure you apply the vaseline up to where the feathers start on the legs) - new scales will form in a few weeks

Suzie
.

 

[casportpony]

Ouch! I have read on the forum ( in the past) that it is not a good idea to scrub the legs with anything abrasive - normally as willowbranchfarm says vaseline is very efficient and you only need to apply every few days - the idea being that the vaseline smothers any leg mites and also offers the added benefit of making the legs resistant to water too! I would reapply maybe once or twice a week ( make sure you apply the vaseline up to where the feathers start on the legs) - new scales will form in a few weeks

Suzie
.

X2. I thought I read that the scrubbing could introduce infection. It was on the web, so it must be true, right?

 

[casportpony]

Someone gave us a hen last night and I just saw her feet this morning and they are very pale, flaky.. almost chalky looking? She also has diarrhea. I apologize for the low quality pic, I just had my cell phone. I can grab the good camera if needed.. what is this and what should I do to treat her? She is rather lethargic, I had to pick her up off the roost and put her outside.

If she has leg mites, she probably has other parasites as well. If she were mine, I would weigh her, dust her with poultry dust and deworm her with Safeguard for Goats/Cattle (fenbendazole 100mg/ml). I worm mine at 50mg/kg ( .5cc/kg) by mouth and repeat in 10 days.