McKeownkd
Chirping
- Dec 9, 2020
- 31
- 94
- 69
My Biscuit, a 10 month old Easter Egger hen has been pecking at her leg scales causing bleeding. I noticed 2 days ago that she had some blood on her leg where her leg and foot meet, so I sprayed some Vetericyn on it, cleaned it, and put some blu-kote, not knowing at that time if it was another hen pecking at her. Then I caught her on camera doing it to herself at bedtime. Today, she started doing it in the same spot but on the other leg. Her scales don't seem raised to me, but could this possibly be a very early sign of scaly leg mites and it's itching her? My 2 other girls are fine, no raised scales, no pecking, no leg injuries. Could it be stress induced? They moved into a new coop about a month ago and they seem to really like it. I moved them after I had a Marek's outbreak, triggered by Cocciodosis when my run started flooding after some construction our neighbor was doing. Biscuit did lose her bff to it. She is still eating/ drinking/ moving/ jumping on things as normal. Her poops are normal. Her legs do not seem swollen or painful at all.
So far in the coop I have:
Changed out the nest box material
Did a thorough turning of their hemp bedding in the hen house (I do deep litter bedding) but it's new from about a month ago
Sprayed down all the roosts with a strong cleaner
They have wood chips in their run which are still very clean, and don't really free range.
Biscuit enjoyed a full service spa day including:
Warm Epsom Salt bath
A gentle scrubbing/ cleaning of legs
Sprayed with vetericyn
Applied Neosporin (no pain reliever)
Soaked legs in vegetable oil
Covered with Petroleum Jelly
Gave her a few drops of a broad spectrum antibiotic (clinomycin) as a preventative. Her leg felt a little warm to me.
I didn't know what to do, so I did everything. I plan to do this routine once a week until she's healed. Does anyone have any advice on what else I should do or what this could be? I looked up scaly leg mites in depth, and it just doesn't look quite right. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks,
Katie & Biscuit
The fresh wound, post wash
You can see the injuries are in the same spot on both legs, on the outer area where the foot meets the leg
New wound, post wash
New wound, post wash.
She stands and moves normally.
Original injury, pre-wash
New injury, pre-wash
So far in the coop I have:
Changed out the nest box material
Did a thorough turning of their hemp bedding in the hen house (I do deep litter bedding) but it's new from about a month ago
Sprayed down all the roosts with a strong cleaner
They have wood chips in their run which are still very clean, and don't really free range.
Biscuit enjoyed a full service spa day including:
Warm Epsom Salt bath
A gentle scrubbing/ cleaning of legs
Sprayed with vetericyn
Applied Neosporin (no pain reliever)
Soaked legs in vegetable oil
Covered with Petroleum Jelly
Gave her a few drops of a broad spectrum antibiotic (clinomycin) as a preventative. Her leg felt a little warm to me.
I didn't know what to do, so I did everything. I plan to do this routine once a week until she's healed. Does anyone have any advice on what else I should do or what this could be? I looked up scaly leg mites in depth, and it just doesn't look quite right. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks,
Katie & Biscuit
The fresh wound, post wash
You can see the injuries are in the same spot on both legs, on the outer area where the foot meets the leg
She stands and moves normally.
Original injury, pre-wash
New injury, pre-wash
