Please help - not sure what this is :-(

[CatieLouise]

Hello,
My little roo has had these sores on his leg for a couple of weeks. I was told by a friend and fellow chicken keeper that they were scaly leg mite and to treat with surgical spirit but not to use petroleum jelly as the bird often ends up dirtier and stickier than before and it can cause problems. I have been spraying his little legs with surgical spirit but it hasn't seemed to make much difference. Tonight I bit the bullet a smothered his legs in petroleum jelly hoping to see an improvement but I'm worried that this might be something else other than leg might. I've checked on google and it doesn't seem to fit either of the common chicken ailments; scaly leg mite, bumblefoot etc. He is eating and drinking as normal and seems quite lively other than the sores on his feet and legs :-(
Any help would be appreciated
Cate

 

[Lady of McCamley]

That's not scaly leg mite.
Nor is it bumble foot.
So what is it? For that, I'm not really sure.
It looks like infection of some sort, possibly secondary, so if you can get your hands on some Tylan, I'd give him a round of it.
Is there some sort of bug (chigger) or feather mite or such that he could be infested with? Some feather mites cause irritation at the feather sites. You might try spraying him with a permethrin spray such as Gordon's poultry spray.
The last thought is it could be a form of Marek's skin lesions or the lesser worrisome feather follicle tumor...but the redness and proliferation leads me to suspicion more of irritation/infection.
My thoughts
LofMc

 

[CatieLouise]

Thankyou, really informative.
If it was Mareks wouldn't it have spread to the other birds by now? He seems to have had it a good few weeks now and non of the other birds seems to have caught anything, so I don't think it's contagious.

The flock had some sort of little white mites last summer which I treated with Diatomacious Earth. I have been keeping on top of that this summer with preventative dusting downs with DE every week or so and also dusting the coop and perches liberally however last week I did find one single stray mite of the same variety that we had last summer but haven't seen anymore since. So perhaps it might be related?
Thanks again
Cate