Question about leg mites

[blue fire]

Is it ok it I use the Tea tree oil everyday? I have been doing this every night and morning for the past five days..... could that harm their legs? I am noticing some some scales are becoming pale...

 

[blue fire]

 

[blue fire]

Last question I will ask .....for now, I promise!!

 

[valmom]

I think tea tree oil is pretty safe to use every day. (at least on dogs and horses- never used it on chickens). We did the Bag Balm nightly thing for leg mites- had some improvement, and now we mix DE in with their bedding and on their roosting shelves (we didn't get proper roosts set up for them when we got the girls and they just roost on the tops of the nest boxes). I think the DE helps to keep them from re-infesting.

 

[lalaland]

ok, I couldn't find frontline spray, and the ingredients in other flea/lice sprays for dogs were so varied I figured I had too good of a chance to go wrong.

Went with wd40, and I have this to say: it was a heck of a lot easier to apply than anything else I've tried! I had dipped the girls legs in veg oil again last week, so when I went to spray the wd40 last night there were already bits of crud falling off their legs.

Think the problem was that with the new chicks that came June 4, and work, and my 3 hour daily commute I just didn't take the time to keep up with the big girls legs. My bad.

Today, I integrated the pullets with the big girls, and that should save me 20 minutes a day, so I'll be able to more easily keep up with the leg mites. Am hoping that a couple of weeks of wd40 should do it.

Is that realistic?

 

[lalaland]

valmom, did the scales on your chickens ever totally clean up? or does it look like they still have scaly leg mites?

 

[baregretchen]

Quote:
Hey, sorry. I was away at a horse show all day today! My girl placed 6th, 2nd and 1st in her three classes. Yeah!

Anyway...yes frontline spray. It comes in only one strength and usually you can only get it at specialty stores. It works great, I'm telling you! When I said soaked, I did mean I sprayed them until they were dripping. It kills the mites and the vaseline softens all the scale crud so it comes off easier. Honestly, I don't think the wd40 is going to actually kill the mites, although it will slough off the crud, too, like the vaseline. So make sure to also spray something to kill the mites if you use the wd40.

Good luck!

 

[lalaland]

yeah, I wondered about that. I had read previously that you just need to smother the mites (therefore, vaseline, oil, etc) but apparently that isn't enough.

The feed store, which had a huge section of dog stuff, only had front line in little capsules. I'll look for it in town tomorrow.
thanks