Hi there!
We rescued 3 silkies and their coop from owners who were looking to rehome them - they told us little to no information, except they lost one of their chickens to a raccoon attack.
The day we got them, we noticed their nails were WAY TOO LONG and many nails/toes seemed to be twisting - clearly, they were not getting attended to, and did not have anywhere to scratch. One was so bad that she had a bloody toe. We believe it may be broken.
It's been 4 days with our ~2yr/old silkies now, and we've determined one of them, Daisy, is injured (jokingly aka Lazy Daisy for now, since she's clearly uncomfortable and isn't free ranging as much as the other two). At first we thought Bumblefoot, then we did a bath soak on her feet - and saw that these giant clumps of what looked like MUD ... are part of her scales. Poor girls feet are so deformed. She is very hesitant and awkward when walking, lifting her feet up all the way for every step - it's as exaggerated as they can get. She also avoids walking as much as possible - has been trying to fly a little. She will stand on one foot or the other - often avoiding both feet at once.
Tonight, after further research we realized she has a bad case of Scaly Leg Mites. I am currently pregnant, just entered my 3rd trimester - so I'm going to be wearing gloves for extra precaution when handling them, as the last thing I need is any kind of mite or bird illness. We also have a 3y/o and would like to know best protocol for handling... or not from a sanitary point of view.
So - based off of research... I'm planning to do a Rubbing Alcohol soak 2-3x per week for 3 weeks, and pray we see improvement for our poor Daisy and that our other two birds don't catch it, and/or heal up rapidly.
I'm also going to order a mite spray to help kill the mites.
I have a few questions:
1. Does this mean their coop is infected? I saw a bunch of TINY RED SPIDER LOOKING THINGS CRAWLING AROUND THE COOP - when I looked really close the other day.
2. How about the other chickens? We have not noticed any issues with their free ranging/walking etc, but they all sleep in a double nesting box together and take dust baths under our lemon tree or palms together.
3. Can this transfer to humans/onto clothes etc?
4. Can we eat the eggs they lay?
5. Daisy's earlobes and side of Jaw seem to be RED... could it be bc she's sick? Maybe there is more to this all. I don't think she's a male due to her size, and she doesn't crow/caw.
Please & thank you for your help.
I am slightly discouraged - as this is our first experience with chickens and we had no idea there would be immediate problems to deal with as they didn't inform us of anything at all. I'm hoping we don't need to buy a new coop for them yet.
*I will try to add photos tomorrow.
We rescued 3 silkies and their coop from owners who were looking to rehome them - they told us little to no information, except they lost one of their chickens to a raccoon attack.
The day we got them, we noticed their nails were WAY TOO LONG and many nails/toes seemed to be twisting - clearly, they were not getting attended to, and did not have anywhere to scratch. One was so bad that she had a bloody toe. We believe it may be broken.
It's been 4 days with our ~2yr/old silkies now, and we've determined one of them, Daisy, is injured (jokingly aka Lazy Daisy for now, since she's clearly uncomfortable and isn't free ranging as much as the other two). At first we thought Bumblefoot, then we did a bath soak on her feet - and saw that these giant clumps of what looked like MUD ... are part of her scales. Poor girls feet are so deformed. She is very hesitant and awkward when walking, lifting her feet up all the way for every step - it's as exaggerated as they can get. She also avoids walking as much as possible - has been trying to fly a little. She will stand on one foot or the other - often avoiding both feet at once.
Tonight, after further research we realized she has a bad case of Scaly Leg Mites. I am currently pregnant, just entered my 3rd trimester - so I'm going to be wearing gloves for extra precaution when handling them, as the last thing I need is any kind of mite or bird illness. We also have a 3y/o and would like to know best protocol for handling... or not from a sanitary point of view.
So - based off of research... I'm planning to do a Rubbing Alcohol soak 2-3x per week for 3 weeks, and pray we see improvement for our poor Daisy and that our other two birds don't catch it, and/or heal up rapidly.
I'm also going to order a mite spray to help kill the mites.
I have a few questions:
1. Does this mean their coop is infected? I saw a bunch of TINY RED SPIDER LOOKING THINGS CRAWLING AROUND THE COOP - when I looked really close the other day.
2. How about the other chickens? We have not noticed any issues with their free ranging/walking etc, but they all sleep in a double nesting box together and take dust baths under our lemon tree or palms together.
3. Can this transfer to humans/onto clothes etc?
4. Can we eat the eggs they lay?
5. Daisy's earlobes and side of Jaw seem to be RED... could it be bc she's sick? Maybe there is more to this all. I don't think she's a male due to her size, and she doesn't crow/caw.
Please & thank you for your help.
I am slightly discouraged - as this is our first experience with chickens and we had no idea there would be immediate problems to deal with as they didn't inform us of anything at all. I'm hoping we don't need to buy a new coop for them yet.
*I will try to add photos tomorrow.