SCALEY MITES? Lame chicken

[chickmamat]

This is an 8 year old hen. For quite sometime now she had had…an odd gate? Almost like she is waddling, for at least a year now. I’ve never been able to find anything wrong with her. Aside from a pocket a dirt/poop between her toes on one foot, every couple days I “pop” out the little dirt back and she goes on her way. I can’t remember the term for these, but it is not bumble foot.

As of the last week she is struggling to walk and stand. Is she lays down, it is difficult for her to get up. Mobility seems to be her only issue, she does not appear sick otherwise.

I noticed the skin on her legs is a bit odd, so I uploaded a photo to chatGPt and it said scaley leg mites.

Is that what this looks like? Could it be causes lameness or unrelated?

I included a photo of her legs from the front, which appears normal, and then the back, which is abnormal.

Please help, thank you!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

This is an 8 year old hen. For quite sometime now she had had…an odd gate? Almost like she is waddling, for at least a year now. I’ve never been able to find anything wrong with her. Aside from a pocket a dirt/poop between her toes on one foot, every couple days I “pop” out the little dirt back and she goes on her way. I can’t remember the term for these, but it is not bumble foot.

As of the last week she is struggling to walk and stand. Is she lays down, it is difficult for her to get up. Mobility seems to be her only issue, she does not appear sick otherwise.

I noticed the skin on her legs is a bit odd, so I uploaded a photo to chatGPt and it said scaley leg mites.

Is that what this looks like? Could it be causes lameness or unrelated?

I included a photo of her legs from the front, which appears normal, and then the back, which is abnormal.

Please help, thank you!

People call the debris that collects in those pockets different things from mud balls to poop balls. Some birds seem more prone to having dirt/debris collect there for some reason. It's good that you check and pop it out as needed.

The leg is interesting. It does look like it may be Scaly Leg Mites, but I've never seen that just on the back of the leg. Is it on both legs?
She lays down a lot, so I wonder if it's a collection of debris that has worked it's way under the scales of the leg?
I'm going to tag in @Eggcessive to see what she thinks, she may have a better suggestion that I do.

If this hen were mine, I'd get a shallow dish pan with warm soapy water (use a mild dish detergent or baby shampoo). Put an old towel in the bottom of the pan so she has traction. Let her stand in the warm soapy water for 10-15 minutes if possible, then give the legs a gentle scrub with an old toothbrush, see what comes off.

Dry well, then work some Vaseline, A+D Ointment or NuStock cream into the legs.

Take some photos after cleaning it up, it will be interesting to see.

If she's laying down a lot, try to give her some deep clean bedding to lay/sit on. Does she roost?

 

[Eggcessive]

I agree with Wyorp Rock that it doesn’t look like typical scaly leg mites, but I would follow her advice onndoing a warm soapy soak to the legs with rubbing with a toothbrush at the end to get any material off. The vaseline or A&D will soften the legs, and smother any leg mites. The more you do this, the better she should be.