Scaly Leg Help

[ChickenTownie]

Hey all,

I just got a couple new hens and I stupidly thought it would be fine to just put them in with my other chickens since I got them all from the same farm. Well, that was a mess for a variety of reasons... the quick introductions did not make for happy chickens. Thankfully, the pecking order fighting has died down and everyone seems to be mostly happy. Today, I noticed one of the new birds had something strange on her legs. Did some googling and I got the scaly leg. I immediately cleaned the coop litter out, spread DE powder all over the run and coop, and tonight I treated the bird in question.

For treatment, I soaked her legs in hot, soapy water for about 10 minutes. Next, I dipped her legs in some vegetable oil and brushed on them with a toothbrush to try and get it all coated. I let that sit for a few minutes and then I dabbed it off and sprayed her legs down with some Blu Kote (maybe unnecessary, but I felt better about over doing things than not).

My questions are the following. Do I need to treat her each night till she is better? Or every x number of days? Also, do I need to try and treat every hen as well? The scaly legged hen is currently not roosting with the rest. She stays in the run all night and the rest go inside. But she does go in the coop from time to time to lay eggs or look around so I am guessing it would be ignorant to think they are not exposed. Lastly, do I need to do some more preventative maintenance to de-mite the coop? I was trying to stay away from pesticides since it doesn't seem all that healthy to expose them to it... Is DE powder going to do enough or are pesticides and must? Is there anything I am missing?

Thanks, I am a little freaked out about it because I am still pretty new at chickens and I want them all to stay happy and healthy!

 

[MrsBachbach]

Hey all,

I just got a couple new hens and I stupidly thought it would be fine to just put them in with my other chickens since I got them all from the same farm. Well, that was a mess for a variety of reasons... the quick introductions did not make for happy chickens. Thankfully, the pecking order fighting has died down and everyone seems to be mostly happy. Today, I noticed one of the new birds had something strange on her legs. Did some googling and I got the scaly leg. I immediately cleaned the coop litter out, spread DE powder all over the run and coop, and tonight I treated the bird in question. 

For treatment, I soaked her legs in hot, soapy water for about 10 minutes. Next, I dipped her legs in some vegetable oil and brushed on them with a toothbrush to try and get it all coated. I let that sit for a few minutes and then I dabbed it off and sprayed her legs down with some Blu Kote (maybe unnecessary, but I felt better about over doing things than not). 

My questions are the following. Do I need to treat her each night till she is better? Or every x number of days? Also, do I need to try and treat every hen as well? The scaly legged hen is currently not roosting with the rest. She stays in the run all night and the rest go inside. But she does go in the coop from time to time to lay eggs or look around so I am guessing it would be ignorant to think they are not exposed. Lastly, do I need to do some more preventative maintenance to de-mite the coop? I was trying to stay away from pesticides since it doesn't seem all that healthy to expose them to it... Is DE powder going to do enough or are pesticides and must? Is there anything I am missing?

Thanks, I am a little freaked out about it because I am still pretty new at chickens and I want them all to stay happy and healthy!

If you don't want to do the pesticide treatments, I would try petroleum jelly. Sticks much better than oil. Push it up under the scales and you probably need to reapply when it wears off and do this for several weeks. Another treatment that I have read that works and is natural is NuStock. It's some pretty good stuff that has many uses.

 

[ChickenTownie]

Should I be applying Vaseline to all the hens or just the one with scaly leg?

 

[ChickenTownie]

Could someone tell me if this foot looks like its healing? I see a lot of pink skin but I am not sure if that is good or bad. Her legs are dark from some blu kote and shiny because I just dripped them in vegetable oil.



Thanks

 

[IdahoPrepper]

Yep they are starting to heal. I tried Nustock and I tried vaseline. Nustock seemed chalky and wore off real quick. The vaseline was thick and really hard to apply and messy.

I settled on castor oil with campho phenique mixed into it. The campho is a poison for mites and the castor is as well. Mixed together they are a thin enough oil to work under scales and sticks for a couple days. All the crud started falling off once I applied the mix and things are starting to return to normal. I still see raised scales so I will re-apply every few days until those scales lay down or pop off.

I also dusted the coop with 7 dust and dusted the roosts with 7.

Lots of home remedies here find one that works and stick with it. I would treat every hen with XXXX and the coop with 7 dust. I doubt DE will kill the mites.

 

[ChickenTownie]

Since my original post, I completely cleaned out the coop and scrubbed all the roosts and surfaces with hot water and puppy flea/tick shampoo. Then I dusted the coop, the roosts, and the run with Poultry Flea/Mite dust. I got the hen and soaked her legs in hot water with the flea/tick shampoo then patted her dry and dipped her legs in cooking oil for a few minutes. I tried some vaseline but it didn't work great. Do you just sprinkle the hens in the dust? Most of them are getting pretty tired of me trying to treat them so they are running from me like crazy. I can only get them at night when they are roosting.

I am really glad to know that things look like they are healing. I will try the campho/castor mix tonight. Thanks for all the information! I really appreciate it!

 

[IdahoPrepper]

I did not sprinkle hens with dust, only roosts and coop floor, cracks, egg boxes etc. I painted the oil on the legs with a 1" cheapo soft paint brush. Make sure to paint all the way up the leg under the feathers as high as you can go. I saw mite damage way up high on my chickens that I bought from a homeless guy with no teeth living by the railroad tracks.

I wait till its dark and they just go to sleep. Then with the help of my wife and while wearing headlamps we surprise the chickens and grab them. She holds them while I paint the legs.
Its a real pain in the arse to be sure. Dont let the chickens fuss and shake that oil into your eye it will smart real bad. Ask me how I know......

 

[ChickenTownie]

The real trick is getting my wife out there to help. I have found that if I work quickly I can get each one off the roost and spray down her legs then grab the next one and get through the whole line before they really wake up. Hopefully, I can manage the leg painting using the same method

 

[IdahoPrepper]

The real trick is getting my wife out there to help. I have found that if I work quickly I can get each one off the roost and spray down her legs then grab the next one and get through the whole line before they really wake up. Hopefully, I can manage the leg painting using the same method

Not going to happen. Painting the legs requires 4 hands. Two hands to hold the bird and one hand to hold a leg out while the other paints it. The chickens tuck their legs up when you start painting.