Scaly Leg Mites - Need Best / Easiest / Quickest Solution - Scaley

[Fancychooklady]

Spring is very wet here , so much so that we often jokingly say " our chickens need gumboots " . I've noticed that when their legs are caked with mud they aren't afflicted with scaley leg mite. What ever the application used, the dirt sticking to it will help to smother the little beggars. Mother Nature at her finest !

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Spring is very wet here , so much so that we often jokingly say " our chickens need gumboots " . I've noticed that when their legs are caked with mud they aren't afflicted with scaley leg mite. What ever the application used, the dirt sticking to it will help to smother the little beggars. Mother Nature at her finest !

Ah, good. Because my sweet little blond BO's who have the prettiest yellow legs, are wearing black socks this morning. Dirt is all stuck to the Castor oil I painted on them last night. But the one hen who was really biting at her legs, I don't see her nibbling on her feet any longer. And the scales do look softer and less irritated. So I'm really hopeful.

I do need to do a complete cleaning of the coop. I have a guy coming out in a few weeks to remove the roosts and install a poop board and make the roost bars removable. So I was waiting to do my big cleaning then. Rather than having to do it twice.

What are people's thoughts about painting the roost bars. Does that do anything? Or am I better off spraying them a few times a month w/ a anti-mite spray to help prevent them from getting a foothold again?

 

[Beekissed]

I usually dust the roost bars with sulfur dust a couple of times a year, especially this time of year when the birds are confined due to weather. Some old timers use lime or permethrin for the same reason. Sulfur dust is cheap and easily found at any garden center, like Walmart or Lowes, and is specifically for mites of all kinds.

I wouldn't get too concerned with cleaning the coop, as it's virtually impossible to clean well enough to rid a place of all mites...just one pregnant one left behind can hop on a bird and re-populate the flock again in short order. Just treat the places where chickens are still and close to one another or use the same places, like roosts or nests. You can place sweet lime on the bedding and it can serve well in deterring mites and also will absorb moisture and keep down any odors.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I usually dust the roost bars with sulfur dust a couple of times a year, especially this time of year when the birds are confined due to weather. Some old timers use lime or permethrin for the same reason. Sulfur dust is cheap and easily found at any garden center, like Walmart or Lowes, and is specifically for mites of all kinds.

I wouldn't get too concerned with cleaning the coop, as it's virtually impossible to clean well enough to rid a place of all mites...just one pregnant one left behind can hop on a bird and re-populate the flock again in short order. Just treat the places where chickens are still and close to one another or use the same places, like roosts or nests. You can place sweet lime on the bedding and it can serve well in deterring mites and also will absorb moisture and keep down any odors.

Would rubbing the roosts with DE be just as effective?

 

[Beekissed]

Some people use it and say it works, others say it doesn't. I'm not a fan of the stuff and have never used it.

 

[chicknmania]

I read somewhere, I think it was poultrypedia, that you can also use ACV in a warm water soak, for pain and/ or mites, although I like Epsom salts and a drop or two of Dawn dish liquid. Valiant's case is not one of those horrible cases, and I definitely saw improvement with the castor oil, just seems to have taken longer than I thought it would. It is just so cold, I wanted to give him one more soak and application of oil, and then turn him loose. It is supposed to warm up slightly for a day this weekend, so I will try to do it then.Today was the warmest day we have had for weeks, but I couldn't get out there long enough to do the soak today. His spirits are hugely improved, but at this point I'm pretty sure he will always have a bad limp, especially in the extreme cold.

 

[chicknmania]

I can't find where I mentioned this before in this thread, so I will mention again that someone on another thread took their roo to the vet and he gave the bird a shot of Ivermectin that supposedly cleared it right up. I can't imagine that it would be that easy....? I've also heard that garlic helps repel scaly leg mites..as in, they eat it, or you put a half clove or so in a gallon of water.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I can't find where I mentioned this before in this thread, so I will mention again that someone on another thread took their roo to the vet and he gave the bird a shot of Ivermectin that supposedly cleared it right up. I can't imagine that it would be that easy....? I've also heard that garlic helps repel scaly leg mites..as in, they eat it, or you put a half clove or so in a gallon of water.

I did the Ivermectin treatment a few years back. The vet gave me specific doses for each hen based on weight and you put drops on the back of their necks. You do it several times so you get the eggs that hatch. I felt it worked. But their scales never went back to being smooth. Probably because the mites just came right back. That why I'm wanting to really clean out the coop and treat the roosts.

And I like the Castor oil method. With Ivermectin, I believe I had to toss eggs. But I did it in the winter when I was getting very few eggs so it wasn't a big deal. My hens are just all coming back into lay after the winter and I'm loving my eggs again.

I'll keep up with this for a few weeks and keep an eye on her. I caught the hen nibbling on her feet again today so she's still bothered. But I think I need to give it more time. If no improvement in a few weeks, I'll take her to the vet.

 

[kathleens1979]

Crazy as it sounds, I found an article on a university extension page the recommended dipping the bird's legs in gasoline, the covering with Vaseline each day for a week. Then another gas dip and another week of Vaseline. Worked like a charm but the hen STUNK!!! We used a large, heavy vase for the gasoline so that it didn't get on her feathers and was deep enough for her whole leg to get a quick dip.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm sorry, but that one is just too, too much...

Not laughing at you but at whatever source that would offer that up as a treatment for scale mites when there are so many other, less toxic solutions for this very simple thing.

For one, that would sting like the dickens if there were any raw places under those scales and for another, I don't know that I'd want what is in gasoline absorbing into a chicken from whom I eat the eggs. Things absorb topically and enter the bloodstream, then wherever the blood goes after that.

Here's just the short list of what is in gasoline...there are over 150 chemicals added to gasoline: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gasoline_additives

Not to mention, chickens soaked in gas make for a lovely fire hazard in the coop.

I'm sure it would work but I'm thinking I'd try just about anything else but dipping the birds in gas.