Scaly Leg Mites? (photos)

[Kate E]

Hi... need some help/ advice. I've had this chicken (and 4 others) since June. All seem to be happy and healthy. This chicken was a bit beat up when we got her, I am told that she was the local roosters favority gal which is why she had some missing feathers and looked a little rough. Anyway, this is my first go with chickens and I've been learning as the days pass. I noticed when we got this chicken that her legs/ feet were different than the others. The other 4 girls have nice glossy, smooth legs and feet. I just assumed that this chicken was a different breed and that her feet were meant to be different. Today though my husband said it didnt seem right so we started investigating. Now I'm panicked and I feel terrible. I am almost positive this is scaly leg mites that have gone untreated since at least June (probably longer).

Today I caught the chicken (not easy, they all hate to be picked up) and I brought her to the house. I soaked her feet in warm water for about 2min and then dried them. After drying the feet I soaked each foot individually, a bit higher than her feather line, in vegetable oil (only oil I have at the house right now).

Can someone please confirm this is leg mites and if so what else can I do to help her? How long and how frequently do I need to treat her feet?

We live in Wisconsin and with the winter coming it is cold and damp 24/7, will this have an adverse affect on her healing? I do what I can to keep the birds warm and dry. They have a large inclosed coop that is elevated with a space under it that is always dry. The run is open however I am in the process of tarping it for the winter so that it isn't covered in snow and they have somewhere to go outside. Right now I have a bunch of hay down so if they decide to be outside they arent standing in mud all day.

Any advice on how to make this girl more comfortable and how to appropriately treat her would be great. Oh, also, if you can't already tell, she is in the middle of a molt. Poor thing. Thanks for the help!

 

[coach723]

It does look like she has scaly leg mites. I'll tell you what I do, and then give you a link to some more suggested treatments. Also in the 4th picture, where you can see the bottom of the upper foot, looks like maybe a spot of bumblefoot, so I will give you a link to an article on treating that non-surgically. For the mites, I soak in epsom salts for 20 minutes or so, and gently clean with a soft toothbrush to remove as much debris as you can without doing further damage, dry the legs off. Then I apply castor oil with the same soft toothbrush to the entire leg and foot, working it under the raised scales as much as you can. I reapply the oil daily for the first week, and then weekly thereafter until the legs look normal again. You will also need to do a good coop cleaning to make sure you eradicate them from there also. The following link gives some other treatment options: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/03/scaly-leg-mites-in-chickens.html
For bumblefoot:
https://www.tillysnest.com/2015/12/non-surgical-bumblefoot-treatment.html/?spref=pi
Here is another link on bumblefoot with more pictures for you to compare. I personally would try the non-surgical first, before doing a cutting surgery. The spot on your birds foot looks relatively small.

 

[Kate E]

It does look like she has scaly leg mites. I'll tell you what I do, and then give you a link to some more suggested treatments. Also in the 4th picture, where you can see the bottom of the upper foot, looks like maybe a spot of bumblefoot, so I will give you a link to an article on treating that non-surgically. For the mites, I soak in epsom salts for 20 minutes or so, and gently clean with a soft toothbrush to remove as much debris as you can without doing further damage, dry the legs off. Then I apply castor oil with the same soft toothbrush to the entire leg and foot, working it under the raised scales as much as you can. I reapply the oil daily for the first week, and then weekly thereafter until the legs look normal again. You will also need to do a good coop cleaning to make sure you eradicate them from there also. The following link gives some other treatment options: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/03/scaly-leg-mites-in-chickens.html
For bumblefoot:
https://www.tillysnest.com/2015/12/non-surgical-bumblefoot-treatment.html/?spref=pi
Here is another link on bumblefoot with more pictures for you to compare. I personally would try the non-surgical first, before doing a cutting surgery. The spot on your birds foot looks relatively small.

Thank you so much for the reply, both articles were very helpful. I'll need to catch her again in a day or so so I can treat the mites again- I'll check the bottom of her foot to see if there is a spot of bumblefoot or not. I took those pictures of her feet before my husband and I soaked her and because of the amount of rain we have had she had quite a bit of dirt/ mud on her feet. I can't tell if that is dirt or bumblefoot. With bumblefoot, are you just looking for a swollen area with that dark "plug" visable? She gets around just fine, i havent noticed any change in her gait, appetite or spunk. She is without a doubt at the top of the pecking order and shestill has no problem letting the other girls know that. I'll get another good look at her feet and see if that spot cleans off or not.

 

[coach723]

Sometimes with bumblefoot there will be obvious swelling, sometimes you will just see the scab/lesion, especially when it's small. The smaller they are the easier to treat. Sometimes they will limp, but often not until it gets pretty good sized. I just periodically check everybody's feet so that I catch it early when it happens, then treatment is not a very big deal. I just found one spot on one of my roo's, larger spot than yours has, and I'd not have known if I hadn't looked. If it's just dirt, then one less thing to do!

 

[Kate E]

An update.... also need some advice/ reassurance.

I bought all the supplies to treat bumblefoot over the weekend and set out to check all my girls this morning. They don't like to be handled so catching them was a disaster. I caught one and checked her over after giving her feet a good soak in warm water and epsolmsalt- she looked fine- no bumblefoot or leg mites. I notice as i was trying to catch the other 4 that there was some blood on the floor of the run. There was a lot of commotion while trying to catch the birds so i figured someone got injured. I finally caught the white chicken (pictured) and soaked her feet in the warm water to clean them off before inspecting- she had bumblefoot on both feet- she was also bleeding from one of her toes. It looks like in all the commotion of catching the birds she snagged her toe on something and ripped the nail off. I soaked both of her feet and got to work trying to remove the infection. She bled from both feet when i removed the plug so it was difficult to tell if i got all of it out or not. I used poultry antiseptic to "pack" the wound and wrapped both of her feet in stretchy gauze. I also cleaned the toe but couldnt get anything to stick to the toe so it is open and still bleeding. It isnt gushing blood but it isnt scabbing over yet either. Should i be concerned? I placed her in a dog crate with straw and set out to catch the other birds.

I was fearful that i was stressing them out too much so 2 of the birds werent checked today. I got them both over the summer when they were chicks and they are now massive and very active so i'm pretty sure they are okay. I'll try to catch them later in the week to be certain.

I caught the black bird again and you were right, she did have bumblefoot- a small patch- much smaller than the white chicken. I treated her left leg for the leg mites again with a soak in warm water and ES and then i soaked her leg in oil. On the leg where bumblefoot was present i didnt treat the leg mites, i just soaked the leg and removed the plug of the bumblefoot- again, she bled. I packed her with antiseptic and wrapped her up and placed her in the cage with the other bird.

They are both in my garage and seem to have calmed down. I worried about the level of stress i put them under and i'm also worried that i may not have gotten all of the infection out of their feet. I plan to keep them in the garage together for the next week so i can keep an eye on them. Unfortunately i didnt get any photos of their feet as i was working because i was trying to be quick. Any words of wisdom? Should i be worried about the bloody toe? Should i try to pick her up and wrap it again? The garage is 45 degrees- warmer than the 30 degrees outside- will the two of them be warm enough in there with just their body heat and not the body heat of the other 3 chickens still in the coop?

More than anything i dont want to stress them out anymore, i think i did enough damage for one day. i just want them to be okay... thanks in advance for your thoughts (here is apicture of them post "surgery")

 

[coach723]

You can use corn starch to help stop the bleeding on the toe. If it's only a little I'd leave her alone for a while and see if it stops on it's own. It's hard to wrap a toe and keep it on unless you wrap the toe and the leg too. As long as the toe stays clean and doesn't get infected, it should heal up fine. Next time you need to catch someone go out early in the morning, before light, or after dark in the evening, when they are roosting. Take the one you want off the roosts and deal with that one bird. They will be much calmer then and it will be much less dramatic and stressful for everyone. I have some birds that I can easily pick up anytime, others I never do unless it's off the roosts at night. Let the feet recover from the current bumble foot treatments you have already done, and then reassess. Sometimes it's hard to tell, and you may have gotten it all. Just keep them clean and keep an eye on it as it heals. You can also use plain neosporin (no pain killer) on them. If there is any swelling it can take a few days for it to go down. You may try soaking longer next time to soften the lesion more. The larger it is, usually the longer soaking it takes. As adult birds that are fully feathered they should be warm enough as long as they are eating and drinking normally, if you think they are not warm enough then I usually put mine in a crate in my second bathroom where it's warmer. If they are only in warmth for a day or two they would be ok going back out, if they are in the warmth longer you would need to re-acclimate them to the cold. The longer they are away from the flock then the harder it can be to reintegrate them. I usually put them back out as soon as possible with bandaged feet, judgement call on your part as to when they are ready. Using co-wrap, or vet-wrap over a gauze or a non-stick pad cut to size makes a pretty protective bandage for that (available at Tractor Supply and tack/feed stores- look in the horse section), unless they live in wet and mud, but it will have to be checked and changed. While both bumble foot and the leg mites need to be dealt with, neither is a critical emergency, so do a bit at a time, and take a breath in between birds! Hope that helps! Best of luck.