thinking of adopting this boy....

Thank you for helping the shelters with chickens

 

If I have a chicken with a bad case of leg mites, I wash the entire bird in flea shampoo made for cats. Let the legs soak in the soapy solution for 10 minutes, using the warmest water the bird can tolerate. Make sure he is completely dry before putting him back in his cage-especially his feathered legs. Do this once a week for three weeks. Sometimes you have to repeat this cycle.

I don't like to smother the legs in Vaseline as this sets the bird up for secondary bacterial infection which is painful.

Another thing to be aware of when treating leg mites is the environment the bird is in is now infected with mite eggs. Keep his cage clean of feces and burn all his litter-burning prevents the eggs/nymphs from spreading. If you compost infected feces be advised the hatching nymphs are spread by wild birds.


I've also used a veterinary product, Revolution, which is a canine heart-worm prevention applied topically. However I've seen some chickens have neurological issues after using this product so I'm reluctant to recommend it except in severe cases, AND this product is available only through a veterinarian.


Good luck with him, he's a cutie! Love his floppy comb.

 

Totally a guess here but he reminds me a lot of our Cochin x silkie rooster in that second photo so maybe Cochin or Cochin cross of some sort?

 

From his tail, without me being any kind of breed expert, I would guess he's got some Japanese bantam in him. But offhand I think he's a mongrel. I love mongrels.

About the scaly leg mites: Stockholm tar. Nothing does it like that, to judge from my personal experience and the anecdotal ones I hear of around here. Apply it to his legs, making sure they're covered with it, maybe even adding a second coat immediately if it soaks in real quick, and leave him be until he looks like he has absorbed it all. Maybe two or three days later add another coat. Usually, that's all that's needed. Sometimes a third coat may be needed in very severe cases where toes are dropping off.

The Stockholm tar penetrates the whole mass, right down to the skin, kills all the mites, and in a matter of days his encrusted legs will shed their damaged scales and show perfectly normal legs beneath. The crusts just fall off. Strongly advise you to get some S.Tar if you don't already have it --- I've used it on everything from cysts to gangrene to golden staph to ulcers of many sorts, glass splinters, all manner of wounds including messy old fox bites, etc. Amazing stuff. I've also used it on myself and my family uses it too. One of my little brothers has a terribly ingrown toenail and pine tar is amazing for it. Takes out pain, kills even severe and flesh eating infections, goes deep, draws out impurities and foreign objects and makes them vanish, very rarely permits even the tiniest scar to form from the worst injuries... Simply amazing stuff. They love it. Even wild animals enjoy it and even help me apply it, which shows how quickly the pain relief occurs --- almost instantly.

 

Probably at a produce store.