Washing/Oiling feet as a preventative?

[Cherrypie]

I'm wondering if I should wash and/or oil my hens' feet regularly to help prevent issues. I thought perhaps lavender oil might be a good treatment to keep their legs in good shape. Any advice?
Thanks!!

 

[Judy]

Examining them regularly would be a good idea. Have no idea what lavender oil would do. You might read up on bumblefoot and leg mites, as these seem to be the two main problems that happen to legs and feet of hens.

 

[LynneP]

If you're treating the bedding and nests with food-grade diatomaceous earth or if you have treated sand in your run or a dust bath with DE, you would never give it a thought...not sure about lavender-some scented oils are bad for chickens. Use mineral oil or vaseline, or bag balm...

 

[Cherrypie]

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't thought about bagbalm but I think I already have a big container of it.

 

[Elite Silkies]

The lady I bought my flock from said she uses mineral oil and tea tree oil for leg mites. She also rubs down their roost with it.

 

[Cherrypie]

Quote:
Does she use it preventatively? That's what I'm wondering about - if doing a little oiling before there are mites would help prevent them.

 

[Elite Silkies]

She said she uses it as a cure and prevention. I have not tried it myself. I have read about using mineral oil, but nothing added to it. There is some commerical products, but I would not think they would be non-toxic. I would think that spreading DE would prevent most of the mites, but one of the more educated BYC members would be able to answer that better than I could.

 

[Rusty's Ranch]

Just a word of caution with regard to essential oils ... they don't generally mix well with birds. Birds are very sensitive to these oils and could get sick or die from them if not used properly.

However ... I believe that if used in VERY diluted amounts, they can be beneficial. I've put a couple teaspoons of olive oil and about 1 drop each of lavender and tea tree (pure essential oils) in a large bowl of water (probably 2 - 4 cups) and washed my birds legs in it without any bad side effects. The key is to keep the oils very diluted. If you can get hydrosols - that's even better - they are much milder.

The tea tree/lavender mix is a good all-round treatment and the oily water makes their legs look nice (for about a minute - until they start scratching around in who knows what again!). If we get leg mites, I'll probably try smearing olive oil on their legs just to suffocate the mites. Haven't tried it yet, so don't know how well it will work.

We haven't had any problem with pests so far - we use DE in the run. We also clean out the run every day and the coop at least once a week.