What's wrong with my girl's leg? Mites? Scaly, swollen, and white!

[hinkjc]

I've had a case of it in one of our pens. We used VetRX on them, coated the legs good every other night for 2 weeks while they were roosted and cleaned it right up. Keep at it to get them under control and her scales will heal up in time.

 

[jjthink]

That Chicken Health Handbook sounds dangerous! Don't let it get in anyone elses hands that might actually follow what it says without cross checking the info. It's so great that you came here and asked.
Totally fixable situation.

 

[nzchick]

Agreed, there is certainly no need to cull (not sure if that necessarily means to kill though?), however the Chicken Health handbook is a handy one to have on the book shelf. I have had major problems with scaly leg mite in my flock and after trying everything from vaseline to vicks vaporub to kerosene/linseed oil mix I have found that Ivomec rubbed on the legs and then a few drops internally has been the most successful. Then every 2nd week I go through and carefully remove the build up under the scales and add a drop or two of ivomec under the scales.
The scaly leg mite only lives on the birds scales and is transfered from one bird to another while perched next to each other on the roost. It does not live in the wood, in straw or at the base of feathers as someone has suggested, I think they may be getting confused with red mites which are quite different.
Good luck, it is frustrating and does take time and patience, but you will eventually be free of the nasty creatures.

 

[Eagle2026]

Quote:
I'm not spelling this correctly but the thing that I use is Diotamachious Earth!
YA!, throw that around your coop every couple of months and your golden. Cheap Too............!

 

[ejcimd]

Oh geez, I read this board and went looking for the book I use and yup it is The Chicken Health Handbook... Dang I would hate to cull unnecessarily and right there on page 70 - it says to cull for leg mites.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

That Chicken Health Handbook sounds dangerous to people who are just starting out with chickens. Hubby and I use Storeys Guide to Raising Chickens and it has never steered us wrong.

 

[Haazegirl]

Ha ha, here I am with a host of problems to figure out what it is, where we went wrong, and what to do now. I'm using the Chicken Health Handbook and the forum here. I've probably seen the word cull in it, but still hadn't figured out quite what it meant... Thanks for clearing that up! I thought it was some kind of treatment or wooing of the bird!! I like to get a lot of information and I think Storey's book sounds good, but this one is super useful at finding what things are called so I can look up more about it.

 

[Lady Chicken Keeper]

Can't open the pics. Can you repost them?

She's a bantam Cochin, and recently my son started saying that " 'Chick-fil-a's leg is all boily" I asked him to show me today what he meant, and he was right! There is definitely something wrong with her foot. The other one appears to be okay. When I was out checking on her this morning, she just kept fussing, and standing on one leg, while pecking at the affected one. She's about 1 1/2-2 yrs old. Can anyone tell me what this is or what would cause it? Is there anything we can do for her? We don't know of a vet that works w/poultry in our area, I'll be researching that after posting this.

It was really hard to get a good pic, but here's what I got.


Is this scaly leg mites?