young flock with incredibly crusty legs

[lalaland]

I have one surviving 6 month old hen raised from a chick (flock slaughtered by a dog). Got 3 bantam mixed breed/cochins about 5 - 6months old and one 6 month hen from a woman who breeds chickens. I did quarantine them, but the newcomers were so skittish that I never got a close look til recently.

Scaly leg mites - today I put bag balm on their legs but I was shocked at the difference between my hen, who had soft, supple skin, and the scaly, hard, crusty legs of the cochin/silkie mixed bantams. They had a hard hard yellowish crust - not sure if it was part of their legs or some foreign material. The standard size new hen didn't have the yellowish crust, but did have scales sticking out.

I'll retreat in a week, but I'm starting to wonder about how bad the poor cochin/silkie mixes are - of course I was hampered by the feathers sticking out of their legs.

Has anyone had success with such bad cases? I can't imagine how they could be so bad and only be 6 months old!

 

[okiemommy]

There was a thread on here a while back that was posted by someone that took in chickens from an animal hoarder, that had severe scaly leg mites among many other problems. I believe that she nursed many of them back to health, but some of them had permanent anomalies on their legs due to the severity of the mites. You might do some searches and look for the thread. Sorry I can't be more help to you on the info in the thread; it was months ago.