Scaly leg mites

[RaesChicks]

I noticed lifted scales on my hens feet yesterday, having read other posts about it, I searched the house for Vaseline but could only find coconut oil. I’m headed out to apply that this morning.

I saw someone else say to treat the whole coop with neem oil, even the chickens could be sprayed with it… I don’t have neem but I do have a spray we use on the dogs to kill fleas, ticks, and mosquitos

I also have a lice deterrent spray I use for keeping the creepy crawlers away on us.

Would either of these be useful? I have good grade diatomaceous earth I can also add to the run, I just haven’t before because of warning about it affecting the hens breathing when they dust bathe.

I’d really appreciate any guidance. I don’t want the issue to get worse. Especially with one of the family favorites being affected, they’d be devastated if she were to get sick.

Also do we need to wear gloves or anything when applying oil to the legs?

Thanks again!

 

[Debbie292d]

Those products with essential oils won't kill anything but may help deter them somewhat.

I use food grade DE for years, but that too won't kill anything and is a preventative.

I would get some garden dust powder, like Permethrin dust, and wear a mask and dust your coop totally with it. That stuff will kill mites/lice. You can also dust your chickens with it.

As for the SLM (scaly leg mites), the principle is to smother the mites. Your coconut oil should do that if rubbed in well. Vaseline would work better as it is thicker and would fill up every crack and crevice rather than just coat it.

How we did it is to go into the coop at night. I had vaseline with A&D diaper rash ointment and Vicks. You can mix essential oils in this too if you want or just use vaseline plain. We slathered each of their legs and feet well, in-between toes. This works better with two people so one can hold the chicken but I've done it alone too. We repeated this every other night for three times. It worked!

 

[RaesChicks]

Thank you, I have a permethrin powder by the same brand above I wonder if that’s safe to use for the coop or should I buy something else? I got everyone legs with coconut oil this morning even though only three had lifted scales. While I was doing this I discovered Bumblefoot on one of my orpingtons, I had noticed swelling a couple days ago but no heat or wounds and thought maybe because she’s a larger bird and the swelling wasn’t much different than the other pros I might have been looking for something to be wrong. Anyways, I couldn’t do much before work so I coated her foot in neosporin and wrapped with vet wrap. Im trying to find last weeks featured post on Bumblefoot if anyone can tag me in it I would appreciate it, I’m scrolling through all the posts now.

 

[StacyMc]

Scaly leg mites were my first cause of sleepless nights. Smothering the chickens legs with a homemade salve including vegetable oils , need and essential oils was first defence. Vaseline can do the trick too as long as you repeat a few times over 10-14 days. I added a homemade mixture of crushed garlic in the olive / vegetable oil , and on the second treatment, in the third year of repeating annual autumn treatments, it worked wonders. Salve the legs and feet heavily , the perches show they are greased up too. After many bouts stressed by scaly leg mites, the treatments for that seems a breeze compared to now faced with my first recognition of mites and lice. I’m still going to go natural. Waiting for spring to burst out with hit days , when it’s safe to bathe the chickens in morning ( they don’t do well with wet feathers in cool weather). In meantime I’m spot treating the worst infected with homemade pesticides and cleaning the deep litter out on coop and spraying roosts with homemade garlic or need apart - but the main ingredient is always the oil to smother pests , also I am replacing roosts

 

[Debbie292d]

Scaly leg mites were my first cause of sleepless nights. Smothering the chickens legs with a homemade salve including vegetable oils , need and essential oils was first defence. Vaseline can do the trick too as long as you repeat a few times over 10-14 days. I added a homemade mixture of crushed garlic in the olive / vegetable oil , and on the second treatment, in the third year of repeating annual autumn treatments, it worked wonders. Salve the legs and feet heavily , the perches show they are greased up too. After many bouts stressed by scaly leg mites, the treatments for that seems a breeze compared to now faced with my first recognition of mites and lice. I’m still going to go natural. Waiting for spring to burst out with hit days , when it’s safe to bathe the chickens in morning ( they don’t do well with wet feathers in cool weather). In meantime I’m spot treating the worst infected with homemade pesticides and cleaning the deep litter out on coop and spraying roosts with homemade garlic or need apart - but the main ingredient is always the oil to smother pests , also I am replacing roosts

The principle of repeating after so many days is to kill any eggs that hatched, so no matter what is used, there should be a repeat treatment of it. Actually, it's recommended to coat their legs and feet every other day for 4 times, which gets you to 8 days, or 9 if you just skip one like we did lol.

The food-grade diatomaceous earth (all natural) keeps every mite and lice from our coop, but not the scaly leg mites. I think they are picking those up from eating dropped sunflower seeds with the squirrels and wild birds under the bird feeders.