You lift your friendly hen and notice some odd-looking, lifted scales on her feet. She seems like she's in pain. What should you do?
Your hen most likely has SLM.
TREATING/CURING SCALY LEG MITES (SLM)
My Crevecoeur hens' feet infected severely with SLM.
- What are Scaly Leg Mites?
Scaly leg mites are a type of external parasite that can cause discomfort and pain to your chickens or other poultry by burrowing under the scales on their legs and feet. This causes the scales to become crusty and lift instead of staying flat and smooth. The mites dig tiny tunnels under the skin and eat tissue and deposit crud in their wake.
SLM is incredibly irritating to the birds. Bad infestations can even lead to the death of a chicken if left untreated or treated improperly as it stops the chickens from roosting properly, drags them down, and elevates stress levels.
Mites called "Knemidocoptes Mutans" cause SLM in chickens. They are invisible to the naked eye. These mites can easily spread from one bird to another by spreading along roosts in the coop. It's important to treat all birds in a flock for SLM even if only one bird has SLM. Taking preventative measures could help kill the mites on the roosts. More information on that is below.
- Who does it affect?
These round mites typically affect birds and poultry like chickens, turkeys, passerines, and psittacines.
Scaly Leg Mites are more common in older birds and feather-footed breeds (i.e. Cochins, Silkies, Brahmas)
- How do I treat my chicken(s)?
There are multiple ways of treating your chicken(s) for SLM. I will be explaining how to treat your chicken(s) by the methods that proved the most effective in my experience.
TREATMENT METHOD #1
Estimated time needed: 15-20 minutes per bird
If you need this method summarized quickly, click here
Some things you may need for this treatment method include a sink/bowl of lukewarm water, Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly, dish soap, Hydrogen Peroxide, Cotton balls, a towel, and gloves.
Start by filling a sink with lukewarm water or getting a bowl and filling it with water. Add a few drops of dish soap and mix.
Soak your chicken's feet and legs in the water for at least 10 minutes. My Crevecoeur was surprisingly calm, and she stayed in the water on her own. Most of my chickens would need to be held in the water so they don't start splashing around.
During this process, lots of people take a toothbrush and scrub the scales gently to exfoliate dead skin and tissue. Debriding with a toothbrush could be more harmful than people realize. The lifted scales are very painful, so it would cause excess pain to the chicken. When dealing with treatments like this, it is best to keep the stress level to a minimum. Debriding with a toothbrush also presents the danger of people brushing too hard and breaking scales off and there's also a danger that the mites and nits could be pushed farther under the scales. For these reasons, I do not debride with a toothbrush.
Soaking the legs and feet will help remove gunk and dirt before applying Hydrogen Peroxide and Vaseline.
Pick the chicken up, holding her wings firm so she does not flap around, and rinse the feet off in clean water (neither cold nor hot) to remove soap and dirt.
I like to have a clean towel ready for drying. I set it up on a surface next to the sink.
Dry the chickens' legs and feet in a clean towel.
While she sits wrapped up in a towel, get the Hydrogen Peroxide and a cotton ball ready. Soak the cotton ball in Hydrogen Peroxide, and lightly dab the feet and legs of the chicken to help disinfect the legs and remove any last remnants of dirt.
This process may prove to be frustrating with the chicken not sitting still or flapping around, so I found covering the chicken's head with a rag or towel will help to ease her stress and make your job much easier.
*Using HP and a cotton ball to clean further is an optional yet highly recommended process. *
HP TIP: People often don't realize that Hydrogen Peroxide can go bad fairly quickly. After sitting on the shelf for years, it's best to check if the HP is still good. An easy way to do this is to splash some into the sink- if it fizzes, it's still good. If it doesn't fizz, it's time to replace it.
While the HP is drying, get a glove on one (or both) of your hand(s). I put a glove on my hand that will be applying the Vaseline.
Gently smother the chickens' feet in Vaseline. This will suffocate the mites.
This process may be tricky, so it'd be best to have a helping hand.
In this case, I did not have a helper, so I was taking pictures alongside this process, which was difficult.
It's important to do this step gently because the lifted scales are painful for the chicken.
After applying Vaseline on both feet, I like to put the chicken in a cage with some feed to reduce stress and let the Vaseline do its thing.
Before I treated the Crevecoeur, I treated a Silkie. When treating two or more birds one after another, replace the towels, water, and cotton ball between each bird.
After 10-15 minutes in the crate, I let the hens free range in the part of our yard that is blocked off from the rest of the flock, so that the roosters wouldn't be able to bother them for a couple of hours.
A summary of the above process, in case the photos made it hard to read.
1. Soak affected chickens' feet in water and dish soap for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Rinse legs and gently pat dry with a clean towel.
3. Apply hydrogen peroxide to affected area with a cotton ball or cotton swab. Let dry.
4. Smother legs and feet with Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly.
5. (Optional) Separate treated birds to let the Vaseline do its thing.
TREATMENT METHOD #2
Estimated time needed: 2-4 minutes per bird
This second method that I tried out is very simple, quick, easy, and effective.
What you will need:
-Rubbing Alcohol
-Medium/Large Bowl
Start by washing the bowl with soap and water to make sure it is clean.
Next, pour the Rubbing Alcohol into the bowl. Make sure it is deep enough to submerge the chickens’ legs up to the hock. The hock is shown in the photo below.
You will most likely need an entire 16 FL OZ bottle of RA to pour in the bowl.
Rinse the chickens’ legs in lukewarm water, then submerge the legs and feet up to the hock. The hock is shown in the photo below.
The legs and feet should be submerged for at least 1 minute, but it’s best to shoot closer to 2.
Lift the chicken out of the bowl and hold him/her for a few seconds to allow the Rubbing Alcohol to evaporate and no longer drip, before letting him/her go.
When treating multiple chickens, it is best to be safe and replace the Alcohol after every chicken. However, it may turn out to be expensive if treating an entire flock at a time (which should be done), so if the chicken’s feet and legs are washed before each dip, you should be able to safely do 2-3 chickens per bottle of RA.
You can buy Rubbing Alcohol in bulk on Amazon. It’s much cheaper that way. It doesn’t need to be very high quality.
~Bonus Experimental Method~
For an experiment, I applied Poultry Wound Spray to one of the affected hens’ feet. I am doing this to see if it will help at all and will update y’all if it does or doesn’t.
I started by rinsing the legs and feet thoroughly, dried with a clean towel, then sprayed the Poultry Wound Spray all over the feet and legs, up to the hock.
I took yet another chicken and used the Rubbing Alcohol method, then after the feet and legs dried, I sprayed then with the Poultry Wound spray.
I am doing these additional “methods” for experimental purposes only and so that I can tell y’all what the most effective method is based off my own experience.
- - - - - - - - - - -
- Continuing treatment
These methods of treatment should be repeated at least 1-2 times per week, for 2-3 weeks, or more if needed. If a second or third treatment is not given, it's quite possible for the problem to return when the mite eggs hatch. Female mites lay these eggs and they take about two weeks to hatch where they quickly grow from the larvae to adult phase.
This is what the scales looked like in before the first treatment:
And this is what the scales look like after 2 treatments in 2 weeks.
You can see that swelling reduced dramatically, scales are getting flatter, and new scales are beginning to grow in.
Due to the severity of this hens' SLM, she has been getting treated regularly for the past month. It is likely that your chickens' feet will heal and go back to normal after only 2-3 treatments.
Will update y'all as her scales heal.
The scales will not look normal again until the old scales are shed. This worries a lot of people because they can't see any improvement in looks and are therefore not confident that they have addressed the problem. (Shedding & regrowing scales can take multiple weeks.)
Healthy scales will look like this.
- Additional methods of treatment
There are many methods for treating SLM. One may include the same process as above, except substituting the Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly for Mineral or Castor Oil. Another method includes the same process as above, except instead of applying Vaseline, dipping the feet into a pot of oil.
An easy method that takes away the stress and mess of the method I used above includes making a mixture of Betadine 25% and Vaseline 75% and applying it to the hens' feet. The Betadine is not just a disinfectant, but also an anti-fungal that deals with the mites and nits as well. Essentially, you can smother the feet and legs of the bird right up to the hock. This could easily be done with a headlamp while the birds are on the roost. Some people use a one-inch paintbrush with the bristles cut down to about an inch long. This needs to be done three times with 7 days in between each treatment.
The older method of dipping the legs into some gas or diesel had quickly proved to be harmful because these substances are carcinogenic. They both leave a residue that acts as an irritant. Rubbing Alcohol does not have these properties, which makes it both safe and effective.
Dipping the chickens' legs in Rubbing Alcohol is a very simple and effective method. They need to stand in the Alcohol for at least 1 minute, preferably longer. The advantage of using rubbing alcohol is its fast evaporation rate and the lack of residue. A rag or towel covering the head could help keep the chicken calm while it's sitting in the bowl of RA.
Another method of treatment for severe cases includes oral or injectable forms of Ivermectin, which are generally prescribed by a Veterinarian.
(Keep in mind, specialists do not recommend this method if the birds are being used for meat and eggs.)
A product called Net-Tex Scaly Leg Spray has worked well for many homesteaders. I have yet to try it out, but it sounds like a very convenient way of treating SLM. Product efficacy has not yet been proven.
- Taking preventative measures for the whole flock
To prevent SLM from spreading to other birds, one should treat every bird in a flock as well as clean out the coop and clean the roost bars. Roost bars are the most common place for SLM to spread. Sponging down the roost bars and adding fresh shavings to the coop is an important step to preventing SLM from spreading.
Permethrin-based poultry spray could be applied on the roost bars to help rid the roosts of the mites. This spray could be found at stores like TSC, Amazon, or your local feed store. Take additional measures by cleaning out the bedding in the coop and replacing it with fresh bedding.
These mites are highly contagious and spread from one bird to another very easily, especially in cold, damp weather. Muddy runs allow mites to spread much easier, so keeping your run clean and dry can help with reducing the spread.
- Conclusion
Scaly Leg Mites affect thousands of birds yearly, causing them stress, pain, discomfort, and sometimes leading to death.
Knowing how to treat SLM will help get you ready for a possible SLM infestation and will allow you to treat your flock in the most effective ways possible, so that they could get back to being the friendly, active, happy & healthy birds that they were meant to be.
Your hen most likely has SLM.
TREATING/CURING SCALY LEG MITES (SLM)
My Crevecoeur hens' feet infected severely with SLM.
- What are Scaly Leg Mites?
Scaly leg mites are a type of external parasite that can cause discomfort and pain to your chickens or other poultry by burrowing under the scales on their legs and feet. This causes the scales to become crusty and lift instead of staying flat and smooth. The mites dig tiny tunnels under the skin and eat tissue and deposit crud in their wake.
SLM is incredibly irritating to the birds. Bad infestations can even lead to the death of a chicken if left untreated or treated improperly as it stops the chickens from roosting properly, drags them down, and elevates stress levels.
Mites called "Knemidocoptes Mutans" cause SLM in chickens. They are invisible to the naked eye. These mites can easily spread from one bird to another by spreading along roosts in the coop. It's important to treat all birds in a flock for SLM even if only one bird has SLM. Taking preventative measures could help kill the mites on the roosts. More information on that is below.
- Who does it affect?
These round mites typically affect birds and poultry like chickens, turkeys, passerines, and psittacines.
Scaly Leg Mites are more common in older birds and feather-footed breeds (i.e. Cochins, Silkies, Brahmas)
- How do I treat my chicken(s)?
There are multiple ways of treating your chicken(s) for SLM. I will be explaining how to treat your chicken(s) by the methods that proved the most effective in my experience.
TREATMENT METHOD #1
Estimated time needed: 15-20 minutes per bird
If you need this method summarized quickly, click here
Some things you may need for this treatment method include a sink/bowl of lukewarm water, Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly, dish soap, Hydrogen Peroxide, Cotton balls, a towel, and gloves.
Start by filling a sink with lukewarm water or getting a bowl and filling it with water. Add a few drops of dish soap and mix.
Soak your chicken's feet and legs in the water for at least 10 minutes. My Crevecoeur was surprisingly calm, and she stayed in the water on her own. Most of my chickens would need to be held in the water so they don't start splashing around.
During this process, lots of people take a toothbrush and scrub the scales gently to exfoliate dead skin and tissue. Debriding with a toothbrush could be more harmful than people realize. The lifted scales are very painful, so it would cause excess pain to the chicken. When dealing with treatments like this, it is best to keep the stress level to a minimum. Debriding with a toothbrush also presents the danger of people brushing too hard and breaking scales off and there's also a danger that the mites and nits could be pushed farther under the scales. For these reasons, I do not debride with a toothbrush.
Soaking the legs and feet will help remove gunk and dirt before applying Hydrogen Peroxide and Vaseline.
Pick the chicken up, holding her wings firm so she does not flap around, and rinse the feet off in clean water (neither cold nor hot) to remove soap and dirt.
I like to have a clean towel ready for drying. I set it up on a surface next to the sink.
Dry the chickens' legs and feet in a clean towel.
While she sits wrapped up in a towel, get the Hydrogen Peroxide and a cotton ball ready. Soak the cotton ball in Hydrogen Peroxide, and lightly dab the feet and legs of the chicken to help disinfect the legs and remove any last remnants of dirt.
This process may prove to be frustrating with the chicken not sitting still or flapping around, so I found covering the chicken's head with a rag or towel will help to ease her stress and make your job much easier.
*Using HP and a cotton ball to clean further is an optional yet highly recommended process. *
HP TIP: People often don't realize that Hydrogen Peroxide can go bad fairly quickly. After sitting on the shelf for years, it's best to check if the HP is still good. An easy way to do this is to splash some into the sink- if it fizzes, it's still good. If it doesn't fizz, it's time to replace it.
While the HP is drying, get a glove on one (or both) of your hand(s). I put a glove on my hand that will be applying the Vaseline.
Gently smother the chickens' feet in Vaseline. This will suffocate the mites.
This process may be tricky, so it'd be best to have a helping hand.
In this case, I did not have a helper, so I was taking pictures alongside this process, which was difficult.
It's important to do this step gently because the lifted scales are painful for the chicken.
After applying Vaseline on both feet, I like to put the chicken in a cage with some feed to reduce stress and let the Vaseline do its thing.
Before I treated the Crevecoeur, I treated a Silkie. When treating two or more birds one after another, replace the towels, water, and cotton ball between each bird.
After 10-15 minutes in the crate, I let the hens free range in the part of our yard that is blocked off from the rest of the flock, so that the roosters wouldn't be able to bother them for a couple of hours.
A summary of the above process, in case the photos made it hard to read.
1. Soak affected chickens' feet in water and dish soap for about 10-15 minutes.
2. Rinse legs and gently pat dry with a clean towel.
3. Apply hydrogen peroxide to affected area with a cotton ball or cotton swab. Let dry.
4. Smother legs and feet with Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly.
5. (Optional) Separate treated birds to let the Vaseline do its thing.
TREATMENT METHOD #2
Estimated time needed: 2-4 minutes per bird
This second method that I tried out is very simple, quick, easy, and effective.
What you will need:
-Rubbing Alcohol
-Medium/Large Bowl
Start by washing the bowl with soap and water to make sure it is clean.
Next, pour the Rubbing Alcohol into the bowl. Make sure it is deep enough to submerge the chickens’ legs up to the hock. The hock is shown in the photo below.
You will most likely need an entire 16 FL OZ bottle of RA to pour in the bowl.
Rinse the chickens’ legs in lukewarm water, then submerge the legs and feet up to the hock. The hock is shown in the photo below.
The legs and feet should be submerged for at least 1 minute, but it’s best to shoot closer to 2.
Lift the chicken out of the bowl and hold him/her for a few seconds to allow the Rubbing Alcohol to evaporate and no longer drip, before letting him/her go.
When treating multiple chickens, it is best to be safe and replace the Alcohol after every chicken. However, it may turn out to be expensive if treating an entire flock at a time (which should be done), so if the chicken’s feet and legs are washed before each dip, you should be able to safely do 2-3 chickens per bottle of RA.
You can buy Rubbing Alcohol in bulk on Amazon. It’s much cheaper that way. It doesn’t need to be very high quality.
~Bonus Experimental Method~
For an experiment, I applied Poultry Wound Spray to one of the affected hens’ feet. I am doing this to see if it will help at all and will update y’all if it does or doesn’t.
I started by rinsing the legs and feet thoroughly, dried with a clean towel, then sprayed the Poultry Wound Spray all over the feet and legs, up to the hock.
I took yet another chicken and used the Rubbing Alcohol method, then after the feet and legs dried, I sprayed then with the Poultry Wound spray.
I am doing these additional “methods” for experimental purposes only and so that I can tell y’all what the most effective method is based off my own experience.
- - - - - - - - - - -
- Continuing treatment
These methods of treatment should be repeated at least 1-2 times per week, for 2-3 weeks, or more if needed. If a second or third treatment is not given, it's quite possible for the problem to return when the mite eggs hatch. Female mites lay these eggs and they take about two weeks to hatch where they quickly grow from the larvae to adult phase.
This is what the scales looked like in before the first treatment:
And this is what the scales look like after 2 treatments in 2 weeks.
You can see that swelling reduced dramatically, scales are getting flatter, and new scales are beginning to grow in.
Due to the severity of this hens' SLM, she has been getting treated regularly for the past month. It is likely that your chickens' feet will heal and go back to normal after only 2-3 treatments.
Will update y'all as her scales heal.
The scales will not look normal again until the old scales are shed. This worries a lot of people because they can't see any improvement in looks and are therefore not confident that they have addressed the problem. (Shedding & regrowing scales can take multiple weeks.)
Healthy scales will look like this.
- Additional methods of treatment
There are many methods for treating SLM. One may include the same process as above, except substituting the Vaseline/Petroleum Jelly for Mineral or Castor Oil. Another method includes the same process as above, except instead of applying Vaseline, dipping the feet into a pot of oil.
An easy method that takes away the stress and mess of the method I used above includes making a mixture of Betadine 25% and Vaseline 75% and applying it to the hens' feet. The Betadine is not just a disinfectant, but also an anti-fungal that deals with the mites and nits as well. Essentially, you can smother the feet and legs of the bird right up to the hock. This could easily be done with a headlamp while the birds are on the roost. Some people use a one-inch paintbrush with the bristles cut down to about an inch long. This needs to be done three times with 7 days in between each treatment.
The older method of dipping the legs into some gas or diesel had quickly proved to be harmful because these substances are carcinogenic. They both leave a residue that acts as an irritant. Rubbing Alcohol does not have these properties, which makes it both safe and effective.
Dipping the chickens' legs in Rubbing Alcohol is a very simple and effective method. They need to stand in the Alcohol for at least 1 minute, preferably longer. The advantage of using rubbing alcohol is its fast evaporation rate and the lack of residue. A rag or towel covering the head could help keep the chicken calm while it's sitting in the bowl of RA.
Another method of treatment for severe cases includes oral or injectable forms of Ivermectin, which are generally prescribed by a Veterinarian.
(Keep in mind, specialists do not recommend this method if the birds are being used for meat and eggs.)
A product called Net-Tex Scaly Leg Spray has worked well for many homesteaders. I have yet to try it out, but it sounds like a very convenient way of treating SLM. Product efficacy has not yet been proven.
- Taking preventative measures for the whole flock
To prevent SLM from spreading to other birds, one should treat every bird in a flock as well as clean out the coop and clean the roost bars. Roost bars are the most common place for SLM to spread. Sponging down the roost bars and adding fresh shavings to the coop is an important step to preventing SLM from spreading.
Permethrin-based poultry spray could be applied on the roost bars to help rid the roosts of the mites. This spray could be found at stores like TSC, Amazon, or your local feed store. Take additional measures by cleaning out the bedding in the coop and replacing it with fresh bedding.
These mites are highly contagious and spread from one bird to another very easily, especially in cold, damp weather. Muddy runs allow mites to spread much easier, so keeping your run clean and dry can help with reducing the spread.
- Conclusion
Scaly Leg Mites affect thousands of birds yearly, causing them stress, pain, discomfort, and sometimes leading to death.
Knowing how to treat SLM will help get you ready for a possible SLM infestation and will allow you to treat your flock in the most effective ways possible, so that they could get back to being the friendly, active, happy & healthy birds that they were meant to be.
