Tails of A Rescued Flock

[Chickin Fairy]

It may just be the photo, but they look crusty to me. Scaly leg mites can affect the face area too. It may well be the combo of breeds, I don't know. You can get pour on ivermectin for cattle at tractor supply, dosage for chickens is on here somewhere, I will look for it. Just a few drops on the back of the neck, repeat in 10 to 14 days.

I believe it's the picture. When I did my inspection, the combs are smooth. The only issues I saw were some pecking wounds, which I treated with Vetericyn. But I'll be inspecting closer tomorrow when I catch them again to do the leg treatment and I'll be sure to look for crusting. I did also check their vents and under their wings and everything there looked good.

 

[townchicks]

I believe it's the picture. When I did my inspection, the combs are smooth. The only issues I saw were some pecking wounds, which I treated with Vetericyn. But I'll be inspecting closer tomorrow when I catch them again to do the leg treatment and I'll be sure to look for crusting. I did also check their vents and under their wings and everything there looked good.

Good to know.

 

[Chickin Fairy]

Long, rambling post ahead...

Just an update on the new birds. They are wild. I'm treating Scaley Leg by soaking them in an Epsom bath for 10 minutes and then vegetable oil for 10 minutes. Everything told me that the time to catch wild-ish birds was when they were relaxed on the roost. So, I bought a headlamp, prepped all my stuff in my work area last night about 8 pm and waited for dark.

I headed to the coop for my first vict- I mean bird around 9:30. It was Natasha. I discovered quickly that she was appropriately named. We originally had named her after Black Widow from the MCU, but depending on your generation, she could also be the wife of Borris from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. She was calm, I put her legs in the nice, warm, calming bath and then... How dare I?! I offered her a mealworm treat. I guess that was the last straw, she had about 2 minutes of soaking left and she lost her ever-loving mind. She dumped my tub of oil and splashed around everywhere, completely soaking me and her and everything else on my prep-station. So, she got a little extra treatment: blow drying. Loved it. She'll definitely be back of her own free will.

Next up was Loki, a beautiful rooster. He was quite the gentleman compared to Natasha's outburst. He didn't try to bite me at all and we were in and out without incident.

Then, Clint. He tried to do the flailing thing in the tub but I managed to pull him out before he could get too soaked. He bit up my hand pretty good, but that's okay. I DID interrupt their sleep time and I would be perturbed, too. He really did not like the Vaseline I smeared all over his comb, but I had to do it. The whole time I'm talking to him in this super calm tone, playing spa music on my phone and he's just GRUMPY.

Finally, Domino. She is lowest on the pecking order between the four and has some massive damage to her head from pecking. I sprayed the wound out with Vermctyn and put Vaseline on her comb as well. She was actually kinda sweet, though. She kept looking right at me (maybe to memorize the face of her torturer) but also was looking around the room and different things on the shelves. She was the best behaved of the bunch. Barely any flapping.

Did I mention the squawking? Lord, every time I pulled a new bird from the coop, they just cried so loud. Not even a towel over their head stopped them. I'm waiting for a neighbor to text me and ask if everything's okay. We live in the country, but it was late and boy, it was LOUD.

So, I have to keep doing this treatment for 2 weeks at least. I'm just taking the net out there to catch them during the day. All told, I was out cleaning up (Natasha's mess) until 1:00 am. I'm so tired this morning.

Oh, and I managed to get one picture of Loki's comb. The scabs are likely from pecking order, but could be favus. The comb looks dry and slightly ashier than I think it should be. I have a call-in to Barn Sanctuary who may be able to take 3 of the 4 birds, which would greatly reduce everyone's stress level. I do want to keep Loki. I wanted a rooster who wouldn't try to kill me and he is just the prettiest boy. I know that with the others gone, he'll take up the main rooster role and may turn to biting, but that I can handle. Neither of these roosters have spurs. Does anyone know, do they grow spurs when they take on the alpha role or do some roosters just never get spurs? It's hard to tell by their legs if someone de-spurred them, but I sure hope not.

 

[Chickin Fairy]

I spoke with a chicken rescue in my area and she let me know she uses ivermectin to treat Scaley Leg. She applies 3 drops of the product I've listed below below the neck and between the wings once and treats her entire flock (over 100 roosters and then hens as well) every 3 months. I'm going to switch to this technique on Sunday. This will reduce the stress for everyone.

https://www.amazon.com/Durvet-Ivermectin-Pour-Dewormer-250mL/dp/B00JAL3AAW

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/durvet-ivermectin-pour-on-1-l

You can treat their legs with Vaseline to help them heal after this, but they will heal on their own and possibly return to normal after their moult. Will keep the results posted here.

 

[Chickin Fairy]

Whew. Caught and treated all 4 birds tonight with the Ivermectin. I'll do a withdraw time on their eggs for 2 weeks (no one really specifies how long, but better safe than sorry). I'll treat again in 3 months. I'm not going to worry about applying Vaseline to their legs, because these birds have been through enough trauma. I'll update anything I find and I'm hoping they'll shed the swollen scales in the next moult.