Scaly leg in hens

[Honey08]

Anyone have any experience of this?

I took my auntie's last remaining hen last week. She had slightly dry legs with slightly raised scales (only vv slightly). I put it down to the hot weather and the fact that she was in a dry dusty run, silly me. Having been away on a trip for five days I notice slightly raised scales on two of my oldies. The new hen looks normal. I have a nasty feeling it's scaly leg. I have bought some cream for it, so now have to catch all 14 hens that are virtually feral in a huge run! I am going to put the mite cream on the perches too. I usually put red mite and louse powder in the straw inside the run, so plan to remove all straw, wipe down the coop with disinfectant and powder all new straw. Any other ideas or should that do it. Am gutted, I've never had a single mite in six years of having hens. I know I should have kept it seperate longer, but it kept escaping and was looking depressed after a few days solo, so it seemed happier in with the flock.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

yeah, had trouble last year. Now you can go down the barrier cream route-sudocrem/vaseline/ liquid paraffin/benzyl benzoate once a week on all birds for the next month at least. The mites can stay viable in the run for up to a month and will come from dropped scales. Or you can go to vet, get some ivermectin (spot on will work for it) and do that twice at three weekly intervals on each bird. The egg withdrawal will be one-two weeks each time and you should never eat the birds (nonsense really as its prescribed for humans and scabies infections elsewhere in the world).

Benzyl sprayed in the run will help kill mites there.

Don't feel bad-leg mite is carried by wild birds and leg mites love mud floored pens.

 

[Alec Swan]

Paint the affected areas on the birds, and their perching timber with Paraffin. It works but it needs repeating until the problem is gone.

Alec.

 

[Honey08]

Thanks guys, will crack on with some of those suggestions tomorrow.

 

[Suelin]

Surgical spirit. Dunk hens legs in it 2 x per day for a week. Gets rid of Scaly Leg. Told to me by very experienced Silkie breeder. Obviously treat house for mites etc during treatment and after to prevent reinfection. Treat all your birds whether they appear to have it or not if they have been in contact with affected bird. Good luck, it's a horrid thing.

 

[RutlandH2O]

I used to be plagued with scaly leg. Now that I have been using Diatomaceous Earth for the last 3 years, my birds have clean, smooth legs year after year. Using DE has had a dramatic effect on the whole chicken-keeping experience. I mix DE in the birds' moistened morning mash; I mix it into the shavings bedding in the girls' house and nest boxes; I puffer it into all corners and crevices in their house (before I allowed the birds into their Wendy House cum hen house, I sealed all corners with silicone sealant); I mix it in with the soil and sand of their dust bath; and I puffer it into areas where they congregate in their very large enclosure. I am now working with an equine dermatologist in an attempt to decimate the feather mite population in my Shires' field shelters and their winter accommodation, a massive pole barn. Having cleaned out the aforementioned, I spread 50kg of DE over the floors and corners and have let it stand while the horses are out. This is a work in progress, so having bathed the horses' feather in a special shampoo, we will see how efficient, or not, is this whole project. I'll keep you posted...