Scaly leg mites, continued

[Jaye]

I posted this in the thread I started on PSO, but since everyone is gathering here today, I thought I'd post here as well ...

First thing this morning, before my coffee, I I soaked Memphis's feet in warm soapy water, scrubbed her feet with a soft tooth brush, rinsed her off, dried her with the hairdryer, and then applied VetRX liberally with one of those little foam makeup brushes. She was not happy, but she did tolerate most of my "abuse", up until near the end. Then I finally remembered that flipping hens over on their back and cradling them in the crook of your arm calms them down, so that's what I did. What a difference!I held her that way while I finished applying the VetRX and gave it time to soak in, and she was calm as can be. Her feet are in worse shape than I thought, so it will definitely take a number of treatments. Next time of course she'll be even harder to catch. She's also officially moulting. There were feathers everywhere in my laundry room.
The Ivermectin I have expired in October. I don't suppose it will still be effective, right? Guess I'll have to buy some more and treat everyone tomorrow.

I have a few more questions that I hope someone can answer for me, now that bird #1 has had her first treatment:
Where would the girls have gotten these mites from?
Do I need to toss out the straw in the run too, and start fresh?
Do you think the my go-to sanitizer, citrus vinegar, is enough to clean the coop with, or should I use something else?
Should I clean out the coop before I start bird# 2's treatment?

I need my coffee now, while I regroup.

[BobG]

The Ivermectin will still work . The mites like to live in cracks in wood, like on your roosts . You can use any oil product ( mineral oil ) paint your roosts with it . If you have lots of mites you will see a bubbling this is the mites trying to get out of the oil . User cooking oil will also work .

[Jaye]

Oil on the roosts? I haven't heard of that before. I scrubbed them off with warm water and dish soap and drying outside ATM, and plan to spray them with a neem oil/dish soap combo once they have dried a bit. Maybe I should coat them with oil after they dry instead. Thanks for the tip.

[Jaye]

Can anyone tell me when I should give a follow up dose of Ivermectin? 5 -7 days after the first application? 21 days? I have read conflicting recommendations

[SandyM]

When I treated the Silkie here it was after day 10 because that's when the eggs will hatch. So end of day10 or day 12 to make sure you get them all.

I think that's right? WLLady can confirm

[SandyM]

My roosts are wood. If we got leg mites in the coop I'd replace the roosts. Maybe even put in temp roosts until treatment is done then give them their permanent roosts back.

I remember wanting to use shower curtains, the extender ones that you can buy the plastic wrap for ... But the coop ended up being too wide. (My roosts go from side to side in the coop)

[Jaye]

Thanks, Sandy. Much appreciated.
I hope you never have to deal with scaly leg mites. They're nasty.
I would really like to know where they came from, so that I can at least try to prevent a re-occurrence.

My roosts are wood, removable 2 x 3 boards installed wide edge up, and they've been sanitized, spraying with a neem oil and dish soap solution then and treated with vegetable oil. I may paint my roosts with whitewash in the spring, but in the meantime I'll just keep cleaning and re-applying vegetable oil on a regular basis. I am going to cut and sand a second set so that I can exchange dirty for clean.

I'm glad you didn't go with your curtain rod roost plan - I think it would be too slippery for the chicken to grip properly.

[SandyM]

Jaye, I feel like the only major thing left for me to deal with is scaley leg mites. I seem to have one situation after another here. After I read your post I went and checked all my girls and figured they were good. But just in case I rubbed carbaryl all over the roosts lol!! I can be hyper aware ...

Ya...I think curtain rods wouldn't of been a good idea too. I was going to paint the stuff that gives grip on it, but felt it was a lot of work for and chicken feet lol! So wood it was. Mine are removable as well.

Ok, don't freak out, but I read to dip their legs and all roosts in gasoline for scaly leg mites ... I'm pretty sure I'd consider that. Lol!

Ya, where DO the mites come from??

[Jaye]

Yeah, I've read that too. but gas is toxic and I don't want to use anything that has the potential to make them sick(er). I've read that people use Vaseline or bag balm too, but that's kind of messy because everything sticks to it.
I decided to go with a combination of Ivermectin treatment and applying VetRX or olive oil, vegetable oil or coconut oil on their legs to suffocate the mites, and to promote healing.

[Ontario Chick]

Scaly leg mites spend their whole life on the chicken (no intermediate host) so after treating all the birds with Ivomec and doing a second treatment 5-7 days later, I would keep a real close watch on any other developments and wait a while before you burn the coop down.
For cleaning up the legs, application of vaseline will soften the "crud" (that's a technical term) and let the scales get back to their original position.
I am afraid the mites usually come from another bird.