What Is Scaly Leg Mite And How To Cure It?

Scaly leg is cause due to eight leg mite that set under the scales of chicken legs and spends its life cycle of 1 to 2 week on the bird. It can be brought to your chicken by wild birds and scaly leg mite is pale grey in colour and has flat round body. The scaly leg mite are set under the scaly of chicken leg and feeds on connective tissue.

Symptoms of scaly leg mite

Symptoms include swelling, leg inflammation and lameness. And if scaly leg mite are left untreated the condition get the worst, as it get pushed away from skin by mites’ excretions. In worst cases chicken develop leg and legs have joint problem and their toes could die and can also fall off.

Never try to remove or lift any affected scaled by yourself as it is very painful for chicken and unnecessary, as the damaged scaled will be naturally replaced during chicken’s annual moult and therefore will eventually regrow and look normal again.

Treatment

If you find any of your chicken having scaly leg mite, you should isolate that affected birds as this scale leg are extremely contagious. Many will advice you for regular, gentle washing (baby shampoo and a soft babies toothbrush are good for this) of the leg to remove surface layer and it is allow the leg to heal.

Most commonly used treatment for this is rub petroleum jelly like Vaseline onto the leg, which will help to soften the leg and make it less painful, in addition the baseline will help to suffocate and kill the mite. Best time to do it is do at night so that mud and dust doesn’t get stuck to the Vaseline as chickens scratch around. However you need to carry out this process every night for 3 weeks. You can also use surgical spirits solution once a week for 4 weeks, to ensure that all mites are killed. Interactive drop are also prescribe by some vets that you should apply on chicken skin behind neck and on the body to kill scaly leg mite. Never use diesel or creosote for scaly leg mite, both are old remedies, as these might kill the birds.