Single hen

[jaystyal]

Hi Chaps,

 

I've been treating my Silkie (Salt) for a few months now, for a variety of problems, the worst of which was Scaly leg ;

 

I noticed her limping and standing on one leg, then I noticed her legs and fet looked like fossils.

I coated her legs and feet in vaseline to kill any mites lurking about, then switched to Sudocrem for its aniseptic properties, then finally once her legs were looking better, and at the Vets advice, started with a treatment of E45 cream as her legs were so dry.

 

The problem however is she is still limping quite badly, and drawing her legs up quite slowly and deliberately whilst walking.She's found it difficult to scratch around and couldn't dust bathe because her feet were painful.

 

The skin on her rear toe on each foot was cracked and bloody, and obviously quite painful to walk on, and now on closer inspection I think she has lost the end of the toe on her left foot.

 

She's broody at the moment but when I put her in the garden with the other chooks she's fairly sprightly, and can still manage to break into a decent sprint when I offer food, she's even stared to scratch around a bit more and has taken a few dust baths, but her feet are still obviously painful and still cracked, so I'm still using a bit of sudocrem on the broken skin to stop any infection.

 

She's been to the vets and aside from a distinct lack of feathers due to moult she's in decent health

 

Has anyone come across this problem before ? and any ideas on other treatments ?

 

She's taking a lot of work but I think she's worth it, especially as she's my only remaining silkie since Pepper passed on.

[Egluntyne]

Neither vaseline nor sudocrem are particularly effective against scaley leg mite.

 

**Xeno 200** *not licensed for treatment on poultry in UK is your best bet and it will also treat other external and internal parasites.

[likeastar--x]

If not Xeno200 or some other Ivermectin-based product, then I would suggest either dunking her feet in either Olive Oil or Surgical spirit for 5 minutes to kill the lice. Once the lice are dead the scales will continue to be raised but the crusty exude underneath will be gone. If she seems to be in pain I would take her to the vets for treatment.

[HENthusiastic]

I think I heard somewhere that surgical spirit was quite painful for them. Not totally sure though. Might be worth checking it out before you try it.

[mostin]

xeno 200 worked a treat on my girls scaley leg mite. It's really easy to use, you just spray it on the back of their neck. It's not licensed for poultry in the uk though.

 

after treating with this you could give her arnica tablets if she still seems achey or sore or stiff.

[Plum]

Take care with sudocrem it can cause sensitivity as it contains alcohol and perfumes. May be best sticking with bland cream.

[hellomotto678910]

We have always used Liquid Paraffin painted onto their legs- it usually works really well as I can see a difference after 1 or 2 treatments