Scaly Leg/Tassel Foot and Scaly Face in Quail Part Three - Follow-Up

Below you can see the difference after over a week of dust-bathing and my quail working on her feet. There is still more to do but I have given her legs another bath in the mixture and will monitor to see what happens. Remember these minute spiders have burrowed into the scales, so they need to be worked on gently preferably by the quail herself. She will remove dead mites and debris at her own pace and so as not to give herself pain or injury to the skin. At the same time as I retreated her I also did the same to all the other quail too. The film for the whole chronological process can be found at the end of this article.

In the above image you can see in detail the problems that scaly mite  can cause to the nails, as they become crooked and thickened with the addition of mite activity. If left unchecked this can lead to the loss of the claw. What is also clear in this photograph is the progression of the damage to the scales as the colony grows. On parts of the foot we can observe the scales are barely lifted where the activity is lesser. Where there are larger numbers of mites, the scales have been lifted at a 90° angle to its normal position. It is also in these latter cases that the mites will be more difficult to remove, as they are embedded deeper into the skin and each layer of mite is protected beneath a further layer of mites and debris. As an extra happy indication we can also deduce, from the grimy claws, that my quail has been digging again now her feet and legs feel better and her nails have been trimmed!

Polly teaches one of her quail chicks about dust-bathing

Again this is the reason why I like my birds to do their own removal and at their own pace. As you can see from the images (above top) the quail has already removed some of the larger excrescences leaving the skin undamaged beneath, as these mites have already been killed where the oil and essential oil have soaked through the layers and done their job.

Another five days later and  you can see that further progress has been made. With none but the most stubborn of the mite colonies still remaining. I'm now rubbing pure coconut oil into these areas to help in the repair of the skin and the regrowth of the scales.

Calendula Infused Oil

With my scaly face patient, I am now using organic calendula oil to aid in skin regeneration and repair to the base of the feathers and also to soothe and stop any irritation of the skin. 

Calendula infused oil is simple to make even from scratch, as pot or common marigolds are very easy to grow and produce a prolific number of blooms over a long flowering period. In a future article I will be showing how to make this incredibly useful and ancient medicinal.

Named ringelblummen or ringlet flower by the mystic, scholar, writer and holistic health practitioner Hildegard von Bingen because of the curly nature of the seeds. One of the perceived  Mediaeval virtues of this flower was in the treatment of poisonous bites.

Scaly leg and face mites exude a caustic liquid that enables them to burrow into the scales and skin, which links us neatly back to this ancient medicinal.

One of the most versatile flowers for use in a whole raft of medical conditions from sore gums to bunions, marigolds are perhaps most famously known in modern times through the foundation of the Marigold Clinic in the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.

The common marigold calendula  officinalis was so called because of its ability to bloom at all times of year, .i.e. throughout the calendar.  It's common name 'marigold' comes, it is said, from its use as an offering to the Virgin Mary as an alternative to coin. 

Another 'marigold' tagetes patula also makes a very useful, anti-inflammatory infused oil and is a flower  associated with offerings in many religions including Hindu, Buddhist and Ancient Aztec. it's an oil I have also made and used on my chickens for scaly leg. Tagetes and calendula infused oils are regularly used in humans for athlete's foot as they are both powerful anti-fungals.

In gardening tagetes of the Dwarf African Marigold species are planted between tomato plants to ward off and kill nematodes or round worms which attack tomato roots. The active compound is the phototoxin, α-therthienyl.

The active ingredients in calendula flowers, which we will discuss in more detail when I write up my method of making the infused oil are:

• Plant sterols -  calendulin 
• Calendic acid 
• Polysaccharides 
• Linoleic acid 
• Carotenoids 
• Flavonoids 
• Triterpenes saponins, such as triterpenoid
• Tocopherols 
• Oleanolic acid glycosides 

The virtues of Calendula infused oil we are interested in here are:

• the treatment of inflammatory skin disorders
• wound healing
• treatment of skin irritations
• the strong smell - which has an effect on invertebrates (the flowers can be companion planted in gardening as an insect repellent).

As with the coconut and tea tree mixture you can put the oil in place using a cotton bud or with your finger.

I can attest that for days now I have not seen my quail scratching her neck and the feathers are growing back and the skin looks pink and healthy.

Here's the film:

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! Sue

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Scaly Leg/Tassel Foot & Scaly Face in Quail

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Image of Hildegard von Bingen thanks to the Pinterest Board of Heilpraktiker Berufs-Bund

© 2020 Sue Cross

Scaly Leg/Tassel Foot and Scaly Face in Quail Part Two - Treatment

In the first part of this article, which you can find here we discussed the behaviour of the mite, why and how your quail might suffer an infestation and the link between the latter and nutritional deficiency.

In the following we will look at how to treat scaly leg and scaly face with organic, readily-available, effective and low cost solutions. The initial idea would be to suffocate the mite by using a viscous substance such as an organic vegetable oil which will be harmless to the bird but will block up the breathing tubes (spiracles) or rudimentary lungs. However, when I first had to deal with external parasites many years ago, I read a lab report in which  it was documented that arthropods treated solely with a carrier oil had in fact been able to 'hold their breath' for more than an hour. Thus their breathing apparatus had had time to absorb the oil, become unblocked and therefore the mites had been able to survive the treatment. Thus I have a combination of remedies to use in different areas where the mite is present.

Communicate 

Your bird will be very grateful to you for solving this problem as parasite infestations are, as you can imagine, a horrible thing to endure. However, your quail may not enjoy being treated for them. Talk to your birds throughout the treatment, reassuring them by the tone of your voice that all is well. If you have noticed the similarities between human and bird-speak, then you will already understand that tone and cadence are all important. Your quail will instinctively know what you are saying.

Raw Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

One of the most important grocery items ever present in my kitchen cupboard and which is also a powerful medicinal is raw, organic coconut oil. Although more expensive than other organic oils which can be used as carriers for essential oil, coconut oil has virtues of its own. It is therefore invaluable in areas such as the eyes, ears, nose mouth and vent, where treatment with essential oil (of this further) is inadvisable. Coconut oil contains lauric, capric and caprylic acids, these have wide ranging properties, such as insecticidal, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-fungal, antibacterial and soothing qualities. Coconut oil is a great support for the immune system and has both healing properties for the skin and promotes the regrowth of feathers/hair. We use it in cooking as well as in making cosmetics. Although a saturated fat coconut oil is made up of two thirds medium-chain fats aka medium-chain triglycerides or MCTs, these are metabolised in a completely different way to most fats, in that they do not need bile or digestive enzymes. Thus, when used internally, MCTs in coconut oil are readily available for use by both the body and the brain and not stored as in the usual way of fats. In the case of a stressed, tired bird or one lacking in energy due to mite activity, this is an assured way of giving a great boost to both motor and nervous system function. So when I treat externally with coconut oil, I always make sure the bird gets a nice nugget of coconut oil to eat as well - my birds love it! In the case of quail, who are sometimes fussy about new tastes, I add coconut oil and turmeric to boiled rice and when we eat it they get the scrapings from the bottom of the pan!

Lauric acid makes up about half of the fatty acids in coconut oil. When lauric acid is digested, it transforms into a monoglyceride called monolaurin. Both lauric acid and monolaurin aid in ridding the gut of an overgrowth of harmful pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. This, as we have already discussed in previous articles on parasites, is a bonus in the case of external mites, where continued activity can have compromised the gut and thus the immune system and digestive processes. So even if your bird is now eating well it may still not be able to extract the nutrients from its food. Coconut oil therefore is a most important asset to your medicine chest.

Organic Olive, Sunflower Oil or Similar

These are suitable inexpensive carrier oils for use when treating the legs, I usually try to recuperate organic oil from the large, ex bulk-storage olive jars given away when empty by my local organic shop. I always ask them not to bother to pre-wash them as I have a use for the remaining oil.

As discussed above killing the mites by suffocation, i.e preventing them from accessing oxygen is not sufficient and treating several birds with the more potent coconut oil can get quite expensive. Thus the addition of an essential oil with insecticidal properties is necessary to be sure of removing them from the host.

Essential Oil - Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia)

For both scaly face and scaly leg I use Tea tree essential oil as amongst its many properties it is an insecticide and is used in organic farming as such. In fact it was a farmer friend of mine, who shadowed an organic vet as part of her continuing education, who first recommended tea tree to me as a cure for scaly leg many years ago.

Tea tree also has wound healing properties and as these mites can cause skin lesions, this is a very welcome extra virtue. As so little oil is used in each treatment and as a typical 10 ml bottle of pure essential oil translates to 250 drops, it is worth investing in the best quality organic.

Why I Use Organic Cotton Hygiene and Health Products

Cotton is one of the most chemically intensive crops in the world and cotton defoliants are the most toxic farm chemicals currently on the market. Cotton farming accounts for 25% of the World's insecticide use and at a cost of, on average per year, $2.6 billion. As an anecdotal incidence, my friend's mother in Alabama never wore cotton her whole life and warned constantly against the dangers. Think though how much worse it is to use conventionally-grown cotton products on damaged skin and open wounds.

Scaly Face - Treating the Sensitive Areas of the Face

Be generous in your use of coconut oil, as with all microscopic creatures, it is easy for some of them to avoid direct contact with the treatment. In a serious scaly face infestation, as you apply the coconut oil, layers of these creatures and their debris will be removed, so to avoid any being reapplied and surviving, change the cotton bud often as practical. It is also possible as you get nearer to the skin that you will remove creatures that have burrowed below the surface, this may cause redness and maybe even some slight bleeding. Stop the 'cleaning' treatment of these areas immediately if this happens and instead just gently pat on some coconut oil. This will both aid in skin repair and stop, by the antimicrobial effect of the coconut oil, any potential infection.

Scaly Face on the Neck or on Facial Areas Excluding the Above

It will be most unlikely that your quail would just get scaly face around the ears, mouth and other sensitive areas mentioned above so it is on the non-sensitive places that you can carry out the full (essential oil) scaly-face treatment.

At the back of the neck, around the top of the head or to treat any other area away from the ear, eye, nose or beak,  I add one drop of tea tree essential oil to a teaspoonful of melted (carrier) coconut oil. This is the recommended dilution of essential oil for each bird needing treatment.

Thus, if I have a very large area to treat and run out of the essential oil/carrier oil mixture, I revert back to just using the pure coconut oil. There are several reasons why I only like to use 1 drop of tea tree when treating scaly face. The first being because tea tree is a strong oil and I don't like to use too much on the skin (unless as with my pigeon, in an earlier article, this is a case of gangrene or infection). Secondly because one of the greatest receptors for  essential oil is through the lungs and as I'm treating the bird in areas in close proximity to its nose I know it will be accessing oil by inhalation too, therefore I keep the dose to a maximum of one drop per day. That does not mean I do not treat a bird's legs on the same day because it would be very unlikely that I would ever need to use a whole teaspoon of mix on one small quail. I would also want to treat scaly leg and scaly face together when it occurred on the same bird as I wouldn't want them passing the mite back and forth through scratching.

Essential oils are quick acting and should only be used for a short period, with hens I work on a schedule of five days of treatment and then five days with no treatment before starting again, I have rarely ever got past the first five days. The ailment has either cleared up or I have realised I had made the wrong diagnosis and switched treatments. With my quail, I just did one treatment and then left it for a week, that was except for my quail with the scaly leg infestation, that one, as you will see below, I treated differently.

Scaly Leg Treatment

Its microscopic size and its nature of boring into the skin make Knemidocoptes mutans slightly more difficult to treat than other mites. You should also really treat all your birds because it takes a long time to build up colonies of mites that are big enough to cause visible damage. Therefore, chances are some other birds in your flock already have the parasite. Using an edible organic carrier oil and a small amount of essential oil will mean the bird will have no problem with cleaning up its legs once the scales have softened. I add tea tree essential oil, organic if possible and no more than 1 drop per bird (if treating individuals), dissolved into one to two teaspoon of the chosen carrier oil.

On a quail I use an organic cotton bud or small paint brush to apply this and spread it all over the legs including the back of the hocks up to where the feathers start. If I am treating several birds at once then I use a small wide mouth jar filled up to hock height with carrier oil and add up to 6 drops of tea tree. I then mix this well and stand each bird in the pot. If the neck is wide enough then both legs can be done but be aware that quail are incredibly strong in the legs and they will use the full force of this to get away from you, so treating one leg at a time may be a better option!  I know with my own birds some take this treatment as a breeze but others kick up a fuss so putting their feet in a jar is not always the best option!

The quail  should begin to preen around the legs and feet the minute they are put back on the ground and as the legs and feet soften up during the day I often see them working with their beaks around the scales. The object as always with this branch of medicine, is to get the bird to heal itself.

In extreme cases (as with my bird with the infestation), where there are many raised scales and deep layers of excrescences, then a more radical treatment is needed. I have found that softening the scales overnight in the same mixture I use to relieve inflammation (see left), i.e., a cabbage and lard poultice works wonders.

If the scales are very badly deformed I will soak organic cotton wool or an organic makeup pad in the oil mix and bandage this onto the leg and keep it on overnight. This of course still respecting the 1 drop of tea tree per quail and dissolved in one to two teaspoons of carrier oil dependent on the area to be covered.

With my 'infested' quail I used an organic cotton make-up pad to rub the oil in between the badly lifted scales, after the initial soaking in the jar. As I felt the scales were loosening, I then made a tentative attack on the tops of the lifted scales. The top layer should and did, come away revealing a harder dryer layer underneath. As a tip: - if you hold the base of these excrescences tightly between finger and thumb, then you can gently remove the top part with your finger nail. The feet and legs can then be quickly dipped again to allow the oil to sink further into the scales.


In the next article I will discuss follow-up treatment and there will be a film of the whole process.

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube channel or even supporting us on Patreon or It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! Sue

RELATED ARTICLES

Scaly Leg & Scaly Face in Quail Part 3 - Follow-Up Treatment

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Here's Drusilla she is one of my coturnix quail and over the past few days she has started to limp, holding up her foot and hopping...read more

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Recently I had occasion to use this poultice on two cases simultaneously, my quail and my neighbour's hen's suspected bumblefoot.. ...read more

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© 2020 Sue Cross

Scaly leg/tassel foot and scaly face in quail and some thoughts on keeping quail and chickens together

Knemidocoptes mutans a very successful, microscopic burrowing mite, is one I have dealt with before within these pages in its relationship to my hens and cockerels. I also mentioned that it could be a major problem with game birds but at the time I had no photographic evidence to show - well I do now!

A couple of years ago Carol, a friend of mine in Honduras who runs a bird and animal sanctuary in her beautiful back garden, wrote asking me if I had ever come across scaly leg in quail and I wrote back to tell her that I hadn't but knew of it. She told me she had found it in several of the quail that she had recently rescued. I have also had commentators on my quail videos asking about my keeping quail and chickens together, in particular as I have hatched and raised quail many times with a bantam hen. The commentators usually have one particular theme: which is with specific reference to diseases that could be transmitted from one to the other. Well I have to say that I do not ally myself to Pasteur's 'germ theory' but to that of 'terrain' theory. If you are unaware of these two opposing theories then it might be a good idea to look into them as they are exceedingly relevant to all kinds of health issues. In fact it is a misnomer to even say that germ theory belonged to Pasteur as it had been around for some time before, for example, M. A. Plenciz, a Viennese physician, published a germ theory of infectious diseases in 1762. Conversely from Hippocrates 460-370 BC:

“It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.”

The reason why I am mentioning the above in the same article now is because, having just bought six 'bargain basement ' quail from a friend who has moved and given up raising quail pro tem, I have finally come across scaly leg mite aka tassel foot in them. I believe this happened because these quail were kept with an old hen, whom I had noticed was suffering badly from the parasite. So although I don't believe in disease transmission from hen to quail, I do believe in that of parasites. Even so and if you know of my previous article and my discussion of the link between nutrition and parasitism, then I would add that the general state of the individual quail is what counts. Only one of these quail (pictured above top) has an infestation of Knemidocoptes mutans and she also had, before I cut them, extremely long nails, so I deduce has not been digging around for any extra wild nutrient.

Another of the females has slight scaly face or rather neck and the beginnings of scaly leg and she too did have exceedingly long nails. Thus I would suggest that this adds weight to the contention of there being a nutritional aspect to parasitism, which in turn dove-tails with terrain theory. Thus for any bird to get parasites from another host, it is the state of the bird the 'terrain' that is the important factor.

So just to recap what we are dealing with here, Knemidocoptes mutans, the burrowing mite that causes scaly leg and scaly face, is a short-lived arachnid, belonging to the phylum Arthropoda, which also includes insects and crustaceans. Like its relative the spider, it has eight legs although in contrast to the former, it is viviparous, giving birth to live larvae. The female burrows down into the keratin of the skin and underneath the scales of the bird to give birth, the nymphs also burrow to create pockets in which to shed their skin. As I expressed in my previous article on the subject, I am not totally clear as to whether additional burrows are also due to them gnawing their way through the keratin to consume it. In all I have read, I am not sure if, like their cousins Knemidocoptes pilae, parasites of caged psittacines and in particular budgerigars, the latter exude the enzyme keratinase in order to help them break down and absorb the keratin. This enzyme in itself seems to have irritant properties but once the holes are made, there is a possibility that fluid and cells, combined with powdery debris from the mite causes further problems. Certainly my less infested quail has been scratching her neck and as you can see from the above photo-montage abraded and removed some of her feathers. The major problem with this mite is that although the conditions it causes are slow to develop to infestation proportion, if left to do so, they can become disfiguring, cause lameness or high facial and neck coverage and lead to necrosis. However, there are specific steps, which can be taken to ensure that you never have to deal with these consequences. As always prevention and a holistic approach is my priority.

Observations on possible nutritional deficiencies

My newly-bought quail were previously kept in a small, trodden-earth floored outbuilding with a 'deep litter' covering which could potentially provide invertebrates. The barn's single opening, a part-wired doorway which faced South allowed them direct access to sunlight. There was no evidence when I visited  that they received very much vegetable matter in their diet. However they were on a game-bird feed which would have provided an albeit synthetic vitamin content, which their bodies would then have to convert to the natural form for assimilation.  

Low Vitamin A 

Knemidocoptes mutans (portrait left) feeds on keratin, which is the proteinaceous substance that protects the epithelial cells from stress and damage. Epithelial tissue is the sheet of cells which covers the body's surface or lines the body cavities. When we think of this in relation to birds and mites we may consider the β-keratin found in feathers, beaks, scales, claws and skin. Parasites are opportunists and to multiply to infestation level they need a lot of food! As discussed in relation to my other birds, although in the main when we think of Vitamin A deficiency, we may at first think of its effect on sight, this is but a part of the overall importance of this fat soluble vitamin. Vitamin A deficiency has a leading role in the maintenance of the epithelium and it is here that the symptoms of deficiency are most visible.  Although the exact nature of the problem depends on the locations and types of this tissue i.e. a primary build up of keratin or squama (scale), the resulting condition is the same and can be simply expressed thus:

        excess production of keratin = abundance of mite food

Grass is high in carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A

Incidentally à propos of Vitamin A, it is also crucial to quail as their ability to lay is said to be directly linked to the amount of Vitamin A stored in the previous year.

.....low Zinc

Zinc is critical to the transport transportation of Vitamin A from storage in the liver for use in the rest of the body. Ants contain the highest levels of zinc of any other creature and my quail love them! Above my quail devouring an ant nest I'd found in a flower pot, comprising ants and two kinds of eggs, their favourite being those of the flying ants which are much larger than the regular eggs and pink instead of white! My new quail were given an ant nest yesterday and completely and thoroughly consumed it!

...and low Vitamin D₃

The evidence of external mites will be a good indication that the pathway of 7-dehydrocholesterol (the precursor to Vitamin D₃  has been compromised i.e. with the blocking of the preen gland by excess keratin and thus the bird may develop all kinds of conditions symptomatic of D₃ deficiency. One of these conditions is, as you may have guessed, keratosis, the over-production of keratin. With one door way to the sun, it is not always certain that all my purchased quail will have obtained their necessary daily dose of high energy ultraviolet b (UVB).

Our baby quail getting some rays

Rather than repeat everything here and for more in depth information on vitamin and mineral deficiency and the role played by stress in the infestation by Knemidocoptes mutans,  I have put links to my previous articles below.

In Part Two we'll look at the treatment and there will be an accompanying film.

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

It all helps to keep me going!

Until next time, all the very best from sunny Normandie! Sue

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© 2020 Sue Cross

Illustrations of scaly leg mites with thanks to the Pinterest boards of:
zooclub.ru
University of Edinburgh - StudyBlue 
diendancacanh.com