Sugar

We have been having a battle with Sugar’s feet. First we noticed that Sugar was limping. When I inspected her feet I realised her toe nails had got so long and curled around that a nail was pressing against her ankle. I clipped her nails and have checked her regularly since then and now regularly clip her nails.

After clipping Sugar’s nails her limp disappeared so we thought all was well. Some time after that Sugar was limping again. I checked her feet and couldn’t see anything wrong. As her limp continued I kept checking and realised that cracks were appearing on her toes.

I thought this indicated that she had scaly mite again so I treated her with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks again. This was about the time that I had finished treating Autumn. Sugar’s limp disappeared and I thought we were okay again.

It is very difficult to tell if Sugar has scaly mite because her scales are already raised from the first time and scaly mite are microscopic so can’t be seen. Also she had never pulled off her scales like Autumn so until she was limping there was no way of knowing.

Like Autumn Sugar improved while I was spraying her legs and feet so I had to conclude it was scaly mite causing her to limp. But also like Autumn soon after I stopped treating her she started limping again so I treated her again. Recently Sugar started limping again.

I am now treating her for the fourth time and once again she has improved. It took four treatments to clear Autumn so I am hoping that this fourth treatment will clear Sugar.

As always I have researched this endlessly. I have asked why the treatment hasn’t worked and it says (as I thought) that only one mite or egg left behind will start the whole process over again. By reading other people’s experiences it seems that sometimes it can be cleared with one treatment but sometimes it can be very very difficult to clear. I can only keep going and hope that like with Autumn I can clear Sugar of this with continued spraying.

At the moment Sugar appears well but I am mid way of this current round of spraying. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Snow has settled into laying every other day. Red is a bit more erratic with her laying and often misses a few days. Autumn’s face and comb have now turned red. Gold also has a very red face and comb and has looked in the nest boxes a few times.

I think there will more girls laying soon which will be lovely.