do I need to Amputat ?

[Yvonne37894]

2 year old Millie Fleur d'Uccle hen.
I found her in the wire cage with all of the skin gone from the center toe.
I have cleaned it, put Neosporin on it and wrapped it.
She stands holding her foot up and walks with a hobble.
It appears to be healing BUT, there is no skin all the way around the bone.
Would it be better to remove the bone now?
With no blood flow is going to just dry up and fall off?

 

[CMV]

I am inclined to say it is just going to dry up and fall off on its own. It's always hard to tell though. I prefer not to do amputations, and just let nature take its course, but if it shows signs of infection then you are going to need to amputate it after you have cleaned up the infection. You don't want to start cutting into an infected area for fear of sending the infection into the whole system.

If you are up for amputating it, then cut it off at a joint. Try to peel back some skin (if there is any) to leave flaps to heal over your cut. Gruesome, huh? Dealing with rotted toes is not generally a big deal, though. Make sure you have some blood clotting agent on hand- blood stop powder, styptic powder, flour, corn starch- just to be safe. And it is not a bad idea to get some PenG and syringes to have on hand should an infection decide to show up.

I, personally, hate cutting into live, un-anesthetized birds. It always creeps me out. I have done it more occasions than I can count, but I still prefer not to do it. I would rather pay the money to have a vet do the dirty work for me, these days.

She is going to need to be in a very clean, dry environment until that toe heals or falls off, either way.

 

[Yvonne37894]

CMV. You are a great help, I've never seen this before. I've done crop surgery so I could do it. But I would rather let nature to take its course.
I've got it wrapped with bag balm and vet wrap.
Do I need to let it dry up or keep it soft with the ointment?

 

[CMV]

I like to let them dry out. It makes the process move along quicker.

 

[Yvonne37894]

I came home to find the towel she is on quit bloody. I have 2 toes that are bleeding.

 

[CMV]

Two toes? I thought she only had one damaged. What's going on?

 

[Yvonne37894]

I didn't realize that the outside toe was that bad. I thought it just had a scab.
It has turned under the other toe. looks like it will fall off 1st.
I now think that she has frostbite.
The trio of bantam's don't get on the wood roost.
We had some mornings in the 20's They are in a very large building, but their cage is on the north side on the out side wall.
I guess I'm lucky that she is the only one with damage.
I have watched her pecking at her toes, so sprayed them with wound-kote and wrapped them with strips of vet wrap.

 

[CMV]

Sounds good. Keep an eye on them. Any damaged areas are likely to slough off once they dry out enough. Unfortunately, sometimes that means they slough off entire toes. Fortunately, chickens are tough as nails, and they usually do fine despite the loss.

 

[Yvonne37894]

I think I have more problems. I got to thinking about frostbite, we have not had temp's cold enough for this since Mid February. So is it possible that it took that long to show up?
The dying skin seams to be going up the toes and it must be bothering her because she is pecking at it a lot.
so does this look like I need to do more or just keep it clean and wait for them to fall off.
She is eating & drinking and I don't feel any heat.

 

[CMV]

Those feet are drying out nicely. It takes several weeks to months for the toes to fall off. The toes may not look damaged for quite a while after the frostbite occurs. You generally only see it after the blood supply has dried up so much that the feet/toes are dead looking.