So this started a week ago give or take a day. He limped some the first day and was staying in the coop instead of free ranging. Which is odd for our silkies as they're actually great foragers in our experience. I picked him up looked him over I checked the bottom of his foot(left leg) and looked at and felt his leg. No swelling no visible bumble or injuries. I assumed he may have fought with a large fowl roo and be sore although nothing physically looked or felt wrong that I could tell. I put him in a dog crate to rest and recover. I never expected what happened next.
The next day his foot was mild to moderately swollen and there appeared to be a likely very small bumble. Okay no problem we have a little experience with bumble foot and have always caught it before a kernel ever forms. We did a minor surgery after a soak took off what appeared to be a bumble scab but found nothing underneath but strange dark tissue which we guessed was just healthy silkie tissue. Again we've never done a bumble surgery on a silkie or yet processed a silkie. Below I discuss strange happenings with his foot feathers it was this day we first saw a couple.
Overnight his leg was massively swollen up to his hock and hot to the touch. His foot also doesn't look quite right in addition to the swelling the scales on the bottom of his foot were entirely smooth and the "bumble" also appeared to be surrounded by lighter pale tissue. The swelling appears to nearly have engulfed an entire toe. At the moment I forget which toe. I will look later. All the toes are also hot to the touch, which I suppose is good bc it means blood flow. Suspecting a serious infection we started him on Tylan 50 being the only antibiotic we have at home after I read of several people using it. We don't have the money to take him to a vet and our local poultry vet is almost entirely retired and travels often. There's no telling if/when he'd even be able to see him. We may be able to call in and ask for antibiotics but we want to be sure first that's what he needs bc it gets more complicated.
That night we pulled him into the house(he again had been in a dog crate with clean shavings and food and water) he still has an appetite although I haven't seen him drink as much as I would like. His poop has been normal.
He does have the silkie melanistic skin which makes telling anything extremely hard. He does have only four toes in spite of being very much a silkie and having parents that had the correct 5 toes. Which doesn't bother me at all, at this point I feel an extra toe would just further complicate things.
Originally we thought severe bumble foot and have been treating as such. I also considered it could be necrotic. He can stand on it but usually barely touches the ground with it. Sometimes he holds it up.
Another thing to not is that several of the feathers in the area have had follicles that became soft goopy and fell out when touched. We have pulled several of these also as they appear dead or something idk.
He also had two scabbed and swollen areas surrounding feathers on the top of his foot. Again made us think bumble but when opened night before last neither area had any kernel or visible pus and both had good blood flow. As the swelling seems to have continued to grow in the foot we again made an incision in the bottom of the foot around the supposed bumble. Now he did poop at some point of this surgery so it could explain this but as we made the cut there was an unpleasant smell. Other than this one time we have smelled nothing around his foot or leg. We have had some pretty badly infected injuries in birds from predators and clumsy roos. Still I've never seen anything like this.
The blood from the bottom of his foot almost appeared deep brown red instead of like the healthy blood we encountered in the swollen bits on top. While one of the holes on top was very deep the first time we removed that scab we are unable to see anything inside of it.
So I've started thinking perhaps blood is just pooling in his foot? But why? We have continued to soak his foot in epsom salt baths and bandage it with prid drawing salve and Neosporin in the bandages and the last time it did seem his foot drained and weaped into the bandage but the swelling seems the same.
There also seems to be some yellowish tissue on top of his foot that peels away to show healthy looking tissue below it that also confuses us. I've seen chicken pus of course but I've never seen it in this way before could this be pus?
We have been washing his foot with gentle iodine 1% solution before and after surgeries and before bandage changes. It's what we've always used. Could this be causing any of these symptoms? I read somewhere that iodine like peroxide can burn tissue, is that correct? Should we stop using it? We've been using it to try and combat what we've thought was infection.
Now I have another possibility. Today for his bandage change those afternoon he was not as cooperative as usual. His foot/leg has seemed more tender. He also seemed more vibrant and although I was entirely supporting his weight while he soaked he decided he wanted to soak both feet lol. Of course I stopped him as his other foot appears entirely fine and normal. While the affected one is more of a club.
Now when I went to rebandage his foot I saw something that frankly shocked me. His left leg appears crooked today in the middle of the boned below the hock. For the life of me I can't think of the name of that(those bones-is there two in chickens like people?) So now I don't know if it's a trick of my eyes, the swelling or if this whole time all of this has been caused by a broken leg.
Could all of his symptoms be attributed to a broken leg? I'm going to show my DH2B later tonight and I'll try to snap some pics then. My fear is the continued swelling. We've never had more than a broken to it our time with our quail and chickens.
Our coop door does occasionally blow shut in high winds despite that we prop it open with a pitchfork with both ends stuck into the soil outside. This did happen once in the last week or two but I can't remember what day and we always make sure everyone is okay when it happens, which is maybe once a month. I've told DH2B my fears of a bird getting it's leg caught before as the coop has a 2-3 inch concrete lip in the doorway. I'm sure it could break a leg.
Any help would be appreciated. I'm really very very worried last summer we lost a silkie roo to a predator when he ran towards the predator to get in between it and a hawk. Although this little roo is not related he has the same sweet gentle "do anything to me" temperament as the boy we lost and over been hoping to keep him for breeding. If he can not recover we don't want him to suffer and he will be humanely put down. If he can and have a decent quality of life even if not 100% he will have a home here.
Again photos will be posted later but can be hard to look at.
If anyone has any suggestions or would like to tag anyone that might be able to help please feel free.
The next day his foot was mild to moderately swollen and there appeared to be a likely very small bumble. Okay no problem we have a little experience with bumble foot and have always caught it before a kernel ever forms. We did a minor surgery after a soak took off what appeared to be a bumble scab but found nothing underneath but strange dark tissue which we guessed was just healthy silkie tissue. Again we've never done a bumble surgery on a silkie or yet processed a silkie. Below I discuss strange happenings with his foot feathers it was this day we first saw a couple.
Overnight his leg was massively swollen up to his hock and hot to the touch. His foot also doesn't look quite right in addition to the swelling the scales on the bottom of his foot were entirely smooth and the "bumble" also appeared to be surrounded by lighter pale tissue. The swelling appears to nearly have engulfed an entire toe. At the moment I forget which toe. I will look later. All the toes are also hot to the touch, which I suppose is good bc it means blood flow. Suspecting a serious infection we started him on Tylan 50 being the only antibiotic we have at home after I read of several people using it. We don't have the money to take him to a vet and our local poultry vet is almost entirely retired and travels often. There's no telling if/when he'd even be able to see him. We may be able to call in and ask for antibiotics but we want to be sure first that's what he needs bc it gets more complicated.
That night we pulled him into the house(he again had been in a dog crate with clean shavings and food and water) he still has an appetite although I haven't seen him drink as much as I would like. His poop has been normal.
He does have the silkie melanistic skin which makes telling anything extremely hard. He does have only four toes in spite of being very much a silkie and having parents that had the correct 5 toes. Which doesn't bother me at all, at this point I feel an extra toe would just further complicate things.
Originally we thought severe bumble foot and have been treating as such. I also considered it could be necrotic. He can stand on it but usually barely touches the ground with it. Sometimes he holds it up.
Another thing to not is that several of the feathers in the area have had follicles that became soft goopy and fell out when touched. We have pulled several of these also as they appear dead or something idk.
He also had two scabbed and swollen areas surrounding feathers on the top of his foot. Again made us think bumble but when opened night before last neither area had any kernel or visible pus and both had good blood flow. As the swelling seems to have continued to grow in the foot we again made an incision in the bottom of the foot around the supposed bumble. Now he did poop at some point of this surgery so it could explain this but as we made the cut there was an unpleasant smell. Other than this one time we have smelled nothing around his foot or leg. We have had some pretty badly infected injuries in birds from predators and clumsy roos. Still I've never seen anything like this.
The blood from the bottom of his foot almost appeared deep brown red instead of like the healthy blood we encountered in the swollen bits on top. While one of the holes on top was very deep the first time we removed that scab we are unable to see anything inside of it.
So I've started thinking perhaps blood is just pooling in his foot? But why? We have continued to soak his foot in epsom salt baths and bandage it with prid drawing salve and Neosporin in the bandages and the last time it did seem his foot drained and weaped into the bandage but the swelling seems the same.
There also seems to be some yellowish tissue on top of his foot that peels away to show healthy looking tissue below it that also confuses us. I've seen chicken pus of course but I've never seen it in this way before could this be pus?
We have been washing his foot with gentle iodine 1% solution before and after surgeries and before bandage changes. It's what we've always used. Could this be causing any of these symptoms? I read somewhere that iodine like peroxide can burn tissue, is that correct? Should we stop using it? We've been using it to try and combat what we've thought was infection.
Now I have another possibility. Today for his bandage change those afternoon he was not as cooperative as usual. His foot/leg has seemed more tender. He also seemed more vibrant and although I was entirely supporting his weight while he soaked he decided he wanted to soak both feet lol. Of course I stopped him as his other foot appears entirely fine and normal. While the affected one is more of a club.
Now when I went to rebandage his foot I saw something that frankly shocked me. His left leg appears crooked today in the middle of the boned below the hock. For the life of me I can't think of the name of that(those bones-is there two in chickens like people?) So now I don't know if it's a trick of my eyes, the swelling or if this whole time all of this has been caused by a broken leg.
Could all of his symptoms be attributed to a broken leg? I'm going to show my DH2B later tonight and I'll try to snap some pics then. My fear is the continued swelling. We've never had more than a broken to it our time with our quail and chickens.
Our coop door does occasionally blow shut in high winds despite that we prop it open with a pitchfork with both ends stuck into the soil outside. This did happen once in the last week or two but I can't remember what day and we always make sure everyone is okay when it happens, which is maybe once a month. I've told DH2B my fears of a bird getting it's leg caught before as the coop has a 2-3 inch concrete lip in the doorway. I'm sure it could break a leg.
Any help would be appreciated. I'm really very very worried last summer we lost a silkie roo to a predator when he ran towards the predator to get in between it and a hawk. Although this little roo is not related he has the same sweet gentle "do anything to me" temperament as the boy we lost and over been hoping to keep him for breeding. If he can not recover we don't want him to suffer and he will be humanely put down. If he can and have a decent quality of life even if not 100% he will have a home here.
Again photos will be posted later but can be hard to look at.
If anyone has any suggestions or would like to tag anyone that might be able to help please feel free.
