- Aug 8, 2013
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Hello! Long time reader, first time poster.
I wish my first post could be of something a wee bit cheerier, but I do need help now from you guys.
This will be a bit of a long story, so get comfy.
This past June we hatched out probably 15-20 chicks, and we had one that never opened one of her eyes. We watched her but she was healthy in every other aspect, so we just left her. About a half week later we noticed that her beak was was slightly off. We didn't know what to do, but decided to give her a shot. We also dubbed her Crooky. Very original, no? Skip forward and you'll see us locking her up in a cage and giving her chick crumbles because she can't eat what the other chickens are since her beak is so crooked. We kept her in the cage probably about 2 months. (And before you start thinking she'd be better off dead than in a tiny cage, we WOULD try to put her out in the day and lock her up at night so she could at least move, but the stupid thing would try to fly back into her cage and end up hurting herself. She LIKED being in a tiny cage.) Then when winter started we noticed that she wasn't talking as much as she used to, and laid around a lot. Her feathers also never grew in right, always being sparse, and falling out a lot. We managed to persuade my husband to let us bring her in, and after reading up on crooked beaked chickens, we started watering her food down. Then, we ordered chicken diapers. Crooky did not agree. She acts like a two year old having a tantrum, and goes boneless after a little while. (I know that's not the subject on this post but if anyone has any advice on getting a spoiled chicken used to a diaper, then by all means advise!) We decided to hang up on the diapers for a while. But it was also around this time that we noticed Crooky's foot was swollen, like bumblefoot. This is where the title to this post comes in. We cleaned it up, smeared it in Neosporin
, then wrapped it in stretch bandages. We couldn't find any pus at all, and no obvious wounds or sores. We've (See? We've. We're in the present now.
continued this, but Crooky's foot is only getting worse. It's all black, her toes are all off to the side, and she appears to have no control over it. It's also smelly. The heartbreaker is that she's improving. Her feathers are growing in beautifully now, and she's so much livelier. Should we try to amputate, and if so HOW, or just cull her? If possible we would REALLY like to keep her. We've seen pictures of one legged chickens, we just don't know how to get her there! Before you ask, no, there are NO aviary vets around here.
Here's some pics:
The bumps under her beak are just food that dried on there.
Not some horrid disease!! 
She looks like she's always suspicious. "Whoooo are youuuu?"
As my daughter says, "Yucky, gucky, ucky!" It's kind of hard to see,
but the black toes are actually much thinner than the normal ones.
It's like they've started to atrophy.
I wish my first post could be of something a wee bit cheerier, but I do need help now from you guys.
This will be a bit of a long story, so get comfy.
This past June we hatched out probably 15-20 chicks, and we had one that never opened one of her eyes. We watched her but she was healthy in every other aspect, so we just left her. About a half week later we noticed that her beak was was slightly off. We didn't know what to do, but decided to give her a shot. We also dubbed her Crooky. Very original, no? Skip forward and you'll see us locking her up in a cage and giving her chick crumbles because she can't eat what the other chickens are since her beak is so crooked. We kept her in the cage probably about 2 months. (And before you start thinking she'd be better off dead than in a tiny cage, we WOULD try to put her out in the day and lock her up at night so she could at least move, but the stupid thing would try to fly back into her cage and end up hurting herself. She LIKED being in a tiny cage.) Then when winter started we noticed that she wasn't talking as much as she used to, and laid around a lot. Her feathers also never grew in right, always being sparse, and falling out a lot. We managed to persuade my husband to let us bring her in, and after reading up on crooked beaked chickens, we started watering her food down. Then, we ordered chicken diapers. Crooky did not agree. She acts like a two year old having a tantrum, and goes boneless after a little while. (I know that's not the subject on this post but if anyone has any advice on getting a spoiled chicken used to a diaper, then by all means advise!) We decided to hang up on the diapers for a while. But it was also around this time that we noticed Crooky's foot was swollen, like bumblefoot. This is where the title to this post comes in. We cleaned it up, smeared it in Neosporin
continued this, but Crooky's foot is only getting worse. It's all black, her toes are all off to the side, and she appears to have no control over it. It's also smelly. The heartbreaker is that she's improving. Her feathers are growing in beautifully now, and she's so much livelier. Should we try to amputate, and if so HOW, or just cull her? If possible we would REALLY like to keep her. We've seen pictures of one legged chickens, we just don't know how to get her there! Before you ask, no, there are NO aviary vets around here. Here's some pics:
The bumps under her beak are just food that dried on there.
Not some horrid disease!! 
She looks like she's always suspicious. "Whoooo are youuuu?"
As my daughter says, "Yucky, gucky, ucky!" It's kind of hard to see,
but the black toes are actually much thinner than the normal ones.
It's like they've started to atrophy.
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