Blood feather gone wrong? Please help!

[cheeri]

I have booted bantam roughly 3 years old. This morning we found her foot feather hanging by a nerve/skin? She limps and hops from the foot, she doesn't stand on it and lifts it up. We don't know what to do. We read some post saying to pull it out but its hanging and inside her skin.


UPDATE: it fell off with bloody strings/goop/lumps, she didn't scream just sat there while we screamed instead. She's calm and sitting on gauze and we don't know what to do.

View attachment 3392746

 

[nuthatched]

It looks bad but she should be ok. Just rinse it off and put some neosporin on it and maybe keep her on for it to heal for a day or two.

 

[coach723]

This is not uncommon, particularly with feather footed breeds, those foot and leg feathers tend to get broken more often. First thing to to is to apply pressure (pinch the shaft if possible) with a clean cloth to stop the bleeding and let it clot up. Depending on the feather shaft size, that can take some time. Sometimes blood stop powder, or even corn starch or flour will help it clot and stop bleeding. If it just won't stop, or keeps restarting, then you can pull the feather. Use some needle nose pliers, grab the feather at the base near the skin, firmly, and pull. Then put pressure on that spot where the feather was pulled to stop the bleeding there.
It always looks a lot worse than it is.

 

[Megber13]

I have a feather footed hen that broke another foot feather but it is bigger this time. It appears to have clotted, but its just kind of hanging there now. I wrapped it hoping it would heal but is that even possible or should I pull it?

 

[coach723]

If it's not bleeding and it's not bothering anything, you can leave it. If it won't stop bleeding, then I would pull it and then apply pressure to where you pull it from til it stops bleeding, then you should have no problems. I only pull them when they continue to bleed, or get knocked around and keep starting again. Some corn starch or flour can help get it to stop also. The feather won't 'heal', it will eventually fall out and be replaced, probably at molt.