Broken toe/foot, what to do?

[farmgurlwannabe]

Hey guys,
So it looks like my 5 week old cinnamon queen has a broken toe or foot. Brand new situation for me. What should I do or is there anything? My daughter made a splint but she wouldn’t walk with it in and picked at it. So we removed it. She has some swelling and blue bruising. She can hobble around but can’t get in the coop, up the ramp at night, we she eventually does but it takes forever and she’s the last one in. We just realized this this morning. I knew the last two nights we had one straggler and I’m betting it was her. Nor in the dirt bath tub. She is able to get around and eat and drink. It’s a busy coop/run. She mostly lays and rest it when she’s not busy from what I observed this morning 20 minutes. The thing is we are going out of town for 3 days. We have a neighbor coming to refill water. We have automatic feeders. I can’t ask him to come back at night to put her up for me, I’d be doing that myself at night if I were home. What should I do? Do I need to separate her from the flock or would that be more detrimental to separate and reintroduce? I have a brooder box that I am taking with some silkies that are two weeks old with me. Do I need to take her too. I really prefer not to but can if absolutely necessary. Thanks for any advice.

 

[coach723]

If she's having trouble getting around I would put her in a wire crate in the run with the rest of the birds. Keeps her safe, restricts her movement to rest it, will make reintegration easier and reduce stress from separation. She will need her own food and water, so more work to fill. And if you will be gone I would secure the water so it can't be dumped leaving her with none. A shoe type splint might be better, she may or may not tolerate that better. You can use a plastic food container lid to make a base, tape the toes down to it with sports tape in a natural position, some foam (like pool noodles) cut in small pieces to go between the toes. Might work better. You will need to check it often, make sure swelling doesn't make it too tight. It's very hard to say if it's just a bad bruise/sprain, or if it's broken. If you think it's just badly bruised or sprained, then I wouldn't splint, I would just try to limit movement so it can rest. The link below explains how to examine for a fracture, and how to make various splints, might be helpful.

 

[NatJ]

If you put a splint on the foot, you should probably take her with you out of town--not a good idea to leave her unattended with that.

Otherwise, I also think a cage inside the run or coop, with private feed and water containers, might work best (and I also agree with coach723 that it's important to be sure she can't spill her water and feed--it's hard to get things spill-proof in a temporary pen.)

If you do take her with you, it's likely that she can share space with the younger silkies: they are younger and smaller, but there's only one of her and she's hurt, so it's probably well-balanced socially.