Broken toenail or foreign object?

[RubelliteRose]

Do you have enough room in the run to section part of it off with chicken wire? We usually place new/removed birds in a sectioned off area of the run during the day and move them to a dog crate in the coop at night. This does take up quite a bit of room though and not everyone has that much space. Also, if you have the space, do you have a former best buddy or nice non-aggressive hen that you could move in with her? Two are much easier to reintegrate than one. I keep them separate at least a week or until everyone seems uninterested in each other.

 

[Eggcessive]

When I have had a stubborn broody out of the flock for a longer time, over a week, I let them go back and watch the behavior. There can be some chasing and pecking, but usually all goes well. If they need more time, a wire dog crate with food and water inside the run is good for a couple of days. But keep having supervised free ranging. They will try to teach her that she is not the boss anymore, but she may get back to that again.

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

My instincts said to remove the bullys. Split into two groups (8 total in this flock)-the nice and the mean. Then put the 4 + 4 back together in a neutral place(new coop). I'm in the midst of a coop move and have extra space.

Would you guys recommend doing it this way or does it not work like that?

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

When I have had a stubborn broody out of the flock for a longer time, over a week, I let them go back and watch the behavior. There can be some chasing and pecking, but usually all goes well. If they need more time, a wire dog crate with food and water inside the run is good for a couple of days. But keep having supervised free ranging. They will try to teach her that she is not the boss anymore, but she may get back to that again.

But I certainly like this better. No adjustments needed, let it run it's course(within reason obviously).

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

I'm not sure sure that amoxicillin was strong enough. I mean, I get it's the#1 treatment for staph/bumblefoot, this girl is not recovering. If I'm not mistaken, I see more swelling today.

 

[RubelliteRose]

Bumblefoot can be so hard to get rid of sometimes. Your poor hen sounds like Nova. I would think her foot was almost healed and then the infection would start to build again. I have also noticed that the chickens who have had bumblefoot once are more likely to get it again in the future. Meanwhile, I have also had some who have never had bumblefoot. Are you still soaking her foot and applying a topical antibiotic?

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

I'm not. I stopped soaking and wrapping a week or so ago. It's in the nail bed not the pad so there's that. I'm just not sure what else to do. Do I start soaking again? My concern this am is that the swelling has localized but looks a tiny bit bigger this am and she had a run in yesterday with a flock mate. She's still alert and eating.

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

This is just *so* s l o w.

 

[RubelliteRose]

Is she still limping? If she is, I would go back to soaking. If she isn't, you could try giving her a break from treatments. Nova's foot never did go all the way back to normal even after the infection cleared up, so maybe there is still some residual swelling?? It always seems like there is a balancing act between treating too much and not treating enough.

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

Limping and heat. I got 7 days of amoxicillin in her. Maybe it wasn't long enough but I'm not going to double down now and give more. I'll go back to soaks. Also I see that- it totally is like either too much or not enough!