Chicken has a broken toe I think. What can I do to help her?

[chicken_china_mom]

I think my kids might have slammed a door as she was following them and her toe got caught. She's walking on it though it did get cut and bleed. I cleaned it up. While I have experience with dogs with broken legs and cats with broken tails, I am unsure how to treat a broken toe in a chicken. My 9 year old wanted to put a band-aid on it, lol. Do I try to splint it? Do I just let it heal crooked? She's bearing weight on it and running around as usual. The only sign that it bothers her at all is that she will occasionally stop and draw the foot up under her for a moment to get her weight off it. She's still young so she isn't up to her full weight yet. Any advice anyone can give me would be great.

 

[meriruka]

I'd bandage it because I'd want to keep poo out of the cut and keep the others from pecking. Also, some support and cushion around the toe would probably make it less painful.

That said, it may heal just fine on it's own, you could keep an eye on it to make sure there is no infection.......

 

[numamahen]

Bandaids and chickens - why not! When I got my meaties last month - one had hooked it's nail on something and it was pulled off and only hanging on with a little piece of skin and bleeding. The others were pecking at it. I didn't know what to do except, cut it off, clean it, put neosporin on it and a bandaid. The color of the bandaid blended with her skin and no more pecking! After a week I took it off and cleaned it again (one warning - the bandaid was pretty stuck to it & I had to do some cutting to get it off) and since there was no more bleeding just left it off. It has seemed to heal nicely. My 7th grader always gets excited now when we see that one with no nail - we call her "Stumpy".

 

[meriruka]

I use non-stick pads (you can cut them to size) then bandaids or that 3M bandage tape over top. If you put a little plain Neosporin on the pad, it won't stick to the wound when you remove.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Thank you everyone for your help. The kids, with their grandma's help, put a band-aid on it while I was at work and she seems to be walking around ok with it. I'll take it off in a few days and clean it again to make sure no infection gets in.