This morning I noticed a limping hen and then saw her foot was all swollen. Checked out but couldn't see anything like a cut and thought she might have sprained it but there was a crusty area on the pad part that was a little harder than mud so I fixed up an epsom salt soak. After soaking I took some betadine scrub and cleaned the foot real well and the crusty area was still there. It took some picking and I got the crusty part off and there looked to be a tiney stone lodged in there. I tried to pick it out and it wouldn't budge. If it was a stone it should have come right out. So I really held onto it with my fingernails and pulled out a chunk of hard stuff that was about 1/4 in long and just as wide, the wide part was under the skin so had to pull hard. I picked at it to see if I could identify it and after removing some hard deposits I revealed a rose thorn. Man, that thing sure must have been in there a long time. Poor thing, I never noticed her limping until today. Got some oozy stuff out of the wound and soaked it some more then applied antibiotic ointment and wrapped it to keep it dry. Hoping it will heal and infection doesn't spread and I didn't find it too late. But that was weird. I almost didn't do anything thinking it was a sprain.
