Curled toe paralysis?- need advice/help

[erinangele]

I posted a few days ago about my 7 month old Delaware pullet's toe. After doing a little research i think it may be Curled Toe Paralysis. It is her center toe and it is curled under so that she walks on the tip of her toe nail. It is not nearly as bad as the images that pop up on a Google search, and i really hope to keep it that way. I bought some poly-vi-sol without iron and have been mixing it into a bit of cottage cheese for the girls (done this 3 days now). I have 6 chickens, and everyone else's toes look ok. I'm feeding them Organic Pride Layer Pellets. For treats they get veggie scraps, scratch, my son's left over bread crusts. Could it be genetics? Today it looked like a second toe may possible be starting to curl, although i am not sure. She is laying almost every day, and seems healthy otherwise.

My question is, has anyone else treated this? Is there anything else i can do? Will her toes go back to being straight if she gets enough Riboflavin or will they stay curled permanently. I really hope this is not something that will eventually be terminal, these girls are my pets! Any advice is much appreciated! Help!

 

[erinangele]

Anyone?

 

[Erica]

Hi erinangele,

I'll have a try, though I'm no expert on these things... But off the top of my head...

Does she have access to sunlight or some other vitamin D source? Is there vitamin D3 in the vitamin supplement you're giving? (I assume there would be.) It seems to me rickets is a possibility, though riboflavin shortage is the first thing to spring to mind. (Vitamin D is necessary to absorb and use calcium, so if there's no sunlight or other source they can develop thin bones.)

I don't think curled toes go straight again even when the vitamin shortage is corrected. Sorry about that.

She may have actually broken her toe and it's healed that way, folded under the foot.

If it's not bothering her, and if she isn't a show bird, I wouldn't be too concerned apart from giving extra vitamins just in case.

If the toe is floppy then it would be a recent break and perhaps worth splinting.

Best wishes, sorry if this is a bit scattergun,

Erica

 

[erinangele]

Thank you for your reply. I will have to look into rickets. They do not get as much sun in the winter because of the location of their coop/run. I do let them out into the yard for a few hours every other day or so. I don't think its broken because it is stiff. I'm pretty sure the poly-vi-sol has Vitamin D, but i only started giving it to them when i noticed her toe. Thanks again for your response.