Duck leg wrapped with baling twine 😔

[Kangasox]

One of our ducks got tangled in some baling twine for at least a few days in the woods. I cut her loose this morning; the twine was looped and not super tight around her ankle, but clearly tight enough to do some damage. I brought her in, soaked in epsom salts and gave her some vitamins with food. She's in good spirits...other than her black foot. I'm happy to let her live out her life (we have a few old gimpy ladies in our retirement area), but wanted to get thoughts on if this is dangerous and I should just cull. Necrosis or gangrene are first things that spring to mind. Thoughts or ideas? Thanks!

 

[sourland]

I'd let her live. If circulation was cut off 100% she will likely lose the foot, but it almost appears as if some circulation was still there. Good luck to her/you.

 

[Kangasox]

I'd let her live. If circulation was cut off 100% she will likely lose the foot, but it almost appears as if some circulation was still there. Good luck to her/you.

Yeah, I always like to err on the side of trying everything first. She's taken up residence in the bathroom for the moment

 

[Isadora]

Aw, poor sweetie. I don't have any experience with things like this but I would certainly want to wait a bit myself and see what happens in the next couple days before deciding to cull.

 

[Sussex19]

To me it looks like she may lose the foot.
I have heard of chickens losing feet with frost bite, and they still live good lives.
So I would just go by her, and if she seems happy, don't cull.

 

[TrueDat]

One of our ducks got tangled in some baling twine for at least a few days in the woods. I cut her loose this morning; the twine was looped and not super tight around her ankle, but clearly tight enough to do some damage. I brought her in, soaked in epsom salts and gave her some vitamins with food. She's in good spirits...other than her black foot. I'm happy to let her live out her life (we have a few old gimpy ladies in our retirement area), but wanted to get thoughts on if this is dangerous and I should just cull. Necrosis or gangrene are first things that spring to mind. Thoughts or ideas? Thanks!

I found my chicken in a similar situation. How is your girl doing? Did she recover?

 

[Kangasox]

I found my chicken in a similar situation. How is your girl doing? Did she recover?

She is still hobbling around! I look at her daily and wonder what we should do long term, but her foot has kind of curled up and she walks on the heel. Her foot is clearly dead to the knee, but she seems healthy...eating, drinking, laying. I'll try to grab a pic tomorrow.

 

[TrueDat]

She is still hobbling around! I look at her daily and wonder what we should do long term, but her foot has kind of curled up and she walks on the heel. Her foot is clearly dead to the knee, but she seems healthy...eating, drinking, laying. I'll try to grab a pic tomorrow.

 

[TrueDat]

I’m glad to hear she is up and walking around even if the foot looks dead. I’m really surprised the foot never fell off!

My chicken sprained her leg. She was in quarantine for 3 weeks before I decided to make a splint. Although I didn’t feel a broken bone, her lack of recovery made me think that she had to have a break I could not feel. Well, apparently I put the splint on too tight, because when I went to check on her the next day her whole foot was swollen and purple. I feel awful. Anyway some of the color came back to her foot but two of her toes are still dark purple. I’m afraid they might fall off. With the combination of the foot and leg injury I am not sure if the humane thing would be to cull her or give her more time to heal.

 

[Kangasox]

Update: we now have a peg-leg princess. I kept her up a few days after the accident, she got around fine after, and yesterday, two months to the day it happened, I went out to find her with a peg leg. Little bloody, so I put her up in a crate with a friend, and am looking into a silicone leg cover and prosthetic foot.