Fat footed rooster?

[LittleWhiteDove]

My new silkie rooster has some really really really fat feet. They are so big and hard there is no gap between his toes and he can't even bend his toes. It is in both feet yet the rest of him is perfectly normal. There is no sign of injury to his feet and he has no issue letting me touch them and poke at them. He is walking, socalizing, eating and drinking fine. I am totally stumped on what could be the cause. I am going to try soaking his feet in water tomorrow to get a better look at them but these are the photos I got to day. Any ideas of what might cause this?

 

[Beekissed]

Not limping or anything? My best guess is some kind of inflammatory process...his scales don't look normal and it could be a scale mite infestation, but the swelling could be distorting his scales also, so may not be. I'd try soaking his feet in a warm epsom salts bath, scrub them gently with antibacterial soap and apply a thick coat of castor oil. You can get castor oil at any pharmacy in the laxative aisle. It has many healing properties and can help take the swelling down if it is an inflammatory process and will treat scale mite also, if that is the problem .

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Not limping or anything? My best guess is some kind of inflammatory process...his scales don't look normal and it could be a scale mite infestation, but the swelling could be distorting his scales also, so may not be. I'd try soaking his feet in a warm epsom salts bath, scrub them gently with antibacterial soap and apply a thick coat of castor oil. You can get castor oil at any pharmacy in the laxative aisle. It has many healing properties and can help take the swelling down if it is an inflammatory process and will treat scale mite also, if that is the problem .

X2 on the soaking and applying oil to the feet, it won't hurt for sure.

Does he have a toe nail missing too (last photo)?
Do you know how old he is?
What type of poultry feed has he been on?

Hopefully someone else will recognize it, but my thoughts is it could be Gout. Watch to see if he is drinking well. If his normal feed is Layer Feed, then you may want to switch him to an All Flock/Flock Raiser type formula (one that has less Calcium). If excess Calcium is the cause, I don't know if reduction in Calcium at this point will make an improvement, but it's worth a shot.

Offer him some poultry vitamins in his water once a week or direct dose him with something like Poultry Nutri-Drench once a week.

I hope it improves.

 

[LittleWhiteDove]

UPDATE:
I the two hens he came with have scaly leg mite so I started my treatment for that. The scales on his feet are peeling off right now like dead skin does on my feet. I treated the rooster the same as I did the hens for scaly leg mites and added a little extra apple cyder viniger to the water. Hoping to pick up some tart cherries to give to him, to help with the gout if that's what it is, and I will pick up some new feed ASAP. I think he is just over a year old not to sure, and as to what he was feed before no idea. the swelling in his feet are hard and its just in his feet nothing on his legs, and no wounds. (gave a bath and trimmed feathers to get a better look.) He has feeling in his feet though. Discovered that when I took a pin to a part of a toe. I poked just enough to get the tip in to see what would come out or if anything wood. All that came out was a tinny amount of blood so I think its free of infection inside as there is no discoloring either. Yes he is missing a toe nail, to me though it looks like it broke off but one of the hens had one to and I had to remove one of her because the tip of her to was frost bit bad and rotten with a tiny infection. Once the nail was removed the infection was removed it was just tiny I treated it and wrapped it.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

UPDATE:
I the two hens he came with have scaly leg mite so I started my treatment for that. The scales on his feet are peeling off right now like dead skin does on my feet. I treated the rooster the same as I did the hens for scaly leg mites and added a little extra apple cyder viniger to the water. Hoping to pick up some tart cherries to give to him, to help with the gout if that's what it is, and I will pick up some new feed ASAP. I think he is just over a year old not to sure, and as to what he was feed before no idea. the swelling in his feet are hard and its just in his feet nothing on his legs, and no wounds. (gave a bath and trimmed feathers to get a better look.) He has feeling in his feet though. Discovered that when I took a pin to a part of a toe. I poked just enough to get the tip in to see what would come out or if anything wood. All that came out was a tinny amount of blood so I think its free of infection inside as there is no discoloring either. Yes he is missing a toe nail, to me though it looks like it broke off but one of the hens had one to and I had to remove one of her because the tip of her to was frost bit bad and rotten with a tiny infection. Once the nail was removed the infection was removed it was just tiny I treated it and wrapped it.

Sounds like you have a plan in place. Hopefully with some TLC and nutrition he will start to improve.

It's hard to know what to do, especially since you don't know what he was fed or how he was housed, etc. before he arrived. Treating all of them for SLM is a good idea. If nothing else the soaking in epsom salts and applying oil will hopefully be soothing.

Please keep us posted on his progress.

 

[LittleWhiteDove]

UPDATE:
The new rooster has dubbed Mouse as he is a sweety, so tiny, and just darn right cute. He has had 15 minuet foot soaks so far in Epson salt. Swelling doesn't appear to have gone done but I can sort of bend the end of his toes. I believe now its either frost bite or from scaly let mite or a combination of the two. Here are some photos of his feet. They are looking good the discoloration is spots from frostbite. The two hens will get a second treatment tomorrow.






will up date again on Tuseday

 

[LittleWhiteDove]

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