10 week old barred rock chick named BB, photos attached.
Yesterday afternoon around 4 pm we noticed one of BB’s toes was bleeding. It looked like she had pulled the nail off. I cleaned it with Vetricyn, put Neosporin on a small piece of gauze, and used vet wrap to bandage it. When I opened up the coop this morning, BB was tucked into a corner and it looked like she’d spent all night there, not on the roost.
I called the poultry vet and made an appointment just to have it checked out and maybe get some pain meds. Most of the morning she spent in a corner of the run rather than puttering around as usual. Before I left for the vet at 1:00 pm, we unwrapped her bandage and saw that her foot was swollen and was oozing fluid. Either I bandaged it improperly or her lying on it so much caused the bandage to cut off her circulation.
The vet aspirated some of the fluid to see if there was still blood in the foot and to see if there was any pus. No pus and he said there was still blood supply to the foot. Just the top layer of the nail had come off so he said that would heal. He gave her meloxicam for pain and told me to soak the foot in Epsom salts for 5 minutes twice daily for several days. He also said to make sure she’s walking and using that foot rather than lying on it nonstop.
The photos were taken just after her first soak this evening. The foot looks worse than it did at the vet’s and her skin seems to be splitting. Btw, the black you see on her foot is her barred rock coloring: that looks the same as before this incident.
We have her indoors (it’s going down to the high teens tonight) in a puppy playpen on pee pads. She’s eating and drinking well. She is walking on that foot, but also lifts it occasionally.
QUESTION: has anyone dealt with something like this, and is the skin splitting part of the healing process? Will the foot look worse before it looks better? TIA for any thoughts or advice.
Yesterday afternoon around 4 pm we noticed one of BB’s toes was bleeding. It looked like she had pulled the nail off. I cleaned it with Vetricyn, put Neosporin on a small piece of gauze, and used vet wrap to bandage it. When I opened up the coop this morning, BB was tucked into a corner and it looked like she’d spent all night there, not on the roost.
I called the poultry vet and made an appointment just to have it checked out and maybe get some pain meds. Most of the morning she spent in a corner of the run rather than puttering around as usual. Before I left for the vet at 1:00 pm, we unwrapped her bandage and saw that her foot was swollen and was oozing fluid. Either I bandaged it improperly or her lying on it so much caused the bandage to cut off her circulation.
The vet aspirated some of the fluid to see if there was still blood in the foot and to see if there was any pus. No pus and he said there was still blood supply to the foot. Just the top layer of the nail had come off so he said that would heal. He gave her meloxicam for pain and told me to soak the foot in Epsom salts for 5 minutes twice daily for several days. He also said to make sure she’s walking and using that foot rather than lying on it nonstop.
The photos were taken just after her first soak this evening. The foot looks worse than it did at the vet’s and her skin seems to be splitting. Btw, the black you see on her foot is her barred rock coloring: that looks the same as before this incident.
We have her indoors (it’s going down to the high teens tonight) in a puppy playpen on pee pads. She’s eating and drinking well. She is walking on that foot, but also lifts it occasionally.
QUESTION: has anyone dealt with something like this, and is the skin splitting part of the healing process? Will the foot look worse before it looks better? TIA for any thoughts or advice.
