foot infection, disease?

[Mammachix]

We have a one-year-old hen in a flock of 25 with an troublesome foot problem. It is not bumblefoot or scaly leg. It has not spread to the other chickens in the two weeks or so since I've noticed it. I don't think it is frostbite, as nothing is black. So, after getting all of that out of the way...

A few of her toes are swelling and the toenails are falling off. It has affected the middle toe of each foot mostly. A couple of other toes are slightly enlarged. The other toes are normal. The remainder of her foot, foot pad, and leg look normal. The color of her waddles is fine, no respiratory issues, or other signs of malaise. She is actively laying. She free-ranges with the other hens, eats and drinks fine, and roosts in her normal spot. However, the toes are slowly getting worse. She can't quite bend one of them anymore, so she limps a bit now.

I started her on injections of Tylan 50, 1cc/day even though I can't find any information on the internet to indicate what the problem is or potential treatment. I figured it can't really hurt her, and maybe it will help? It's just been three days of antibiotics, but no improvement yet.

It looks kind of like an elephantitis.. more of a growth than swollen tissue. It doesn't looked infected or inflamed at all. I couldn't lance or drain anything. The worse toes are about the width and length of a human pinkie finger, while the other toes are slender like a thin pencil stick and taper. The healthy toes taper and have a nail. The affected toes have no toenail and a blunt end.

I will upload photos as soon as my daughter finds where she hid the camera battery charger! (grrr)

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Eggcessive]

A picture or two would really help in identifying the foot problem. Things like MS (mycoplasma synovitis,) gout, and frostbite are the usual causes of foot swelling, but viral or bacterial arthritis is also a possibility.

 

[Mammachix]

found the camera charger!!

 

[Eggcessive]

It looks to me like the very tops of the toes were frostbitten. You will typically see swollen tissue just above the frozen tissue, and anything below that will drop off eventually. There also looks to be some raising of the scales as seen in scaly leg mites, so I would probably apply some castor oil or vaseline weekly, and rub it under the scales.

 

[Mammachix]

Thank you for the ideas. I never saw any blackness as I might expect with frostbite, but I'll hope it is that. Will the swelling eventually go down? It seems a little worse lately, rather than getting better. I'll also oil her feet...can't hurt, right? Thanks again!

 

[Eggcessive]

In my feather footed banty rooster that had frostbite, his toes looked clubbed at the end after frostbite took off a few nails. When another chicken got her toe caught in a chainlink fence, she lost the nail, and her toe has remained slightly swollen and clubbed.