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Frostbitten Toe Healed Over but Still Hurting

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mldoublee

mldoublee

Songster
5 Years
Apr 7, 2020
39
40
104
Adell, WI
I have a Brahma hen who got frostbite on her toes this past December (2022). I have had her in my guest room since then while she's been healing. Amazingly, only 2 of her toe tips have come off and the rest are fine. One of the toes has healed up with no issue, but the other one was a little trickier, because the frostbite damage was at an angle, if that makes sense, and so when that bit starting coming off it didn't come off nice and clean like the other one did and there was exposed bone.


20230126_181541.jpg


I'd been wrapping it with various antibiotic creams/ointments/salves...etc. as it healed and the skin has slowly come over the bone. Excellent. Except that she's been limping on the foot and I'm assuming it's related to this toe. Though it does not seem infected. Here are photos from about two weeks ago and this morning:


20230226_145406.jpg . 20230226_145433.jpg 20230310_072930.jpg 20230310_072942.jpg 20230310_073001.jpg


I am concerned because she is clearly in pain and because it seems to be affecting her appetite. She's a lot skinnier than she used to be and isn't very interested in most foods or treats, including scrambled eggs and mealworms. Baby Tylenol doesn't seem to help. I have some 7.5mg meloxicam tabs and have been giving her 1/4 tab every 8 hours (for 1.5mg as she is about 2kg). I'm not sure if that's helping, although now that I'm looking at this dosage again it seems too low.

Could it just be sore from the healing process that is still underway?
 
Hi! Could you wrap her toe with a corn cushion? To take the pressure off while it heals?

Also just wrapping the toe would also help, if you don't have a corn cushion.
 
SmiYa0126 said:
Hi! Could you wrap her toe with a corn cushion? To take the pressure off while it heals?

Also just wrapping the toe would also help, if you don't have a corn cushion.
Click to expand...

So I DID have it wrapped constantly before (gently) with gauze for padding and it seemed like that made the limp worse actually. Today is the first day I've left it completely unwrapped and the limp seems better.
 
Usually the body will seal of areas when there's frostbite. Did you let the necrotic ends fall of on their own?

Since bone is involved and she's in pain, then you may want to seek vet care if possible, if not, then start her on an antibiotic. Cephalexin would be a good choice.
 
Wyorp Rock said:
Usually the body will seal of areas when there's frostbite. Did you let the necrotic ends fall of on their own?

Since bone is involved and she's in pain, then you may want to seek vet care if possible, if not, then start her on an antibiotic. Cephalexin would be a good choice.
Click to expand...

That's the problem, this toe did not seal off properly at all. The toe nail got caught on something and pulled the whole tip mostly off and it was hanging on by a little piece of I don't know what exactly.

My vet wanted to put her under anesthesia and amputate the toe at the joint above. But I don't have $1500 to spend on that =( Vet said she'd want to do this because of the potential for infection. This was a phone call and she did not physically see the toe.

Thank you for the suggestion of Cephalexin.
 

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