Having Trouble Cutting off Red John's Broken Toe

[LBL]

Hi

This is what led me to join.

Backyard Chickens has come up in numerous searches about Chickens, over the years.

This one rooster, a beautiful Red Mille Fleur - Brahma cross, somehow managed to break his toe,
about a month ago.

He lives with a larger Brahma rooster, who is probably his father.

I think Red John got his toe stuck, and then needed to Move, as part of the regular skirmishing with the other male.

For a while it was looking GNARLY - black etc.

Red John is hard to catch, but I finally caught him and brought him inside and started
giving him antibiotics.

The dark color of the bent section of the toe is now LOOKING BETTER, as if the tissue is still alive.

I boiled scissors and a knife blade, to sterilize them, and got bandages all set out.

I wish I could give Red John a painkiller.

I have had similar cuts myself, and remember that it basically feels like you've been hit by a Very Big Hammer.

I want to make sure I cause him the minimum amount of pain, and for a legit reason.

 

[muddy75]

Welcome to BYC! Sorry about your roo!

 

[Smokerbill]

If it were mine I would just leave it alone for now. It will most likely just fall off on its own after time.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If it's improving, do you need to amputate? Perhaps it is not gangrene, but bruising and will heal. Or as @Smokerbill says, just fall off. I recently noticed that one of my hens is missing a toe joint and I never saw it happen: she's fine. Also, rather than chase your rooster around during the day, try waiting till after sundown and just pluck him off the roost to examine or treat.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

x2- just let it self-amputate

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey I agree there I would not cut the toe off.
Welcome to Backyard Chickens. This is a great place to explore and hang out.

 

[LBL]

Welcome to BYC! Sorry about your roo!

Thanks !

Well he's much healthier, after 10 days indoors.

I boiled the knife a second time to sterilize it, and experimented
with cleaning things using Hydrogen Peroxide.

I was prepared for an Easy Session, but didn't get it.

I touched the edge of the knife to the place where I would cut, because it's the narrow-est and dead/ unhealthy tissue.

But it was VERY boney. Not an easy cut. Felt like
I didn't have the right tool, so just left the right-angle broken toe in place.

I cut blackberry etc. all the time, and very assertively.

I suspect that this is what a vet would do, use the right tool, immobilize the animal, cut assertively.

I was thinking about letting him go back outside, and hoping that his once a week wrestling match with the #1 rooster might break off the toe, especially if he gives it a good kick.

I tend to save feathers from favorite birds. Am I destined to collect the broken toe and turn it into a neck pendant ?

 

[coach723]

You will likely never find the toe, if it falls off.
I had a roo once that did develop gangrene, yours does not look like that at all. My roos toe was black, progressively a slow creep of the black up the toe, and smelled terrible, of rotting meat. When they just dry up and shrivel like yours, then their bodies will self amputate on their own usually with no real downside. Happens all the time with frostbitten toes. With amputation comes some risk of infection, if the body closes it off on it's own, then that is less likely.

 

[LBL]

Just like Smoker Bill and Auntie Jessie suggested,
I put Red John back outside and within a few minutes he
started play fighting with Moon-walker the Much Heavier Brahma.

The deceased toe was gone.

NOW I HAVE AN INCENTIVE TO CLEAN !

So I can find the broken toe.

The next step is to find out if Red John and Moonwalker are in a heightened state of war-time readiness.

They have always been pretty mellow.

I had a fire in my dining room, from a Lithium battery probably, on St. Patrick's day and that almost completely broke my main computer that I would normally use to process images.

Normally I would post pictures but right now I am working on a laptop and it is difficult to get pictures off of my smartphone camera.

Anyway, it broke off "clean". The exposed tissue is light orange-pink. The surrounding tissue is a dark gray with maybe a tiny amount of brown - sort of like a scab.

Red John lost one or 2 joints on his middle toe. I wonder if he will re-grow a proper nail there.

 

[coach723]

Probably won't grow a nail, it will just be a stump.
If the younger roo (ages?) is maturing, he may be trying to challenge and usurp the older one, and become the alpha. It happens. You may need to separate them. Sometimes those fights can result in serious injuries, or death. Some roo's can coexist in the same space, some cannot. I have three roo's currently, my alpha gets along with one of them, but not the other, and tries to kill him. So his victim has his own pen with his own hens, and can live safely.