help! broken, cut toe!

katie1234

Hatching
Feb 6, 2015
2
0
7
Hi, I have a silkie that has a broken toe. My daughter jammed her foot in the door and she has a cut across her big, middle toe (sorry don't know correct names) it is very deep and swollen and gone into or through her bone. She won't use it at all just hops one one foot. She eats and drinks ok. Could I bandage and let it heal alone? I tried to join the cut back together but it seems too hard like the bone is stopping it from moving and I didn't want to use and force. Please help!
 
I would bring her inside and create a little chicken sling for her, so that she can be in a "standing" position without putting too much weight on the foot/toe. ~~> https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/609764/my-chicken-sling You can make them out of almost anything. :) Be sure to keep food and water within reach.

Treat it just like you would if you had a broken skin injury. Wash it, clean it, put some triple antibiotic ointment ***without painkiller*** on it, wrap it, and let her heal herself. The main thing we want to avoid is infection. Offer some higher protein treats like meal worms and boiled egg to help her tissue heal.

You could make a little splint out of popsicle stick if you wanted to, but I don't know if that's really necessary. I know broken toes can sometimes fall off with no harm at all to the chicken. They still go on to live happy chicken lives. :)

Keep us updated and let us know if anything new pops up!

MrsB

Edited to add: Pictures ALWAYS help!!!!
 
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Thanks for your idea. She is happy outside pecking around while i sort out somewhere to keep her but with a closer look it does seem like it is nearly cut right through her bone and will or needs to come off. Not sure what to do, leave it or splint it? I will try add a photo.
 
A picture could help a lot. I have a 6-month old flock of 19 chickens, many different breeds, and my smallest chicken, a hen, got the lower third of her right metatarsus literally broken in half, she couldn't run at all. There wasn't much that could be done, but fortunately, I looked up this sort of injury on the Internet, and chickens heal from them with some ease. She is now probably my fastest hen again, runs very well, despite having her metatarsus a bit deformed. It eventually calcified, and she doesn't seem like she ever had a broken leg. Here is a picture of her:

As you can see, her metatarsus is a bit deformed. That doesn't stop her from being really agile.

But honestly, I think the best thing to do is take care of her injury, and separate her from the flock until she can move properly.
 

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