Help! Chicken lost a toe and a half

[elmoflim]

they get along great and the little one helps her move more(sometimes she uses her to lean on.) So much cuteness

 

[Wyorp Rock]

they get along great and the little one helps her move more(sometimes she uses her to lean on.) So much cuteness

Awww...that is sweet. Hopefully this will perk her up and she will start getting better soon.

Is the toe showing any improvement?

 

[elmoflim]

It's the same to me not better and not worse I'm thinking about putting petroleum jelly on it?

 

[PeepersMama]

AAAAAWWWWW!!! That is so cute! I want a silkie so bad

I would stick with neosporin. Petroleum jelly is really a moisturizer, and wouldn't help it heal significantly faster. Neosprin is both moisturizer and healing aid, and will help keep it from getting infected.

 

[Blooie]

Can't add anything to the medical advice you've been given, but I can speak to the adaptations they are capable of.

Meet Scout. Hatched by a broody when our temps were in the upper 60s to low 70s. In under 30 hours we dropped to -17 and he froze his little feet at the waterer. We treated the frozen feet, and they seemed to be getting better, but then he lost the use of them.


Scout soaking in his "hot tub"...a candle lid filled with warm Epsom Salt water. He looked forward to this every time, and would even doze off in there.


Both feet looked like this...huge blisters on them.


They seemed to be getting better, but in only one week they changed to this much contracture!


We tried mechanical straightening but got nowhere.




Scout as a young adult. Look at those horrible feet! He still did all the things the others did...he flew up and down to and from the roosts, roosted all night, scratched in the dirt for goodies, ran, and bred the girls. He had no clue he had a "disability" and we weren't going to tell him either. The only things I'd be concerned about in your situation (if she's able to rejoin the flock) would be re-integrating her after she's been away from them being treated, and them sensing she's weaker at first and "ganging up" on her. But if you can get her past that, she stands more than a good chance of being perfectly happy and functioning as well as the others.

All of that assumes that after her foot heals, she is no longer in pain. A chicken living in pain is an unnecessary and unfair. Scout's feet were basically dead, so he felt nothing in them.

Edited to add one more photo of Scout with some of last spring's chicks. You can read his full story by clicking on the link in my signature - frostbitten feet, the adventures of Scout.

 

[elmoflim]

For when she's goes back outside(she's feisty so I think she'll be ok, I'm going to make a coop for her and nurse silkie. Maybe come spring her and the silkie can hatch some eggs to have their own sensitive flock. I think the hardest thing will be balance and getting her foot not to be swollen(I think it'll take a few days longer before it does.)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

For when she's goes back outside(she's feisty so I think she'll be ok, I'm going to make a coop for her and nurse silkie. Maybe come spring her and the silkie can hatch some eggs to have their own sensitive flock. I think the hardest thing will be balance and getting her foot not to be swollen(I think it'll take a few days longer before it does.)

Any updated photos of the foot?

Has it gone down any?

As @PeepersMomma has suggested, use the neosporin, it would be better than the vaseline.

 

[azygous]

Yes, she will learn to walk with the deformity. Don't worry. Chickens are great at adapting.

One thing that could happen, not necessary will, is a partial auto-amputation of the affected toes. I watched this phenomenon occur when a hen had an infected scale. I treated the foot, had to remove the toenail, and the talon seemed to be healing okay.

Then I notice the affected part began to swell and darken. I thought to myself, it sure look like that toe is going to fall off, and it did.

The hen had a little trouble learning to walk with the missing toe, but each day she did better, and soon she was walking almost normally again, albeit without a toe on one foot.

 

[elmoflim]

After her soak, dried off, neosporin, and some petroleum jelly her foot. For me I think it looks the same.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

After her soak, dried off, neosporin, and some petroleum jelly her foot. For me I think it looks the same.

Giver her some more time. Just make sure she is eating/drinking well.