Help, Hen with curled toes *pics*

ethingtonart

Songster
10 Years
May 29, 2009
275
2
134
indianapolis
1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Gold sex link, 11 months, approx 5#
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Curling toes on left side, walking on ankle, and walking with a limp
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
about two days
4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
no
5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
Don't know, but there has been snow on the ground, and we do have a mature rooster
6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Purina Layena, oyster shells, bananas, apples, lettuce, grass, etc
7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
normal
8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I took her to the vet this morning who thinks she might have a b vitamin deficiency, but we are at a loss to know what's really wrong. Her specialty is not chickens. She does not think the hip is displaced or that the leg is broken. She thought the hen might have an elevated body temperature. She gave her a b vitamin injection.
9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Working with a vet.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Large coop, pine shavings and normally free to run around the yard. She is confined right now.

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She has been putting weight on the toes for the most part, but while we were at the vet she did straighten out a couple of toes for a short time.

Edit to add... I just went out to watch her for a few minutes, and about every third step her foot spread out like normal, and she placed weight on it.
 
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It looks like it may have been injured (tendons?), and needs time to heal. The vitamin deficiency was a good guess, there is one that causes curled toes. Did she give you any vitamins to continue on with? If not, you may want to find a supplement at your nearest feed store, such as rooster booster vitamins, or pick up some poly-vi-sol at a pharmacy (without iron). The poly-vi-sol is given by beak, 3 drops per day for a week or so. Keep us posted on her progress!
 
The vet gave me some B12 vitamin injections to give her, and I gave her some scrambled eggs yesterday too. I have vitamin drops, so I will try to give her some of those as well. Oh, and she laid a perfectly good egg yesterday too.

I'll keep you posted
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I'm interested to know how she does too. I currently have a 5 month old silkie with the same symptoms as your hen. It just showed up out of the blue one day - limping, no weight on foot - and now she is curling her toes. She is eating well and stuff so I'm not sure what it is either. I'm giving her poly-vi-sol and have her in the house to keep her warm and quiet. Please let us know.
 
My hen is doing much better today. She is still limping a bit on that foot, but her toes are uncurled now.
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I'm still keeping her confined and I am giving her poly vi sol and a higher protein food. I haven't given her a second B12 injection. I guess she doesn't need it.

I hope your silkie gets better soon!
 
That is good news about your girl! Yay! And it is encouraging...thank you. I hope the same. I already have two special need chickens in the house (spraddled leg babies that never healed) so I could keep her inside but would much rather have her go outside with her friends
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That is good news about your girl! Yay! And it is encouraging...thank you. I hope the same. I already have two special need chickens in the house (spraddled leg babies that never healed) so I could keep her inside but would much rather have her go outside with her friends

I have a 3 month old roo with a slipped tendon who's my special needs chicken. The vet said the only way to fix it was surgery and even then it may or may not work, so he's just getting a little extra attention
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Keep me posted, okay?!​
 
Quote:
How do you fix spraddle leg. I had one a few weeks ago and culled it. I've had chicks with the curled toes and I put boots on them and polyvisol and with in a week they're fine. I didn't know what to do about the spraddle legs.
 

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