Hen’s toe almost cut off

[Chicken poppy]

I went to the coop to make sure everybody was in, and found one of my girls on the roost with a big pool of blood under her, holding her leg up, and blood on her stomach. It was all from her toe but it was a lot. Got her inside and put her in a Epsom salt bath - the picture isn’t great and doesn’t do it justice - it’s basically sliced almost all the way through from the back. Who knows how it happened - I didn’t hear or see any craziness out there today.

Rinsed with hibeclens (sp), slathered neosporin, and wrapped her foot and the toe in gauze and vet wrap. Firm but not too tight.

I had leftover Meloxicam from one of my rabbits and gave her some in yogurt. I don’t have much more than another dose left though. Any other pain killer I could give her when the Meloxicam runs out? My dog had cervical spine surgery recently and I have all sorts of leftovers from him - Gabapentin, methocarbamol, amantadine, carprofin…I can use Google but if anyone has experience with these, let me know please?

You can definitely see it in the photo. If you look closely you can see the slice mark. So sorry this happened! Thats deep.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I guess it’s good that they’re pretty fast healers! I cleaned and wrapped it again today and it looks more swollen - should I give her an antibiotic? I have a bunch - fish mox being the most generic but I can name others if it looks like it’s infected.

(Ignore my NYE nail polish - probably time to take that off. )

You can start her on the Fish Mox if you wish. Dose is 57mg per pound of weight give orally twice a day for 7-10 days.

Do soak the foot daily in a mild Chlorhexidine solution or epsom salts, dry well. Apply a very thin layer of triple antibiotic ointment, then wrap. Keep her foot dry.