Hen missing toenail, limping, tip of toe black!

[mamarama]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forums but I've been spending lots of time reading on the site...

This morning I went to check on my ladies, and I discovered that one of my banties was limping. Her toenail is completely gone and the tip of her toe is black. I looked at the others and discovered that one or two of the others looks somewhat red and swollen, and the scales are lifting and falling off. I adopted this hen, and she's not very healthy...the worst possible case of mites, watery poo, bare spots on her breast and back...and I'm just not sure where to start to help her get better. If anyone has any ideas, help would be most appreciated...

Thanks,
Mamarama

 

[poulet]

I am not an expert but if it was me I would treat the mites ( I use paraffin),nice clean bedding give her a vitimen suplemented food and lots of general love and attention

where did this chicken come from ?

 

[mamarama]

The chicken came from an acquaintance who had both banties and full-sized birds, and he said they just got picked on all the time so he wanted them to find a new home. My big ladies have never really given the banties any trouble...I didn't examine them closely before I took them (I'm a pushover for homeless animals!), so I didn't know she wasn't well.

I'll try giving her vitamins, but how do you use the paraffin?

Mamarama

 

[Sharisr32]

The mites are a secondary issue that need treated by a bath which will also help the primary issue - The toe being black, soak it treat it just like you would if had a bad wound on a person, get it on antibiotics -You can put neosporin on it the one with the pain killer works well - keep it as clean and dry as possible- If it gets more infected it will do worse system damage then the mites -

 

[mamarama]

Thanks, I was heading out to check on her and I'll see what I can do. Can I peroxide it or will that hurt her?

As far as the mites, I dislike using any kind of chemical treatment on my animals if I can possibly avoid it. I've tried diatomaceous earth, and it's helped a lot, but she still has tons, lots more than any of the others (they all have a few). Maybe just because she's in poor general health?

I'm going to go take a look at her and put some Neosporin on it. I'll see if I have anything lying around to bandage it with, otherwise I'll have to run to town and pick something up.

Thanks for the help...

Mamarama

 

[bluerose]

Do NOT use the pain killing Neosporin- most '-caines' are not good for chickens...

You can use the paraffin (or vaseline, or the neosporin would work too) to coat the legs. Kills the mites and keeps new ones off.

 

[mamarama]

Good to know! All I had lying about was the regular Neosporin, so I've been using that all day on her. I'll coat the legs tomorrow. Could it just be mites causing the problem, do you think? I just don't understand what's wrong...

Mamarama