Hen with broken nail

[tray579]

I did some searching but wanted to ask since this is my first time with chickens. I haven't had them a week yet but went to check on them and noticed blood on the ground. I noticed what appears to be a broken nail on my Ameraucana. I saw a lot of different ways to take care of this but what is the easiest, for a beginner? Do I need to worry if there is only a little blood? Looks like it is the tip.

 

[deacons]

The first time this happened to me was a couple of winters ago-really freaked me out because there was a bloody patch in the snow and it looked like someone had been seriously injured. I still don't know what happened, but one of my girls had broken the nail off almost at the base, and there was a lot of blood. This all happened right at "bedtime," so I was able to catch her, dipped her toe in a little flour, which has some blood stop properties, and set her on the roost. By the morning she was fine, there was no blood on the roost so it stopped pretty quickly. The nail did take a while to regrow, but she had no longterm ill effects.

I would say if it's not actively spouting blood, you probably don't have to worry too much about it. If you have a lot of mud around, you might want to keep an eye on it to be sure it's as clean as possible and not looking like it's getting infected- maybe that's as simple as rinsing it with some betadine and/or applying some Vetricyn spray at night before she goes to the roost.

Feel free to post pictures here, people might give you more specific advice.

 

[tray579]

Its the back nail, it looks about the same size as the nail on the other foot. It isn't spewing blood but I can tell where she has been. We have a tractor, I moved it yesterday afternoon, new grass, no mud. I will see if I can get a picture. Where do I get beta dine or Vetricyn?

 

[tray579]

her behavior is normal. If it was infected what would it look like?

 

[deacons]

OK, here are a couple of threads about stopping the bleeding, I think that's probably your first step if you can catch her. Basically, cornstarch or flour should help, and you might then want to wrap it up with some gauze/vet tape.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-bleeding-k-i-think-were-out-of-the-woods-now

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/44886/chick-broke-her-nail-and-it-wont-stop-bleeding

http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/07/how-to-trim-chickens-toenails.html

Betadine you can buy at a CVS Pharmacy/Rite Aid type place in the first aid section. It's a big bottle, but it's convenient to have around for cleaning out cuts and scrapes. It looks like this or this.

Vetricyn I buy at a feed store/tack shop, but you can order online. Also nice to have around for cuts and scrapes.

If this just happened, you probably don't have to worry about infection yet.

 

[tray579]

Went to the store to buy Betadine and when I came back it had stopped bleeding. I cleaned it up and left it. Seems to be fine today. Thanks for your help!