limping hen, big cut on foot

[birdbrain5]

one of my hens has been limping some, i watched to see if she would get better but shes gotten worse. i caught her and looked at her foot and on the top of her foot her skin is missing. looks like the skin got sliced off. it was dry, so i scrubbed it with some betadine and water, then sprayed it with blue-kote. i have her penned by herself because i dont want her to range off too far and not be able to get back. she hops and gets around quickly and fine, but shes not wanting to bare weight on that foot at all. anything else i can do for her? im going to keep treating it like i did but im wondering if i can/should do more?

 

[teach1rusl]

Sounds to me like you've done great. The foot hurts her, so she's not wanting to put weight on it. They'll do the same with a ripped toe nail or a bad case of bumblefoot- because the foot hurts. Containing her is fine and probably a good thing to do. But unless she's hard to catch to retreat or you're afraid she'll get into an area that's bad for her foot, she would probably do okay not contained too.

 

[PeepsCA]

Guineas will usually baby themselves (by limping on the injured leg) until they are healed or it doesn't hurt any more. Sounds like you doctored her up good

Blu-Kote is great stuff, and she should heal fine as long as she doesn't peck at it (and as long as the others don't peck at it).

Guineas usually do fine gimping around, but if you decide to keep her penned until she's not so gimpy, she stands a better chance of being re-accepted by the rest of the flock if they can all see her while she's penned. Otherwise they will see her as a new bird when you add her back in, and they may chase her off or pick on her. I'd give the wound a fresh squirt of Blu-Kote before adding her back to the flock, just as a precaution.

If she doesn't have access to greens while she is penned I'd be sure to pick her a handful each day and also make sure she's getting at least 16% protein in her feed while penned, since she's not out free ranging for any bugs and other goodies.