Loss of claw

[mizzo73]

Hello I'm a new chook on the block and wondered if anyone could help with my speckled pekin bantie. Last week she started limping and upon inspection I saw that she had lost a claw. It was not bloody or injured in anyway so I have quarantined her just in case she has some infection. She is happily eating and drinking, I have wormed her and the rest of the flock, and no-one else is unwell. She can hop, fly, shuffle and even limp slowly but it has not improved. She sleeps in a cage inside our house at night and I'm beginning to think she likes the good life inside! Any ideas? How fast do claws grow?

 

[Alaskan]

I had one claw loss in my flock.

I looked all over for blood, I also wanted to figure out how the entire claw was removed so that I could fix that obviously dangerous spot. I couldn't find any blood either, which is odd. Don't you think a completely removed claw would have resulted in lots of blood loss?

Anyway, mine happened to a big and heavy Brahma roo.

He was sore and limping for maybe two weeks, up to a full month. He did get over it, as in the soreness passed, but the nail never regret.

 

[mizzo73]

Thanks for that info and I'm glad to hear he made a full recovery. No we never found any blood either. We wondered if there was some other injury- maybe a fracture in her foot or hip as she never wanted to move much. Although she was eating and drinking a bit, she was losing condition, couldn't preen properly and seemed miserable and didn't want to be cooped up after a lifetime of free ranging. We decided to have her put down as her quality of life was diminished and she was showing no signs of recovery after a month of nursing. We were very sad to do this.
We were worried about the possibility of it being some virus so we have wormed all the flock, given them all minerals and I'm adding yoghurt and comfrey to their morning mash - just to boost their health.
Thanks for helping - this is great forum!

 

[Alaskan]

Ak!

I wonder, if in your case, she got some infection from the broken toe?


Odd, I was just posting with another BYC person who had a hen with a limp. That hen had no outward signs of anything at all, but it turned out she had some kind of infection that she died of. What was so sad, is when the person took the hen to the vet, it was too late to save her.


Before posting with that person, an infection, with no obvious pus nasty wound, as a cause for a limp, never would have occurred to me.

 

[mizzo73]

Yes earlier this year an elderly hen had a limp which meant that eventually she couldn't move at all. We took her to the vet immediately and they thought we were very strange - (we live in a rural part of NZ where a crook chook means you chop their head off - you don't go to the vet!) They gave us some antibiotics as she had a slight temperature and said to bring her body in for an autopsy if she died and we were worried about Mareks. The antibiotics didn't help her at all but the whole experience has made me think we need more avian vets.
Anyhow I'm thinking that having some anti-b's on hand is a good idea if we suspect infection. In Panda's case there was no outward sign. If only they could talk!
Thanks for the ideas and fingers crossed that the rest of the flock are ok!

 

[Alaskan]

I agree!

My heart drops through the floor whenever i think something is wrong with my flock.

 

[mizzo73]

Yeah I used to have a life before I had chickens! Now I fret and fuss but they are worth the angst....