My rooster's leg is green! Infection?

[Haunted55]

If this were my bird, I would be painting his leg with iodine. Just a thin covering of it. Colored or non colored, doesn't matter. Iodine is readily pulled into the skin and is a good topical treatment to use because of this. Paint it and leave it, don't cover it. I know that the lower percentage of the iodine we can get now isn't supposed to burn the skin, but there's no reason to chance it. As the iodine is absorbed, it will kill any infection it comes in contact with. If you can do it, a good soak in warm water would help. Not overly warm, just enough to help make the skin/scales softer and more able to let the iodine into the underlying skin. The internal antibiotic isn't going to hurt even if this doesn't turn out to be an infection. My choice would have been one of the tetracyclines as they are better able to get out to the extremities faster.

 

[azygous]

I talked to a local vet a little while ago, and he said staph would most likely be evidenced by a discharge. Since there is none, staph is unlikely.

I will give the iodine treatment a try, though, preceded by a warm soak. Should I do it every day?

 

[Haunted55]

I don't believe you have to. I would do this, soak and apply, then check next day. I normally go every other day or even up to 4 days. Depending on how everything looks and is reacting to treatment. If you can it might be a better idea for you to find the decolorizes iodine so you can watch coloring. Either will work, but instead of having to figure out color changes with regular iodine, this would be the way to go. WalMart has it fairly cheap.

I'm not sure if this has been asked yet or not...is there heat in this leg? As in warmer than the other. Have you checked your birds for mites and lice? Not saaying they are there but it is something to check for while you're treating this guy. The redness around the feather folicles makes me wonder.

 

[azygous]

None of my chickens has had parisites in all these years, and his scales are flat and look healthy. He is in the middle of molt and losing a ton of feathers, growing new ones. His legs are probably red because of that. The two legs feel equally warm.

I have Betadine. That should work, shoudn't it?

 

[azygous]

The green has all but gone from Penrod's leg. It could be a coincidence, but perhaps it is an infection and the antibiotic is working. His appetite isn't great, but he's eating. some meal worms, a few bits of tomato, and a few nibbles of corn. He still can't stand. I'm keeping on with the aspirin and antibiotic.

 

[Haunted55]

None of my chickens has had parisites in all these years, and his scales are flat and look healthy. He is in the middle of molt and losing a ton of feathers, growing new ones. His legs are probably red because of that. The two legs feel equally warm.

I have Betadine. That should work, shoudn't it?

As a wash, yes as anti-infective...not so much. You can pick up the colorless iodine right at a WalMart for cheap. It's a 2% solution even though it doesn't say so on the bottle. I actually spoke with the company that puts it out and got the info right from them.

 

[Haunted55]

The green has all but gone from Penrod's leg. It could be a coincidence, but perhaps it is an infection and the antibiotic is working. His appetite isn't great, but he's eating. some meal worms, a few bits of tomato, and a few nibbles of corn. He still can't stand. I'm keeping on with the aspirin and antibiotic.

Just in case, I, myself, would still give the topical of the iodine. This way you hit from two different directions and what one might miss, the other will get. I'm not there so I can't 'see' you will have to decide what course to take with him. I'm glad the leg looks better today! that's great!

 

[Shabana]

Glad to hear the green is almost gone - you're doing great, hopefully he will be back on his feet soon poor little boy.

 

[azygous]

Something tells me this rooster has a broken leg and isn't going to be walking any time soon. Is there a way to vet-wrap the leg to keep it from getting re-injured when I handle him? I fear I'm going to keep his leg from healing by the way I have to drag him out from his crate to go outside to poop. And when I put him back in, his leg gets rougher handling than I can help.

He really acts like he's very weary of this. His appetite isn't all that great, and his poop is showing considerable bile. He can't drink normally, and I'm trying my best to keep him hydrated with a syringe. This is very, very tiring for us both.

 

[Haunted55]

If you think his leg is broken you will need to check it and see where the bone ends are. If the bone is whole and just cracked, you can take some something like popsicle sticks and wrap them with guaze and a outside layer of vet wrap. Position them so there would be no loss of normal movement of the leg such as roosting. Use the vet wrap to hold these in place on the legs, firmly but not so tight that you would be cutting off circulation. Vet wrap is esentially an ace bandage, if you've ever had one of those wrapped too tightly, you'll know what I'm saying. Then it's time.