Rehabilitation for abused chickens

[Sonoran Silkies]

Trimming leg feathers will cause more harm than help. Trimming the toenails is an excellent idea.

 

[SallyF]

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Amen to that! And seconds on the "wish I was closer."

 

[meriruka]

For the ones who lost toes, I went through the same thing with a rescue. What you have to be careful of here is that if the feet are infected, you will need antibiotics to make sure the infection doesn't get in the bones of the leg.

My girl had hard crusty junk all over the feet with only one toe left on each.
The routine was soak feet, goop on lots of plain Neosporin, non stick pad on bottom of foot, wrap lightly with gauze, tape. Every other day. Trim the nails little bit by bit like mentioned above.
The pad on the bottom of the foot made walking less painful, the Neosporin sofened the crust and after a bit, came off so you could see better what was left & needed to heal. Wrapping kept dirt out as well.

I realize you have a lot of birds here, so this may only be practical for the worst cases and with a friend or two to help.........

Kudos to you for taking this on! Keep us updated.


ps, forgot to add, when they heal, there may be nerve damage, in winter they may not be able to keep the feet warm enough and will be susceptible to frost bite.....

 

[HippieChickens]

You're a hero, Kim!

 

[ArizonaNessa]

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Just wanting to learn something new so I have to ask, why would trimming the feathers on the feet and legs not be helpful?

 

[Isisranch]

Okay the silkie with the worst feet, actually missing one is looking reall.awful. I washed it's feet well with dawn and covered in bag balm.I put dewormer in it's water and dusted it. I brought it in the house and it's in the bathroom since it's going to be very cold and snowy. It can't stand up because it only has one foot basically and it's now coughing. Any thoughts? Should I do this same proceedure on all of the birds even if I don't see the mites? The thought of mites alone is enough to make me itch.

 

[littlegip]

Bless you

 

[horsejody]

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If it's leg mites, you won't see them. If he/she is coughing, there might be a respiratory infection. Meds might be in order. Also, a little warmth from a heat lamp can do wonders.

 

[Freebie]

Could it be coughing from the dusting? If she was not coughing before that, it could be just that. I sure hope so, as is sounds like the last thing she needs is a respiratory thing going on. Bless you and good healing.

 

[possumqueen]

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Just wanting to learn something new so I have to ask, why would trimming the feathers on the feet and legs not be helpful?

Me, too. I'm interested to know why trimming feathers would be harmful?

Also. I'm no expert on the health part of the rescue, but I think I can say, about keeping a lot of roosters, that they seem to do all right in "bachelor flocks." With no girls around to cause disputes they'll establish a pecking order just like an all hen flock and probably get along just fine. I've seen this with game cocks. It's worth a try if you've been slammed with a big bunch of birds all of a sudden.