Silkie hen with a torn toenail???

[bkreugar]

Our little snow white silkie girl (hatched June 10) was limping yesterday morning after we let them out. She went to a hiding place and just sat looking sad and puffed up.So I scooped her up and saw her foot was bleeding.I needed to drop kids off so i put her in the bath tub.

I then rinsed off the foot and saw she had sliced down the front of the leg and and lost a toe nail. I washed again and pured hydrogen peroxide on it.Fed her and offered her water.

At noon I put her back out and she was miserable.SO I brought her back in.

We washed her foot again last nite. She is the runt so i try to get her to eat anything she would like.

She spent the nite in a make ship hen hospital quite content and no longer puffed up.This a.m. I got her to drink a decent amount of water with terrimycin disolved into it.She also ate a 1/2 peice of bread soaked in bacon grease and some mac and cheese.

I just now scrambled an egg for her she is devouring.


HEr breastbone is too prominent so she needs the specail attention.She will NOT put any weight on the leg with the torn nail.She will talk and sleep and eat.She is no trouble and is perkier today than yesterday.

Her injured foot feels a bit hotter than the other but hard to tell.It IS a bit swollen. She is not going back out till she is putting weight on the foot.

Is my antibiotic a good idea or unneccesary? Do i need to put a salve on her?

Her poop is normal.Also how long do you think it will take her to walk on it if is just the nail?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

IMO, terramycin is pretty useless. Put neosporin on the wound and lightly bandage with vetwrap. Make sure to use the kind without pain relief ingredients. Keep her inside until the wound heals and is no longer open. Let her take it easy, and feed extra nutritious foods such as scrambled eggs, live-culture yogurt, superworms, wax worms, oatmeal, cooked rice and of course age appropriate chicken feed. If she has a true walnut comb her breast ridge will always be prominant; it is the nature of the pea comb gene. But she should not feel light for her size. Consider whether she needs worming by watching droppings.

 

[Wynette]

I wholeheartedly agree with Sonoran - and, as an aside, do not wash her would with hydrogen peroxide again, because it will actually kill off fresh tissue that grows in. It's fine to use the first time, but then discontinue.

Good luck with your girl!

(oh, and I really wouldn't think bacon grease is good, either, but you should probably do some checking on that via the search function here.)

 

[bkreugar]

Thank you guys. I bought a pound of the medicated feed at southern states as I don't feed it as a rule. Sonoran thank you for that about the pea comb.She has almost no discernable comb at all and the blue cheecks with a lot of top not.
But I still think she is too light.She is LOW on the totem pole and therefore it is hard for her to get her fair share, but they also free range 8 hours and I give LOTS of treats.

Okay vetwrap I already have and neosporin also. DO i change the bandage once aday or 2x a day?

Also if she had a fever/infection would the leg be so hot as to be able to tell the difference from the "good" leg? It seems a bit warmer but not too much.What are your thoughts on the medicated feed?