Silkie Hen with injured/infected foot.HELP Crusted mass *Updated PICS*

[kristamarie]

While I was volunteering at the aviary today I noticed the white silkie hen was limping. I picked her up and flipped her over and this is what I saw:




She may have been like this for some time since you can't normally see her feet anyways and had she not been limping no one would have known she was injured. I can't quite figure out the best course of action on how to handle this. I took her inside and soaked her foot in a bowl of warm water hoping that maybe it was poop and much crusted on that could be wiped away. No such luck it did loosen the outer layer a bit but the remaining crud is sticky and stuck like glue. I was able to carefully scrape some of the outer stuff off. You can see on the top of her foot where the 'scab' is lifting away and showing an open wound.



Please anyone if you could tell me how to go about removing this gunk with minimal pain to the poor girl I would appreciate it. I plan on bathing her tonight since she stinks to high hell.

This is the babe, i'm calling her Peggy (short for Peg-leg)

 

[lilchik]

I would soak the foot in warm water to soften the dried drainage, then attempt to clean the foot up to get a good look at what is actually going on there. Post new pics after cleaning it up.

 

[kristamarie]

lilchik, i did soak her foot in warm water at the aviary for quite some time and it barely loosened anything. The mass is like gluey pus. I think I will have to cut it off her foot

 

[Life is Good!]

Any chance you could make her a chicken shoe and put some (non-pain relief) neosporin on it for a day or so? If it's infected, you'll need to get some ointment in there.
I know I've seen great chicken shoe articles on here (how to make 'em) - out of vetwrap.

She's a beautiful chicken! Hoping your name for her is a mis-nomer!

 

[chickenzoo]

You need to pull that off.... Looks like perhaps she had bumble foot and it busted out and kept scanning over. Pull it off and see what is under it. If it looks like just pinkish bleeding flesh then apply some non pain relief neosporine to the wond and wrap it with vet wrap.... Etc. if it looks like stiff cottage cheese under the scab you will need to remove it until it is clean.

 

[kristamarie]

You need to pull that off.... Looks like perhaps she had bumble foot and it busted out and kept scanning over. Pull it off and see what is under it. If it looks like just pinkish bleeding flesh then apply some non pain relief neosporine to the wond and wrap it with vet wrap.... Etc. if it looks like stiff cottage cheese under the scab you will need to remove it until it is clean.

Thank you! this was very helpful, will do

 

[GoldenSparrow]

Keep us updated, with more pictures please.
Good Luck

 

[Brookliner]

You might consider making a sling for her to keep her weight off the foot and to help keep it clean. There is a great picture of a sling on page 181 of "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" by Gail Damerow. I hope that you are successful and that Peggy makes a complete recovery. I am currently trying to help my White roo with a leg injury and am considering putting him in a sling.

 

[kristamarie]

Thank you for your replies, she seems to be in good spirits. I soaked her foot in epsom salts for about 20 minutes and it loosened the scab right up. Peggy lay there calmly and let me pick away at it until I removed the whole mass.





There was a bit of black skin that I cut away from her foot and the rest is all pink. I flushed it with clean water and slathered some non pain relief Polysporin on the wound, wrapped with a gauze pad and then wrapped with vet wrap. I plan to continue to change the dressing daily for a while. when should i start to let it air out?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Wow, that cleaned up pretty well! In the second picture it looks like there is still some roots (or something) of the scab. You should try to get all of that as well. In the first picture especially, it looks like there are a couple places where the skin is pulled away from the foot. You should cut that all back to where it is firmly attached to her foot. If you leave it, it can slow healing.

I'd say you need to keep it clean and covered until she gets a good layer of skin back on there. You can keep it bandanged real good and let her outside as long as its not muddy and she doesn't pull at her bandages.

Poor girl. I wonder what could have happened to her. That's a pretty bad wound but you're doing an excellent job caring for her. Just keep it up and she'll be better very quickly.

Whatever you're feeding her, she should have a slightly raised amount of protein to facilitate healing and tissue regrowth.

Good luck. Keep us posted.