sloughing skin on one leg

[alaskanhenhouse]

i've had this chick since day old. came in a hatchery shipment of 50 and the only one with this problem.

Around one week old i noticed an abnormal appearance to her skin on one leg. the best way to describe it is it looked like someone had taken a lighter to the bottom of her foot where it was crusting and then the further up her leg the better it got. where her feathers appeared melted to the bottom of the shaft. (this is by no means what actually happened to her, just a way of describing it).

At about 4 weeks of age i was able to put her back in with her sib's as it was nearly completely healed. (crusts and lessions were gone and skin was healed but still a tad bit irritated) it was noticable that she would have limited feather growth on the 'drumstick' part of the leg as the feather shaft holes appeared to have nearly all but disappeared. i had been soaking and wrapping her foot every day trying different things. the best that worked was brushing on hydrogen peroxide after soaking in salt water.

Now 15 weeks old and i just noticed her with her leg swollen (spotted in the flock because she was holding foot up) and covered with scabs.

I'm talking about the lower end of her leg where the feathers don't grow and all the way to her toes. I've soaked her in warm water, then salt water. ALL THE SKIN CAME OFF her toes!!! AND A LOT CAME OFF HER LEG! up to her 'elbow".

I completely covered her leg and toes with neosporin and wrapped her leg and individual toes in gause wrap and she's back in an aquarium with a coconut mat pad. She's otherwise healthy. eating, drinking, cooing, normal poos and is actively pecking at barley on the floor.

WHAT on EARTH am i dealing with here? it isn't spreading to any other birds.

 

[beakkeeper]

*bump*

I don't know what you've got there!!! It sounds like a horrible case of scaly leg mites, which burrow under the scales of the legs and cause them to flake off. But if that was true, it would be spreading...? I don't know if hydrogen peroxide is good for it, I know you said it works, but it can cause tissue degeneration.

Hopefully someone else will be able to diagnose this!

 

[alaskanhenhouse]

if she was older i would lean towards the scaly mite too but not in this case.

The use of the hydrogen peroxide was only when she had skin. she doesn't have any this time. it all fell off like a glove.

 

[onthespot]

i would cull. to me it souds like a circulatory problem, possibly a birth defect in the vascular system and she does not sound like she has much chance of a productive, happy life.

 

[alaskanhenhouse]

update.....
her leg, again, healed.

but without feathering and without the normal yellow scales on her lower leg. I was thrilled she did so well as i hate snuffing life out without good cause. i put her back out with the flock, but three days later i found her dead.

i watched her daily and she seemed fine right up to that point other than she did seem to favor that leg. by favoring i mean she liked to keep it tucked under her more than not but she was using it and had no limp. i assumed being sensitive like new skin under a popped blister. no one had pecked at her, she was eating, drinking, hopping up and sparring with the rest, a normal teen chicken activity.

i'll probably never know for sure what i was dealing with but the suggestion of circulation deformity does sound logical.

 

[mainchick]

oh no! you really tried to help. You did more than I would. good luck with the others!