Swollen/fallen off toes on adopted hen photo link included

[armedtodream]

https://picasaweb.google.com/fiveloavestwofsh/TC#

We got some unwanted by their former owner hens donated to us & 2 of them had bad feet. One of them was not as bad as this one & was clearing up within a few days of using Vaseline on her legs. But as you see in yucky photo, this one is in bad shape, has lost a toe & others going at joints, has only 1 nail, black tips, swollen. I believe it was scaly mites but think she is an advanced case. She also has no neck feathers, dwindly head feathers & loose feathers just below her neck (like when I was letting her fly out of my hands today a couple seemed to just fall out) which I thought was due to being lowest girl in the pecking order, but I wonder if she may have critters in her feathers also to make them pick at her.
She limps badly, is pretty low energy, does not lay, last night hadn't even flown up to the roost but was huddled in floor on corner & is so tiny. Point being, she seems like it's more than just her feet. What's anyones experience been with Ivermectin? Also, do you think her feet would benefit from Blu-Kote or Wound-Cote as they are so tender & bleeding sometimes? Lastly, if I bring her in the house to let her feet heal on soft bedding, will she be stressed out alone? Would she go crazy in the same room as the baby chicks (in a different "house"/crate)?
Forgive me if these are silly questions but we are pretty new to chickens & can't help taking animals no one wants. I feel so bad, she is the tinest little thing & so timid she sticks her head under any of the hens when people are around. We don't have any farm animal vets here as far as I can tell. Thanks for ANY information, ANY direction, ANY hunch or guess or anything

 

[Judy]

Oh my goodness, poor girl, and good for you for taking her in. Those feet must hurt a lot.

Ivermectin works well on most mites/lice, but if she has a huge worm load, I don't know whether it would be dangerous for her or not. Actually, those feet look to me like frostbite damage. I'd certainly put some kind of wound salve on them. No wonder she is limping.

She might also be molting. Those neck feathers look a bit like a molt. You can force a molt with withholding feed and this could be part of what happened to her.

I don't think she would have a problem adjusting to the chicks, she might in time be comforted, but she could present a danger to the, both if there are lice/mites present and if she happens to have a respiratory infection, or be a carrier. Mostly she needs things your common sense will tell you anyway, good nutrition, warmth, some cuddling and holding if she will let you, and some time.

If she has scaly leg mites, the legs will look like they have raised fish scales, and just the Vaseline will cure it in time. For this problem, you could also wash the legs gently in warm soapy water with a gentle scrub with a toothbrush. You can also add a little Sevin 5% garden dust to the Vaseline.

Good luck to both of you.

 

[armedtodream]

Thank you so much for replying so quickly. If it were frost bite, would it have lingered this long? Are there antibiotics I could put in her water to work from the inside without an rx? Do you think a salve or like an anitibiotic ointment is better than blu-kote or wound-kote?
I am not sure of the kind of place they lived in before but it hasn't been cold enough for frostbite here in at least a month & probably closer to 2. I know that they were owned by someone who lived in another state & that they were being fed by a tenant at that persons property but they were not like pets, their eggs weren't collected or anything & they just sort of reproduced & the owner knew the flock had gotten too big so in an effort to reduce the load we were given the first 5 the tenant could catch.
My point is, they may not have known if any had frost bite & she is the only one we got whose feet look like this. But I think you are right about it not being mites with her because the other one who had the leg mites really bad had the typical crusty growths & looked a lot better after just a few days of vaseline where this one is just as bad as the day she came. The other 3 girls & 1 boy are all strong, healthy chickens.
Is there a way for me to know if she has a "worm load" as you said so I could know whether to try to Ivermectin or not? Do I need a rx for it? We just don't have a farm animal vet around here & it's not an area where many people have chickens so I don't know who else I would ask :-(. Last question, as far as bedding here in her "infirmary" in the house, are pine shavings o.k. or shredded newspaper or? Just want to make the softest environment for her tender feet so I can avoid making her less mobile by wrapping them.
Thank you again for any ideas. I am determined to get good at this & couldn't find anything on web that looked like her feet :-(.

 

[Chickenaddict]

What I would do for her is soak her feet in a warm epsom salt/betadine solution for about 10-15 minutes, dry them off and slather them with triple antibiotic ointment that you may already have on hand, just make sure it doesn't have any pain relievers in it. I would then wrap her feet in gauze then vetwrap over that so it would make it harder for infection to get in there. The wrap if done right will make it easier for her to get around IMO. It appears to look alot like frostbite to me too and possible infection. If she does have mites ivermectin pour on works really well but if she is heavily infested with worms (which you may be able to spot in her poo) then you may want to try a wormer like valbazen. None of these things require an RX but some may only be available to you via online. For wounds like that as far as antibiotics go your best bet would be penecillin (sp) injections. Here they sell it at fleet farm around the horse section, lots of feed stores carry it.

 

[annageckos]

The poor chicken. It kind of looks like a burn. If the chickens were running around feral then the chances are good that she has mites, lice and worms. One that one photo of the foot, is that the bone sticking out on the middle toe? Part of the problem could also be genetic. I would bet that the chickens are inbred, especially if someone started out with just a few birds and then let them go feral. I would keep her in a cage for now on soft bedding. A few towels or deep shredded paper. You could also get bedding like Carefresh from most pet stores, it is made from recycled paper and is soft.

 

[armedtodream]

Wow! You guys are so helpful! I will take the advice & run with it. I figure if she does happen to have any of the leg mites that the anitbiotic salve will suffocate them too so will be doing double duty hopefully. I didn't want to use the wound coat because it's primary ingredient was alcohol & the last thing I want to do to her is hurt her. So sad :-( I hope the reason no one has seen this before is because it's not common or contagious because my only choice is to leave her out in the coop/yard with other girls or inside in the chick room (in a different enclosure but same room). If there is anything to help feathers grow back, I'd love to know that so she doesn't look so scrawny when she goes back to the girls when her feet are healed & she is feeling good. Thanks again for caring about the community of chickens & not just your own

 

[annageckos]

Feed her lots of protein to help her regrow her feathers and to heel. Scrabbled eggs is good and sprouted grains too.

 

[welasharon]

Scaly leg mite can also look like this when it has been ongoing and severe. I put some ivomec pour on on some of the ones I helped. I worried about the worms but she had mites in her head. When I wiped her head with mineral oil to kill them the skin came off in my hand. I just put three little drops on her at the base of her neck. She too had lost most of the toes on her feet. Soaking them in epsom salts helps and then coating them in an oil like vegetable or mineral oil will do the trick. I wrapped the ones I treated in towels and laid them on my lap and dripped oil on the thick spots. Most of the black stuff was dirt and mite crust that formed dirt balls on the toe ends. Soaking in salts water and the oil should help to loosen it. On some of them I had to nick the surface of the blob so the oil could soak in, then you can crumble it off. Just don't pull anything or scrub them with a brush...they are too sore and inflamed for that. On the open spots I put neosporin. The feathers eventually grew back...mostly.
sharon

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
X 2 I would also get a fecal test done to check for worms most vets do this even non farm vets. You can get most of these items at your local farm store. I would also talk to the farm store employees they might know of a farmer who could help. Since they where wild you should more then likely worm them all I would start with wazine (you put it in the water) which paralyzes the adult worms allowing them to be expelled then follow 10 days later by a 2nd wormer such as safeguard paste (for cattle) or invermectin drop on. You could use sevin dust for mites in the time being. I also used duck tape to wrap feet so they could get the bandages off. I hope this helps.

 

[armedtodream]

I am so touched by everyones responses. She has tolerated all our poking & prodding & didn't even seem too upset by the gauze & vetwrap as they were still on this morning . Re: the sevin for external critters, does that go on HER or just in her space? Also, is the Ivermectin just for external or internal critters as well? I looked at that yesterday but it was $60 at our farm supply store so it was way way way out of reach. One last unrelated thing, do dust baths help them stay critter free & clean? If so, what should I give them to dust bathe in since it's going to be too wet for them to find any dust here for a couple months... Thank you again!