swollen feet

[endywy]

I have three small, young chickens that have swollen feet. Everything about there feet, except for one chicken who seems to have a lot of bruising, looks normal except for being swollen. It hurts them to walk so they just want to lay around and not do much including eat.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Could there be some frostbite on the feet? More pictures of the feet may help since I can't see the tops of the feet, but one toe looks like it could have a bit of frostbite. The footpad looks dark in your picture which can be due to skin color, frostbite, or bacterial infections. Swollen feet can be caused by mycoplasma synovitis (MS,) a repiratory infection that causes infection in the joints, gout, frostbite, and viral or bacterial infections. I would keep them on dry clean pine shvings, and avoid moisture and hay or straw for bedding, since it tends to hold moisture. Epsom salts soaks to feet may provide some help.