swollen padding? what is going on with my silkie's feet??

[romea]

ralleia, thank you for this link! i have actually been thinking about this very topic but just haven’t had time to research it. i was suspecting that gallus gallus does better on roosts that resemble what a ‘normal' bird would sit on every night… (duh! ;-)) so the findings make perfect sense to me.

i have a camera in the chicken coop (i just happen to have a spare dropcam) which currently records the activity of the chickens - and, thanks to night-vision, also during the dark. playbacks show quite a bit of movement through the night. after seeing how ‘active’ these birds are while supposedly asleep, i wonder if a naturally formed round roost would make for a more restful night.

i am currently using boards with rounded sides facing up but will experiment with some fallen branches and source inner bike tubes. thank you for the input!
with regards to the silkie: i have had 4 so far and although most will instinctively climb on a low board, one of them does not seem to want to roost. then again, maybe this one bird is only waiting for a nice tree branch…

(sadly, some silkie-breeders don’t offer roosts. i find this really unfortunate as it basically deprives them of a natural behaviour that most silkies clearly enjoy.)

as for the patient: the feet seem to be a lot better but i am now dealing with a whole new issue and perching is currently out of the question altogether.

 

[romea]

When I said infestation, I meant that there are already lice present. DE may help prevent lice and mites, but it won't get rid of them if they are there already. When there are lice eggs, there are lice.

every spring we have ants visiting the kitchen and each year i would experiment with all sorts of alternative ways to inhibit their foraging in our living quarters - only to eventually & reluctantly revert to the usual methods to get rid of them.
last summer i tried DE for the first time and only around the areas we knew through which the ants would enter our house - and bingo! DE dried up the ants that strayed into our home within days. for the first time in years i did not have to poison the whole nest! having actually seen DE at work, i am, therefore, quite sure it does the same to other exoskeletal armoured animals - as well as dry up their immobile (!) eggs.

when looking closely at the pictures, i have the feeling that i am already viewing quasi empty shells. so yes, you are right: "when there are lice eggs, there are lice"- unless they have been ‘dried up’ by DE. in bad cases (= infestation), i would not want to rely on DE alone - hence the selamectin. ;-))

 

[LilFrenchies]

Hi - I know this post is really old, but wondering what the outcome of your Silkie was? I have a 6mo old Silkie with pretty much the same and am struggling to get her better

She had a swollen foot and swollen leg - very swollen foot! No sign of bumblefoot at all. Cleaned it up and disinfected it kept her isolated and she seemed ok eating & drinking but then she started exhibiting wry neck! Put her on tetra For the infection and vit E wit selenium for wry neck. Now force feeding the poor thing as she can’t eat very well, but she does manage to drink on her own. It’s been nearly a week - I haven’t given her prednisone yet because I’m afraid the infection of the foot that’s lingering might take over! Just wondering what happened for your Silkie with similar symptoms...