Swollen toe - not bumblefoot - what to do?

[melissawilsford]

My 1 year old Wyandot has a very bulbous, swollen toe. The scales have fallen off and the skin is pink, and fairly firm. Soaking and cleaning revealed no black scab, so bumblefoot is out. There was a small lesion near the nail, although I don’t know if that came after the injury or before, leading to the infection. There may have been trauma to the nail - it is slightly crooked, although again, not sure if that came from the injury or as a result of the swelling.

I am wondering what to do. I read a lot about lancing, but I also question whether it’s not better to let her body deal with it naturally, rather than causing an open wound. This is our first problem like this and we are total beginners, so I may be way off.

So far, we did a 15 min epsom salt warm water soak, disinfected the area, and wrapped it up. What should we do moving forward?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Can you post a picture of the "lesion near the nail"? It may be the cause of the problem. It sounds like a possible puncture wound, which has given rise to infection and the swelling. I may be wrong. Hopefully @Wyorp Rock or @Eggcessive will see this and offer some advice. Meanwhile, how is this chicken behaving? Is she eating, drinking, pooping, roosting normally? Interacting with the other chickens as normal? Laying eggs? Walking, running and scratching normally?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh, and: welcome to BYC! The chickeniest place on the internet! (I just made that up!)

 

[melissawilsford]

Can you post a picture of the "lesion near the nail"? It may be the cause of the problem. It sounds like a possible puncture wound, which has given rise to infection and the swelling. I may be wrong. Hopefully @Wyorp Rock or @Eggcessive will see this and offer some advice. Meanwhile, how is this chicken behaving? Is she eating, drinking, pooping, roosting normally? Interacting with the other chickens as normal? Laying eggs? Walking, running and scratching normally?

I don’t have a picture to post right now, but it is a small lesion - and looks pretty fresh which made we wonder if it was a scratch that happened once her toe was swollen and more prone to injury.

She is favoring that foot but otherwise is acting normal and keeping up with the other three chickens. I believe she is still laying eggs (the kids helped so not sure if we got three or four yesterday - it’s normal for it to fluctuate).

 

[Eggcessive]

Did her toe get some frostbite recently? That is how toes look above a bit of frostbite sometimes. Here is an example of frostbite on toes and the bulbous part is above the frostbite:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url...ved=0CAcQjRxqFwoTCLij_fbHjvcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

 

[melissawilsford]

Did her toe get some frostbite recently? That is how toes look above a bit of frostbite sometimes. Here is an example of frostbite on toes and the bulbous part is above the frostbite:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https://m.facebook.com/475016785200/photos/a.10150369728020201/10150398367000201/&psig=AOvVaw2kMOOWiTOq6NSktroD43aq&ust=1649854168877000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAcQjRxqFwoTCLij_fbHjvcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Thanks for the link. It has been above freezing here for quite some time and I don’t see any other signs of frostbite.