Vaseline on Feet: Roost, Barn, or House?

[Anon112]

Today's pictures after a few minutes in some warm Epsom salt water. He did lose that middle toe, poor guy. The right foot looks so swollen, and yet he is walking better? He doesn't seem to react negatively when I squeeze the foot. If it gets more swollen, I might take him back to the vet.

 

[AGeese]

Did you put a couple drops of neem oil in the petroleum jelly?

 

[Anon112]

Did you put a couple drops of neem oil in the petroleum jelly?

No, I hadn't heard anything about that. From what I'm seeing on Google it would help with the healing?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Today's pictures after a few minutes in some warm Epsom salt water. He did lose that middle toe, poor guy. The right foot looks so swollen, and yet he is walking better? He doesn't seem to react negatively when I squeeze the foot. If it gets more swollen, I might take him back to the vet.

It may be a good idea to reconsult the vet.

 

[AGeese]

No, I hadn't heard anything about that. From what I'm seeing on Google it would help with the healing?

Neem is a natural pesticide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_oil I don't know about the dosage in this case it's just what I've heard some doing.

 

[Anon112]

So rough-ish times over here. My vet is not currently seeing chickens due to bird flu, but they will look at pictures I send them. Poppy is now on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, at higher doses than the last time I was in. I am soaking his foot in warm water and betadine at least once a day, and trying to do twice when I can. (This last week has been intensely hectic and full). I have discovered that it's so important to soak for at least 20 minutes. Before I was doing more like 5-10, but 20 seems to be this magic point where the skin softens and the inflamed parts will rupture a bit and I can push out some of the pus/crud.

I'm hoping the medications will help him kick this infection.

I also took several hours today to go through the run and find any places where the ground was hard or where hardware cloth was partially exposed to reduce the pressure/impact on his foot.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

So rough-ish times over here. My vet is not currently seeing chickens due to bird flu, but they will look at pictures I send them. Poppy is now on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, at higher doses than the last time I was in. I am soaking his foot in warm water and betadine at least once a day, and trying to do twice when I can. (This last week has been intensely hectic and full). I have discovered that it's so important to soak for at least 20 minutes. Before I was doing more like 5-10, but 20 seems to be this magic point where the skin softens and the inflamed parts will rupture a bit and I can push out some of the pus/crud.

I'm hoping the medications will help him kick this infection.

I also took several hours today to go through the run and find any places where the ground was hard or where hardware cloth was partially exposed to reduce the pressure/impact on his foot.

I'm glad your vet was able to give you medication.

Hopefully this will make a difference. Good info about length of time for soaking his feet.

Thank you for the update and please keep us posted on how Poppy is doing.

 

[Anon112]

Today after his morning soak, I got more aggressive with pushing on the one inflamed side. A hole opened on the top, and I was able to push out a ton of crud, including a hardned bit of pus(?) the size of a peanut. I was already late for an appointment, so I put some Vetricyn on it and ran out the door. This afternoon when I got home we did another soak and this time I used a syringe to flush the opened "pocket" with a water-betadine solution. I then covered the areas with Vetricyn. (I'm open to other suggestions as to what to do with this open, sort of empty pocket in his foot. You can see the hole on the left of his foot in the picture).

I am continuing to medicate him with antibiotics and the anti-inflammatories.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Today after his morning soak, I got more aggressive with pushing on the one inflamed side. A hole opened on the top, and I was able to push out a ton of crud, including a hardned bit of pus(?) the size of a peanut. I was already late for an appointment, so I put some Vetricyn on it and ran out the door. This afternoon when I got home we did another soak and this time I used a syringe to flush the opened "pocket" with a water-betadine solution. I then covered the areas with Vetricyn. (I'm open to other suggestions as to what to do with this open, sort of empty pocket in his foot. You can see the hole on the left of his foot in the picture).

I am continuing to medicate him with antibiotics and the anti-inflammatories.View attachment 4102349View attachment 4102350

Yes, you got a pus "Kernel" out of the foot. Very good. Flushing with the Betadine is a good idea. I'd consider flushing out well again, then put a little triple antibiotic ointment into the wound. Wrap so it stays clean. Tend to it daily. Hopefully that will close up fairly quickly.

The other larger area, there may be pus under there too. Chicken pus is semi-hard like what you pulled out of the smaller section. Hard to know if there's pus under that scab or not, you may want to investigate.

Curious what antibiotic the vet prescribed.

 

[Anon112]

Many updates. First, my power was knocked out by a storm Saturday and I just got it back, so it's been a hectic week to say the least!

On Monday I took Poppy to a vet. A long drive (90 minutes each way), but they did a great job evaluating him. It's a good news/bad news situation. He has an infection that is in his bone, but it's in the part of the bone of what remains of that middle toe. Tomorrow (Friday), they are going to attempt to fully amputate the toe and hopefully take the infected bone fully out. We'll then treat and hope it doesn't spread any further.

This is a lot (and expensive), and I'm still kind of processing it. I hope he does well tomorrow. In a little bit I'll post a picture of the X-ray for you all to see. Naturally I'll update as things go along.

The vet had an interesting theory about what all happened, because he said he was surprised that the infection was only in that bone in the toe and not spread further. He said there's a tendon in their foot that runs down to the middle toe. That tendon slipping/dislocating could cause swelling, but also cut off circulation to part of the toe. This could explain the initial swelling with no visible injury, the loss of the middle toe (with no damage to any other toe), and then if the infection really started with the loss of the toe, why the infection hasn't spread very far.