Weird feet

[mydadsaidnoemus]

I have a Sultan who has a problem with his feet.

His feet keep bleeding, I'm not sure if he's pecking them, or what.

One other thing is he has never really been able to grow feathers on his feet, he has always had a problem with that, I mean they grow, but they are weird and curvy and broken and split and just generally not good.

I have had lots of other chickens in the past with feathered feet, and I have never had this problem.

Any ideas as to whats happening?

Thanks!

-Amelia.

 

[Criticalicious]

First double check for mites. If not mites, then observe for pecking or molting. One of my pullets pulled all the feathers off one of her legs, and then they grew back in just fine. I think she was molting and didn't like how they felt. The new feathers look better.

Partially broken feathers can cause issues too. My roo broke some of the pin feathers on his feet, causing bleeding. The advice for that is to yank the rest of the feather shaft, apply cornstarch or flour to staunch bleeding, then apply an antibiotic. BCM have black legs, so I applied Blu Kote to hide the blood and reduce pecking.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Can you post pictures of his feet? I suspect scaly leg mites, which are NOT visible to the naked eye.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have a Sultan who has a problem with his feet.

His feet keep bleeding, I'm not sure if he's pecking them, or what.

One other thing is he has never really been able to grow feathers on his feet, he has always had a problem with that, I mean they grow, but they are weird and curvy and broken and split and just generally not good.

I have had lots of other chickens in the past with feathered feet, and I have never had this problem.

Any ideas as to whats happening?

Thanks!

-Amelia.

Welcome To BYC Amelia!
Can you please post some photos of the feet, whole bird and your coop/run?
How old is he?
What type of food/treats do you feed?
Where are you located (state/country)?

Hopefully with more information we can give you some suggestions.

 

[mydadsaidnoemus]

yeah I can post some pictures of his feet, I went out the other day and they had gotten worse, I looked up what scaly legs mites were and how to treat it, I did that just in case.. I wasn't sure.

we feed them either blue seal layer pellets, and or, multi flock. For treats we feed them what ever really, usually just table scraps or bird seed.

we are located in New Hampshire.

Thank you so much!

 

[mydadsaidnoemus]

Here's a pic of the coop we use right now and Sully with his feet.

 

[Redhead Rae]

I don't really see any signs of Scaly leg mites. Looks like he (or another bird) is picking at the pin feathers coming in on his feet. The fat toes are because of the feather follicles on his feet, that is normal, if a bit swollen from the picking.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Another thing. I would probably do an epsom salt bath soak on those feet to help with the pain and swelling and try to pull out any blood feathers that look nasty yourself just to keep them from festering.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Another thing. I would probably do an epsom salt bath soak on those feet to help with the pain and swelling and try to pull out any blood feathers that look nasty yourself just to keep them from festering.

Agreed.
Nothing really screams SLM, but soaking the legs/feet is a good idea.
The feet do look inflamed, so it would not hurt to slather on some triple antibiotic ointment once the feet are dried.
You would want to soak the feet several times a week and apply your ointment until the feet look healed.

@mydadsaidnoemus Just out of curiosity, what type of feed do you feed him?

 

[mydadsaidnoemus]

Okay I can start tonight. would doing it every other day be enough or too much?

And he eats what everyone else in the coop eats, since we have mostly hens we feed layer pellets, from blue seal, we also free range so he can also eat what ever he finds outside, right now though, everything is frozen so theres not much else but grain.

thank you so much!