What to do with this foot?

[Kris5902]

To give a good idea on the size of an elastrator band here’s one. And the pic of my finger next to Tippie’s (edit 4 autocorrect) toe for comparison:

I’m just worried that the band is too large for this specific application, there wouldn’t be tension enough in it to properly cut off the circulation on such a small toe.

It's been my experience that it's easiest just to cut the toes off with a pair of clean, sharp scissors or diagonal cutters. Using something like small rubber band would probably be more painful, and I say this because the goat I had suffered for weeks before his testicles fell off after being banded.

If it comes to it I think I would go with the diagonal side cutters in this case. I don’t have a large enough pair of sharp scissors.

Was the goat an adult when you castrated him? We do about 10 calves and 150-200 lambs every year, we’ve only had two cases of infections from the banding since we switched four years ago. Two or three years ago my father-in-law threw his back out, so a whole year of calves didn’t get castrated until they were a year old, we went back to the berdizzos for that batch because it’s faster and easier on a larger animal. But it was a lot more work and more dangerous trying to clamp them without getting kicked or stepped on by a 900+lb yearling.

 

[WunnySharbit]

I figured the bands were too big. Was just wondering if anyone had heard of anything like it or used something like it to cut off circulation before cutting, kind of like clamping the ends of an umbilical cord before cutting.......I'm always interested in practical ideas and solutions. I must say this thread has been an inspiring blend of both!

Waaay off-topic about bands:

A couple years ago my brother decided not to band his newborn calves and waited until they were about 8 mos It worked just fine, I guess. Later that summer, my 6yo nephew was playing with a desiccated fuzzy thing. His 10yo sister told him it was probably a dead rat. I looked at it and told them "remember when your dad banded those bull calves? That's what fell off." What? Unceremoniously, their 8yo brother flatly declared "It's his nuts" EEEEEWWW EEEEEK didn't see the other two the rest of the afternoon!

 

[WVduckchick]

I have a couple pairs of tree pruners. (One cool set even has a ratcheting handle! lol) They are pretty dang sharp and can cut thru finger-sized twigs/limbs very easily. I wonder how they would do with a chicken toe?
(I’ve considered using them to cull baby chicks when necessary, but haven’t tried it yet)

 

[aart]

I have a couple pairs of tree pruners. They are pretty dang sharp and can cut thru finger-sized twigs/limbs very easily. I wonder how they would do with a chicken toe?
(I’ve considered using them to cull baby chicks when necessary, but haven’t tried it yet)

I bought a pair of by-pass hand pruners specifically for butchering(cutting thru small bones and cartilage to reduce breast carcass size) and have used for chick euthanasia(curvature works better than scissors).
Not sure how they would work on chicken toe amputation....no experience there.

 

[Kris5902]

Well, not much to update on Tippie’s feet today... we did another 30 minute soaking and I managed to remove the giant lump of dead scale from her bad foot rear toe. The really bad looking toe that bled last time is still pretty much the same, but the rest of the feet actually look decent.

And that’s how I kept her in the soak today. She’s pecking hard and will pinch and shake her head when she grabs my hand like she’s trying to tear a chunk of flesh off! Also today, she pooped on my phone.

I’m a little worried about her comb (I worry a lot!). Does this look like fowl pox to anyone? No one else in the coop has anything like it, and I’m hoping it’s just pecking wounds from when she was in there and doing so poorly.

 

[aart]

Does look like dry pox, but wrong time of year(virus spread by mosquitoes) and usually passes pretty quickly(a few weeks).

Great sling, tub soak contraption.

 

[coach723]

I also admire your sling/tub set up! Will keep that in mind next time I need to soak feet.
It looks more like pecking scabs to me, but sometimes it can be hard to tell. They look like they are healing and some starting to flake off, so wouldn't worry too much about them.

 

[Kris5902]

@coach723 I basically used what I had on hand and your suggestion for it way back on post #4 here! Getting the feet through the holes and into the water is a bit challenging, but it keeps her feathers much drier, and now that I don’t have to hold her feet down in the water, it’s much more peaceful for both of us.

 

[Kris5902]

So here’s a quick update on Tippie’s feet. Her good foot with the missing toe is a little red compared to yesterday and to her bad foot today. I’m hoping it’s not the mites trying to re-infest her foot or anything... I don’t know what could have caused the irritation though.

I finally removed the remaining scales that were fully around the really bad toe... I’m worried that I might have to amputate some of it, as I’m thinking some of the actual toe is black, granted with all the blu kote it’s really hard to tell right now. Here is the before:

There was a lot of raw flesh under them, and some more bleeding, so I went with my usual response and blu koted some more. I only vaselined around all the toe nails and over the blu kote on the bad toe, incase (hopefully) the remaining black areas are scale and not flesh, so there isn’t much to see of the “after” right now, but here it is:

I’m going to give her a break again tomorrow, maybe some more treats... and see where she’s at on Thursday. She wasn’t a happy chicken today, but as you can see, even after the bleeding and dead scale removal, she was putting her foot all the way down and walking normally (so I can’t have done too bad!)

 

[Cragg Klefor]

Amazing progress Kris, fair play to you. And that tub contraption, I'll be using that tomorrow