Single hen

[Jblakes]

Afternoon all, 

We have just got six new bantams that are around 15weeks old. We noticed our patridge one has a wonky curled foot, where two toes look to be attached to each other. Both feet are the same but one side is more curled. She seems to be walking fone, eating and drinking. 

Its really hard to get a good picture. 

Is this something we should be worried about? what to do? Any help really. 

 

Kind regards 

James

[Beantree]

Curled toes are cause by a vitamin B deficiency resulting from a poor diet of the parent. You could buy pellets formulated to the needs of breeding stock when I lived in the UK. They can be corrected by splinting when a young chick (delicate and tricky job), but in your case she is far too old for that. Fortunately she is not restricted by it, so just leave her to carry on as normal. Worth keeping a watch on her to make sure she doesn't damage her claws or scales which could lead to an infection in the foot.

[Jblakes]

Cheers for the reply. I've been doing some more searching on the internet and some people have cut the webbed bit and released both toes. Is that a thing and is it that? 

We are new to chickens so dont want to do/dont do something we should. 

 

Kind regard

James

[Beantree]

Even with all our experience we wouldn't be cutting the toes apart!!! Chances are you would hit a vessel and wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding. Even if you were lucky (or she was lucky) chances are the cut wouldn't heal properly and infection sets in. Just goes to show how much rubbish is on the internet. A vet may be able to do 'hot knife' surgery, but why bother if she is otherwise OK?

[Jblakes]

A This is why i posted this on forum tbh, because yes loads of people post ***** on the internet. 

She is ok now, but will it get worse? Is there anything we can do to make it better, easier for her? 

 

Regards

James

[Beantree]

All I can suggest is keep her off hard and very uneven surfaces, like gravel. Can't say if it will become worse, perhaps it will just stay as it is because her feet should be fully grown by now?

On the subject of surgery. Even if it was possible to separate the toes, they would still be bent and it may be that them being joined gives her more stability? We had a nasty accident a while back and one of our chickens had a main toe sliced off. She managed fine with two (inner and centre) and could actually stand on that foot and scratch herself with the other. Yes they do have 4 normally (or 5 in the case of our young cockerel who had his 5th splinted because it was dislocated when he arrived), but they only stand on 3.

Hope all works out well.

[Jblakes]

She is about 12-15weeks old. So now clue of thats fully grown. We will see how she goes i guess, shes moving around fine on it, just didn't want her to be in pain