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[oxfordchickens]

Hi,

Please give some advice, .

We've just come back from a couple of days away to find one of our usually very healthy chickens won't put any weight on her foot and just sits in an unbalanced heap.

On closer examination we can see the tiny toe on her left foot is black and solid and her middle toe has a purple toenail.So we assume it's frostbite. Anyone any experience with hens with frostbitten toes?

 

Last winter they were fine but we've had temperatures below -9 here and we had snow on the ground for days. Theiir all weather cover split with the cold so snow got into part of the run.

 

We've cleaned the foot and put on some antiseptic vetinary wound powder (contains Tosylchloramine sodium). The skin at the bend of her large middle toe with a purple nail seems to be split so now worried abot it getting infected when she returns to the other hens in the eglu.

 

She's sitting in the conservatory looking very miserable, though she does have a healthy looking red comb. Any ideas of what else we can do or what is likely to happen next.

Do frost bitten toes just drop off, how long does it take? (Our young son is full of questions.)

My husband can't wait for her to go back to the eglu but I think she should stay of the dirty muddy slush for a while, but she is missing the other hens.

What should we do next?

[oxfordchickens]

Second chicken is also limping slighly though no sign of black, but foot does look slightly bulbous.

[Christian]

If she is fine in herself, then the toe will probably fall off when ready. Next doors bantams had a very bad case of scaly leg mite when she picked then up from the breeder ( ) and 2 have lost 2 toes

 

If she can't bear weight, then I would take her to a vet for a check up. With regard to the other hen, it sounds like bumblefoot which is an infection. She will need antibiotics to get rid of it.

 

Good luck.

[oxfordchickens]

Thank you, will keep an eye on foot in case it is bulbous foot, may just be I haven't looked at her foot so closely before.

T-rex (frost bite) looking happier now she has company of Daisy (bleeding foot) in the conservatory.

[staceychristie]

Beware of bleeding, as the other girls will take an interest, and could give more trouble. Keep the toes clean, and seek vets advice asap.

 

Stacey

[greyparrot]

You do need to see a vet to double check what you are dealing with to be honest. In the meantime, for the girl with suspected frostbite, get some calendula cream on it asap, it really helps

[sandyhas3chucks]

I would fix that run before putting her back and put something on the floor, would think that wet muddy slush is not going to be good for her or the others.especially if anything has or gets an open wound

[oxfordchickens]

Thanks for advice, took both hens to vets a few weeks ago. Poor hen had a systemic infection as well as the frost bite toes so had to very saddly say goobye to her at the vets.

The second hen is still living in our conservatory, having had a 2 week course of Baytril for her foot. We were washing her feet regurarly with salt baths and then spraying on the purple spray. Now she has her foot bathed in warm water with a few drops of tea tree oil. We've also been putting brulidine ointment on her foot 2 or 3 times a day. The swelling on her foot has definitely reduced, but still there a little, so will be talking to the vet, Sharon, to see if we need to continue with a further course of baytril.

Poor hen, she's desperate to join her two companions in the eglu and tries to escape into the garden when she can as she can see the eglu through the glass. She's been laying all the time except for the first day we noticed her limping but feels like she could do with putting on weight.

It's great she's not limping any more and hopefully she will be able to return to the eglu soon, we need our conservatory playroom and office back asap!

[sandyhas3chucks]

do her mates come in to visit her?

[..lay a little egg for me]

I saw on the Newland Poultry facebook page that they have heard of owners whose hens got frostbitten toes. They also posted some advice on prevention. Apparently if you remove the roosting bars in the cold weather so they snuggle down with all their feathery bodies covering their feet, it keeps their feet warm and prevents frostbite. It seems that frostbitten toes are more likely with narrow roosting bars as less foot is covered by the hen's body overnight. If the temp drops well below zero again, I think I might remove the roosting bars.