lame chicken, missing toes. What are we dealing with here?

[LFRJ]

Here's a stumper. - five nights ago the chickens were locked out of their coop and spent the night under the stars. Next morning, i found a bit if excrement, plus a good bit of blood stain on the window sill outside the coop. Couldn't find any thing wrong with the flock, so hard to say.

Two days later, I found our bantam Brahma lame, laying in the dirt with a stiff leg, unable to get her self upright, though trying. I thought maybe one of the boys was too hard on her (twice her size) and caused a sprain. When I picked her up to exam, to my surprise, I noticed two of her toes were cropped!. The outside toe on each foot. My first thought was that a rat knawed them off, explaining the blood on the sill...but upon further examination, these don't look like fresh wounds at all. (see pics). It looks more as if she suffered frost bite, and I never noticed. If this is the case, I feel badly as an owner, but then again, being one of many and showing no difficulty getting around I could easily not have taken heed - besides, it rarely gets THAT cold around here - and she's been getting along fine for as long as we've had her.

So back to the puzzle. I brought her in, thinking she may have some disease, (Mareks?) but she's eating like a champ and shows no sickness. I kept her for 24 hrs in a crate for observation, and finally let her loose. She sort of hops or skips around, very unsteady. By end of day again, I found her lame, leg stretched out, and easily could walk up to and capture her.

So she's back inside her little cage, where she is obviously able to stand just fine. Appetite is superb!, and she's quiet and content.

This is a rescue for us. We've had her for 2 years and she is probably 4 - 5 years altogether. She doesn't lay any longer and is pretty much a guest, but we don't as habit, put a chicken down unless it's sick or injured beyond recovery. Besides, we agreed to give the little gal a good home, so I'll resist culling unless have reason.

Any guesses? Thanks.

left foot. (she does tend to keep that rear toe curled. Not sure why).





You can still see some remnants of her nail still growing. Again, doesn't seem like a new injury to me.



Right foot




"Priscilla"


By lfaye at 2012-04-10

[Suzyq2u]

Weird. She's very pretty. Doesn't look like something that would have been bleeding recently. Puzzling indeed! I hope you figure it out.

We have a hen with a missing toe & nail (we call her "notoe" lol, she also has spurs, go figure). We didn't notice for a few months after getting her home though that she was missing any...

[chickenista]

I think that the missing toes are unrelated to the limping/hopping.
It is just that you noticed them now.

When she is moving around, what part of her anatomy seems to be bothering her? Is it a foot thing or a hip thing? I vote for an injury of the hip region.
She is getting to be an older girl and I have had them at that age that 'break a hip' jumping off the roost. And not a high roost either.
I don't know if it is a broken hip exactly, but that is just what we call it.

Think about it.. older gal, first thing in the morning and she is still stiff from sleeping and perching all night. She goes to jump down and the old body just isn't as flexible and bouncy as it used to be and they land hard and wham.

We have had 3 or 4 girls do it when they get to be a certain age. But you can't convince them not to roost.
Watch her at night. I bet she isn't roosting anymore and if she is, every morning when she jumps down she adds insult to injury.

We give them a week or two to see if there is improvement and if not, we put them down. The stress of pain means they don't eat as much and get thin and begin to get sick which threatens the whole flock.

[LFRJ]

Thanks Jen. I like your argument. (The reason we gave up bunk beds as adults, right! )

I really wasn't convinced it was her toes, though twas quite a shock to see her feet damaged like that and ponder that I'd never noticed before.

I've decided to remove her from the flock into her own little coop area away from the boys. If it's a broken "hip" I'd imagine their advances aren't helping much either. I may even tuck a couple other bantys in there for company, and we'll see if she heads north or south.

[CarolT]

I would almost be willing to bet you've never noticed it but that she never had those toes. There wouldn't be part of a nail on one that had been chewed off. A lot of animals have problems with body parts next to something that isn't normal for that animal (i.e. bobtail animals sometimes have no anus)

I think the toes became confused whether they were feathers or toes, so didn't quite get there... Yes, JMO, but I have seen this type of thing before