mud clumps on toes.

[claraserena]

One of our hens had very hard little clumps of clay/dirt on all of her toes. At first I thought the toes were swollen and dirty. I had her stand in an inch of warm water for awhile. A little mud washed off but each toe still had this hard, almost cement like knob (size of a pea) on it. I held her and after a lot of careful prying and scraping I was able to get one off. I was most relieved as I was afraid she had something systemic. Got the rest off but believe me it was hard. Now I see that some other chickens have this. Should I try to remove theirs'?
It's dry here and hot. Right aorund the waterer it's a little muddy. This is the first time I noticed this. Has anyone else had this happen--and what should I do?

 

[Chickemee]

My leghorn had this same problem. I moved the waterer to another area with lots of grass. Also the mud that was on my pullets feet just fell off by itself. My pullets didnt have that much mud but i guess you can try to get it off yourself if your careful.

 

[silkiechicken]

If your pullets are still growing fast, I would try to get it off all their toes, I had a baby chick once with mud balls on its feet and it stunted the growth on it's tip toes and caused sores/ rashes on the bottom after I washed them off.

 

[claraserena]

I pried the clumps off another hen today--all my fingernails are shreds. I'm wondering if it has to do with the DE I put in the chicken yad--maybe when it gets wet the stuff makes the mud stickier.. ??

 

[silkiechicken]

Hmm... Don't know about DE and it's effects on the mud.

Here's a suggestion though. To maybe help them get the stuff off their own toes... Could you get a bag of gravel and play sand, mix it up and put it on the ground somewhere. Then, to make them scratch in it and get the gunk off their toes, throw some bird seed on top? Maybe that would help.