Broken Toenail, Swollen Infected Toe - Advice? (Pictures)

[WinWinFarm]

I have a 2 year old Wyandotte rooster with a swollen toe. He somehow broke the nail, and it has since become infected. At first, the nail looked jammed up into the toe (is this even anatomically possible?), but we figured it must have broken off. Upon noticing the injury, we cleaned it, applied antiseptic, and wrapped it with vet wrap. The toe continued to swell and did not improve despite salt soaks and regular bandage changes.

We eventually decided to treat the roo with Amoxicillin for 12 days (125 mg each day) and the swelling went down dramatically and his condition greatly improved. After stopping the antibiotics for 1 week, the tissue became inflamed again and the pictures represent his current condition. He has trouble walking and cannot bear any weight on the leg. The rooster typically hangs out near the coop so he can eat/drink, but will not socialize with the rest of the flock due to his injury and weakness. The tissue under the foot near the nail appears to be necrotic. As a side note, swelling is present above the spur on this leg that appears to be related to the infected toe.

Today, we started another round of antibiotics to control the infection, this time we're using Cefdinir. I am prepared to amputate the toe, but would like to hear your opinions before doing so. What could have caused this? Is there anything I'm overlooking trying to treat this? Thank you!

 

[chooks4life]

He appears to have bumblefoot and possibly also scaly leg mite. The swellings in his foot and ankle are likely due to bumblefoot, not that toe, but that's not a guarantee of course. Bumblefoot in some cases becomes a systemic infection and can move into the bones and kill the animal. As for the toe itself, it's still mostly a good color, so I wouldn't amputate it personally.

The problem with artificial antibiotics is that they also kill beneficial bacteria etc and they're necessary for their health. You should probably continue the ones you've started for the prescribed course, but if it fails again, you're just making that bacteria much stronger and him much weaker, and should probably look into other methods.

If you can get pine tar, aka Stockholm Tar, and put that on his toe, would help a lot, probably even fix it. That's all I use for most wounds at my place, sometimes other natural treatments too, really in most cases artificial antibiotics and pharmaceutical sprays etc are not necessary and usually carry some risk, not to knock those who use them, we all have to use what is on hand when necessary according to the best of our knowledge.

I had a very similar injury with one of my tom turkeys, and yes it is anatomically possible to force the claw into the bed, just as one can do with human toenails. He somehow cut off half his claw, into the quick, on one hind toe, and jammed it into the bed so deeply it almost pointed upwards instead of the usual downwards angle. It hurt him quite badly and the toe swelled up to twice the size. I used Stockholm Tar on him for a week or so, and it healed fine.

I didn't use any additive-ridden or diluted tars, just pure Stockholm. You can get a lot of cheaper products passing themselves off as being the real deal... Anyway, it's been a real lifesaver for many species on my place including wild ones and humans, it knocks out infection like few other things can even in filthy and infected wounds i.e. gangrenous fox bites, golden staph, etc, and I also use it for bumblefoot and scaly leg mite, it works like a charm on both of them too.

Some people complain about the mess, lol, but you can use gloves, personally the animals' health is the main consideration for me, I don't mind getting messy to help them or whether their feathers are a bit messy while they heal. It absorbs into all flesh and tissues very easily, and the more it's needed the more it absorbs and the faster it does so, it's pretty strange, but it has some kind of affinity to infection and is drawn to it. I've used it twice now to remove glass from the muscle of my foot, way beneath the skin and callus, and it's like a magic trick, takes out pain and takes out the cause of irritation. Even wild animals appreciate having it applied to them because it takes the pain out so fast, and the infection too. There's very few other things you can rely on to do the job with one or two applications in most cases.

Best wishes.

 

[WinWinFarm]

chooks4life, thank you for the reply! I do have pine tar and have used it to successfully treat feather/vent pecking in the past. Maybe I can try it on his toe, but I think the infection is too advanced at this point. I've also treated scaly mite before with Vaseline, but this little guy doesn't have those symptoms.

After searching a bit more, I believe I found a thread that is very much like my chicken's case:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/382738/infected-toe-very-swollen-help

It sounds like his toenail broke/cracked and infection spread into the leg. If there is no improvement after this round of antibiotics, I'll operate on the toe and update you on his status.

Any further advice is welcome!

 

[Anastasia262]

Where do you get Stockholm Tar in Australia? Do the rural supply shops have it? I have a chook with a broken toenail, and it is infected. I washed it tonight in salt water and applied Betadine. It's now in a quarantine cage to keep it clean and safe from pecking. I'd like to try your suggestion for pine tar.

 

[WinWinFarm]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anastasia262

Where do you get Stockholm Tar in Australia? Do the rural supply shops have it? I have a chook with a broken toenail, and it is infected. I washed it tonight in salt water and applied Betadine. It's now in a quarantine cage to keep it clean and safe from pecking. I'd like to try your suggestion for pine tar.

I tried the pine tar on his toe, but it didn't work for me so I wouldn't recommend it. I would continue the frequent warm saltwater soaks and Betadine. I found that it did a much better job at reducing the swelling and kept the site of infection clean after the operation. Good luck with your chook!

 

[chooks4life]

Where do you get Stockholm Tar in Australia? Do the rural supply shops have it? I have a chook with a broken toenail, and it is infected. I washed it tonight in salt water and applied Betadine. It's now in a quarantine cage to keep it clean and safe from pecking. I'd like to try your suggestion for pine tar.

Yep, rural supply/produce stores have it.

It's semi-expensive but lasts a long time and it doesn't take much to work; a one liter bottle lasts me over a year on average, even much longer sometimes, and that's despite liberally coating the hooves of sheep etc which require regular trimmings, not a 6-month trimmer, as well as using it on my other animals. As I stated before I've used it against gangrenous wounds from predator maulings, golden staph infections and ulcerations, foreign bodies that have become infected and even those that aren't, etc with great success, including those infections that had no external 'mouth' i.e. deep bumblefoot. I can now add footrot to that list of things it's effective against.

The salt is also good, might do it in your case, definitely keeping it clean helps but with Stockholm tar you don't need to worry about that, they can go right back to life as usual. There are a lot of tars with additives of all sorts, or very diluted ones out there, just get pure stuff if you can, I can't vouch for anything else from experience but hear the other sorts have high failure rates. Best wishes with your chook.

 

[WinWinFarm]

The salt is also good, might do it in your case, definitely keeping it clean helps but with Stockholm tar you don't need to worry about that, they can go right back to life as usual. There are a lot of tars with additives of all sorts, or very diluted ones out there, just get pure stuff if you can, I can't vouch for anything else from experience but hear the other sorts have high failure rates.

The stuff I used was a different brand and didn't do much other than make the wound sticky. It's worked for me before on superficial wounds, but not this time on a deep infection. I'd be willing to try the Stockholm variety for next time. Could you post a picture of the can/bottle so I can locate some? Thank you for your help!

 

[chooks4life]

The stuff I used was a different brand and didn't do much other than make the wound sticky. It's worked for me before on superficial wounds, but not this time on a deep infection. I'd be willing to try the Stockholm variety for next time. Could you post a picture of the can/bottle so I can locate some? Thank you for your help!

The bottles I buy it in are no use, sorry, as it's repackaged from bulk tubs and there's no brand on the labels. It needs to specify that it's 100% pure Stockholm Tar, and that's about the best you can do, it's amazing how many different brands there are out there. :/ The purists insist on Swedish 100% pure S.Tar, but anything with no additives or dilution should do it. Sorry I can't help any more than that.

Best wishes.