How can I help a hen with a cut on her foot? (Update)

[itsmechrissy]

When I went to clean the coop today I found a couple odd things.... first there was a broken egg and two of the hens were eating away at it. That didn't freak me out so much but when I started cleaning yesterday's poops, I noticed that there was a bit of blood on the chickens perch and a drop or two on the nesting box below.

The hen's weren't acting odd at first but a few hours later I noticed that one was actually running funny so I took a look and sure enough she's got a cut on the top of her foot (Pictures below).

I've put some blue-kote on it but wondering if there's anything more I can/should be doing for her?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

11/4: Still not mended...see update below

 

[Impress]

Yeeeouch, bless her heart! I bandage cuts, especially foot cuts as they are getting dragged through the mud and poop, I use that wrap material that hospitals use, the stuff that sticks to itself but not anything else. Slap some neosporin or something on that wound and wrap it is what I would do. But, you know, I spoil my chickens.

 

[Judy]

She may do fine with just the BluKote as it is an antiseptic. Or, she may need to be put in a clean place by herself for a few days til it closes up.

 

[itsmechrissy]

So I thought my girls foot was getting better but then it started to look worse. I had been treating it with bluekote. Today I went to TSC to pick up some bandages and also got some Vetericyn, I sure hope this will help. I feel so bad for my baby :-(

 

[Davian]

Just blu-kote should take care of it.


Looks like she got pecked.

 

[Prisserbabe]

Poor baby

You a good person

 

[itsmechrissy]

So..it's been nearly 3 weeks since I originally posted the pics of Sam's foot...

First week I tried just bluekote and the wound kept reopening.

Second week I got some Vetrycin (sp?), use that and tried bandaging it. The bandage didn't stay on long, so I wrapped it up again.. that bandage stayed on an even shorter time; but after a few days it really did seem like the wound was healing, the swelling was going down and she was walking on it a bit better.

I went out of town on Tuesday and returned yesterday.. when I called on Wed, my husband reported that the wound seemed to have reopened. When I got home yesterday, I went straight to the coop to check on the girls and sure enough poor Sammie was in bad shape and one of the others was totally trying to get at her foot and her feathers had a lot of blood on them (it was from the cut on her foot, trying to hid it from the others). I scooped her up and brought her inside, we cleaned her up, sprayed the wound with vetricyn, put a bandage on, wrapped it in duct tape and then noticed that she had some small cuts on her other foot. Those were tiny so just sprayed the vetricyn on them; didnt' wrap the second foot as I'm not sure I'd like having both feet all wrapped up. I'm sure the new wounds were from the other girls trying to get at the bad foot....sigh.

Needless to say, Samantha is now segregated from the other girls, she's in the garage which is where the the hub normally goes to smoke his ciggys, he'll have to find a new smoking spot until she's mended. I'm a bit worried as I'm about to leave town again for 4 days so I won't be able to watch her (I don't normally travel this much - usually just a couple days every few months for work!)

Honestly my husband is more of an animal person than I. When we adopted a sick stray cat recently he worried about her more than I did, but for some reason he failed on the chickens last week. I think he feels bad about what happened to Sam so he should take good care of here while I'm gone, I will still call home often to check on her.

Anyway, now I'll need advice in how to introduce her back to the coop when she's mended, you know i'll be searching these threads when I get home next week!