Scaly leg mites? Mycoplasma synovae? UPDATE: frostbit feet

[TwoJacks]

8mo-ish old Easter Egger hen. Found her about 2 weeks ago laying down one morning outside. She was unwilling/unable to walk/stand up. I separated her from the group and took a look at her: no obvious injury, no obvious broken bones, no blood or wounds: her right leg looked a bit swollen around the metatarsal joints but she let me palpate and move it and didn't seem bothered. She was completely unremarkable-appearing otherwise, sits sternally recumbant with no issue, isn't floppy, etc...it was literally like her feet didn't work. I put her in the Hen Hospital, where she ate and drank and defecated normally. I figured she might have gotten squished by one of our roosters and decided to observe her.

My husband and I then had to head abroad and told our farm sitter to keep an eye on her. By all reports she was improving, starting to stand and walk around a bit. When we came back, however, she was standing and walking but really awkwardly, "goose-stepping" to get around. The joints in her toes appear frozen and can't be moved or flexed hardly at all. Her tarsal joints (both) are really inflamed and she has some scales popping off because of it. She's otherwise acting completely normally but I can't imagine this is comfortable.

Google is making me think I'm dealing with mycoplasma synovae. These chicks were all vaccinated for Marek's. I'm thinking I need to cull her if for no other reason than her comfort but before I do I wanted to post here and see if anyone had any thoughts.

 

[Eggcessive]

I hate to tell you this, but she looks to have frostbite on both feet. She will lose both of them up to the pink strip, so it will leave her with 2 stumps. However, she can recover from that and learn to get around on her stumps as her skin heals and toughens. It takes about a month to 6 weeks for this to happen from the time it occured. There are many threads to read about this here on BYC. I would keep her near her food and water. She doesn’t need any extra care of her feet, but you could spray a little betadine, chlorhexidene on them if you wish. I will try to give you a few links to read here.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is a good article about the recovery of a hen who lost both feet to frostbite with pictures of each week:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...to-know-about-injury-care-and-recovery.78168/

 

[TwoJacks]

Really?! That's so bizarre. It was in the 50s and 60s up here in Vermont for the entire week leading up to when I found her. Does frostbite take that long to cause lameness?

 

[Eggcessive]

Her legs may have been frozen a few weeks ago. At first they can look white or just different from the rest of the leg, but eventually turn darker, and then black and leathery. It happens sometimes if they step in a water bowl when the temps are below freezing. Here is another thread to read about frostbite progression:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/please-help-chickens-foot-fell-off.635270/

You may want to change the title on your thread to “update frostbite on both feet” so more people will look and possibly offer pictures and stories of their chickens with loss of feet.

 

[TwoJacks]

I just updated the title. Thank you so much. I don't know that I would have ever thought of that given how our coop is set up, the temps leading up to me finding her, etc.

I guess I'll see how she gets on and go from there. With basically no attention received she's done remarkably well all things considered.

 

[Eggcessive]

Please update this thread with pictures and let us know how she is getting along. It is very helpful to others that are dealing with the same thing.