Rooster's Toes are Falling Off...

[Scout]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and am having some issues with my rooster...

My rooster is having well.. Serious foot and toe issues. Please note my animals are very well taken care of and they are all pets, even down to the chickens, ducks and roosters. His feet issues have not bothered him until recently. He lives in a large dirt pen that used to be covered w/ chicken wire but was taken down due to us having to expand the run, and the chicken wire roof was coming down anyway. There are 3 houses, two small wood tables for shade and a kiddie pool for summer. Several water containers and a food bowl. Theyre fed chicken scratch and were recently switched to 15% protein chicken crumbles from ifa 16% protein pellets to the walmart brand due to it being cheaper. He shares this pen with 2 chickens(started with 16) and 7 ducks. It is about 2 (maybe 1 1/2) chainlink fences wide, and goes the width of our large shop/garage, wraps around the corner and goes half of the length as well.

My rooster is a large 5(+)yr old meat breed guy. A couple years ago one of his talons caught on something and started bleeding like crazy. We bandaged it/cleaned it, and over a couple days it came off easily. (it was hanging halfway off when we found it so tied a bandage around it, cutting circulation to talon off-with help of my mom who's a nurse.) he was fine for a while, but later on, he lost half of his middle toe on that foot. Over time(months-years) half of his other toes on same foot would just disappear. Since the beginning of February, he has lost half of his middle toe on his normal foot(it was previously broken/crooked). Now, the other half of the toes on his bad foot are turning grey/black, shrinking and falling off. He's having issues walking, and were considering putting him down.

It's like the circulation is being cut off from each toe slowly. His feet/legs are very fat, sometimes they look swollen but they're not. A couple scales are raised/sticking up a little. There aren't any bugs/mites and the other chickens and ducks don't have any issues so I don't think it's frostbite. Also it's worsening with the warm weather.

Do you guys think a splint could help him walk? This may sound ridiculous, but let me know your thoughts. Using popsicle sticks, I'd put two down flat facing horizontally, and three going out vertically like toes underneath the horizontal sticks. I would use cotton balls to cushion his leg/remaining foot also. Over all of this some sort of fabric(leather?) glove(type thing) going over the sticks/cotton, his foot and up his leg. I'm thinking this may help take some pressure off his foot and help stabilize him slightly better. However I may be wrong. Do you think this would work, or do you think he is done for...

Hopefully someone can help my roo and I!

 

[chrismahon]

Hello Scout and welcome to the forum. The circulation is being cut off to his feet and my guess is it is possibly due to the swollen legs constricting the blood vessels. I know swollen feet in chickens is an incurable condition with no apparent reason for occurrence. (I am assuming here that it is not a chronic case of scaly leg mite, because in my experience that causes the skin to peel off and doesn't constrict circulation.) We had a hen called Daffodil with chronic swollen feet. It didn't constrict the blood vessels though- just made walking painful. You could try anti-inflammatories from the vet but I suspect their advice would be PTS because it sounds as though he is suffering badly. I wouldn't consider splints or anything if the chap may be suffering. So my advice Scout would be to do the best for him and set your own feelings aside -difficult though I know it is as I have been in that same position too many times. Perhaps someone on the forum may have a different opinion to me?

 

[Marigold]

Hi Scout and welcome to the Forum.
Sorry to hear about your roo. I have no experience of anything like this, and I'm guessing that you live in the USA, where according to some of our other overseas members, its hard to find an avian vet, or even one that treats chickens, otherwise I would recommend this course of action. Heavyweight breeds are more prone to leg problems due to the extra strain on their joints and feet, but it does sound as if maybe some sort of necrosis is also involved here, just a guess. It may be that your instinct is correct, that at five his best years are over and he is unlikely to get better from this distressing and painful condition. We all know how difficult it is to pull the plug on well- loved chickens, or pets of any kind, but sometimes it is the kind thing to do, sorry.

 

[Scout]

I'm lucky enough to have an avian vet close to my house. My dog is going to the vet to get shots later so I'm going to take a picture of mady(the rooster)'s feet and show him, asking his advice. He still can walk and even run, just has a little hobble. It sounds however that you guys may be right. I feel bad for hisfavorite hen twilight(we had the neighbors all name the chickens.. lol). She follows him everywhere just as he follows her. He's the only rooster we've had out of the 4 that didn't try to attack either you or the other roosters. He's nice enough to let me pick him up, doesn't crow much, and if we need to do something with him(let grandkids pet or give him meds or move him) he's patient and will sometimes just faint in your arms until you're done. I'm sure he's atleast 10-20 lbs, so with bad feet Iimagine its not too comfortable to walk. I want to say he's a buff orri(something), but I'm not too sure. His favorite hen is but its possible he's not.

 

[Scout]

For anyone wondering, the rooster is still alive. Dispute the very mild winter, another section of two toes turned black and one fell off yesterday. Today, we cleaned his feet, put cotton gauze and vet wrap around them, covered them with sandwich bags to stay somewhat dry, and wrapped more vet wrap around the bag opening. He walks much much better and seems much happier and in less pain. I made sure he got some food and water and then put him back with the girls. He was doing fine until a couple days ago and I decided to try wrapping him. Hopefully he feels and gets better! I plan to unwrap/re wrap daily or so to keep an eye on it.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Scout, good to hear from you and your rooster again. What an amazing bird. Has he now got any toes left? Problem is, I would imagine, that the fewer he has, the more pressure there will be on the balls of his feet, affecting his balance and gait, and possibly causing him pain. In your last post a year ago, you said you were about to take him to the vet. I'm wondering what the vets opinion was about his condition?

 

[Scout]

On one foot, he is completely tieless. The other has a little more than half of a middle toe and Half or so of his other toes. When we wrapped his feet we put cotton gauze under the pressure points to pad it a bit and he seemed to feel better from that. It also helped him balance quite a bit. The vet said that there is nothing they can really do aside from put down, and to try and keep him warm. As long as he is eating and drinking the vet said he is okay. He's doing both of those, and we keep a heat lamp in there for him but I think it's more fat toes and circulation being cut than frostbite..