Silkies have feathered feet with five toes on each foot rather than four as in other bird species. Foot diseases are among the most common problems encountered by silkies of which scaly leg mite, bumblefoot, and overgrown toenails are among the most common. In this article, we have a look at normal silkie feet conformity angstrom well as the most common foot diseases silkies suffer from plus we share 8 tips on how to keep your silkies ’ feet felicitous and healthy .
Normal Silkie Chicken Feet
If we look at the engender standards for show silkies, they need to have 5 toes on each foot and feathers preferably on all 5 toes but at least up to the third gear toe ( starting from lateral toe ). The toes should be straight and the nails inadequate.
Silkies with 4 or 6 toes or with less than the coveted amount of leg feathers are not to be bred with. now, this is for show silkies so decidedly not worth fussing over if you don ’ thymine plan on showing your silkies but in the interest of improving the quality of your troop, it is identical significant to know what problems may be encountered with each of these traits in order to select the best breed stock and to identify possible problems early on .Silkie chick with fully feathered feet – Image courtesy of Courtney David Scott
The Problem with Extra Toes
Some silkies are born with even 6 toes. even with the silkie normal of five toes, we can start running into some trouble. The most normally encountered problem is that some of the toes can grow in odd directions. This frequently causes the toe to not be worn down by walking and can lead to overgrown toenails .
The Problem with Feathers on the Feet
Fluffy chicken feet get dirty ! And if there is mud around, it can get very bad. Combine this with a small break in the clamber of your silkie ’ south feet and you can end up with some gnarled infections. If soil and dust lawsuit mat of the feathers it can end up causing the bird a bombastic total of discomfort. Dirt clumps on silkie feet should be removed on a regular in order to prevent problems from occurring. The best course of action will be to soak the feet in some lukewarm water ( you can add some Epsom salts ) and try to remove a much of the dirt. wear gloves for this expedition as the crap on the feet is most likely dope. If the clumps can not be softened with lukewarm water, it is best to clip the dirty feathers near the basis of the shot using a manicure scissor .
Common Foot Conditions
Overgrown toenails
Most chickens wear down their toenails scratching in the scandal but occasionally they may need some help. What we commonly see in silkies is that some of the toes do not lie flat and may point in abnormal directions causing the nails to grow in strange directions. These nails should be trimmed regularly to avoid running into problems .
How to Trim a silkie’s toenails
Like pawl and cat toenails, silkie chicken toenails have a quick that contains the blood provide to provide the smash with the nutrients to grow. Silkies have black toenails, which means that you won ’ triiodothyronine be able to see the immediate of their nails. This makes trimming silkie toenails a sting more challenge. Bleeding toenails are likely to be encountered but do not fear – below we have easy steps to clip the nails and to get a bleed breeze through to stop. What you ’ ll need :
- A wet cloth to wipe down dirty feet
- Small guillotine style pet nail clippers like this one or, if you cant get hold of pet nail clippers, a small, sharp side cutter will also work
- Paper towel
- Styptic powder
- Nail file
- Wound spray or antiseptic spray such as Vetericyn Poultry spray and a small container such as a bottle cap to decant a small amount of stypric powder into for direct application to bleeding nails
- A friend to help you hold the chickens
It will be good if you plan to check the feet and clip the nails of your entire flock in one sitting so that you don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate miss any chickens. This is besides a great opportunity to check for signs of any of the diseases mentioned below .
- Ask your friend to hold the chicken with it’s back resting in his/her non dominant arm and them holding both feet with their dominant hand so that the chicken is lying on it’s back and both feet is securely held in the other hand.
- Use the damp cloth to wipe down dirt if the feet are very dirty.
- Grab one toe between your thumb and forefinger. They will try to pull away but just hold firmly. Chickens usually don’t like their feet being touched so don’t worry that you are hurting them.
- Start by clipping a small portion off the tip of the nail. Rather start with small bites and clip off small bits at a time to avoid a bleeding nail. Do not remove more than 25% of the nail in one sitting. If the nails are very long, rather leave it for a 5-7 days and then come back to remove some more. If the nail starts bleeding, it means that you have cut the nail slightly too short. Dab the blood using the paper towel and hold pressure to help stop the bleeding for a few seconds. Have the styptic powder handy for these situations. Quickly remove the paper towel and dip the nail in a small amount of decanted styptic powder to help stop the bleeding. Do not panic if the bleeding does not seem to stop immediately. Just keep holding pressure. It will stop eventually.
- If the nail started bleeding and you have the bleeding under control, spray with the Veterycin spray to avoid infection.
- If you see any sharp spurrs after the nail has been clipped, you can file it down with the nail file to create mooth edges and avooid is snagging on anything.
- Place the chicken in a seperate pen/area to mark that it has been done.
Silkie ’ sulfur feet should be checked for long collar every 2- 3 weeks. You will get to know each of your flock members ’ foot quirks after doing this a few times and know to watch out for that one ( or probably more than one ) silkie whose fifth toe points in a funky commission with a subsequent overgrown toe .
Scaly Leg Mite
Image Courtesy Anonymous Scaly leg mites ( Knemodocoptes Mutans ) are probably the most common external leech of poultry. The mites burrow into the bark of the wimp ’ sulfur leg and the top of their feet causing scale and crust and finally flake of the peel. The compromise skin makes them susceptible to secondary bacterial infections and if left untreated, it can lead to permanent deformities crippling the bird. Normal silkie feet scales are polish and the scales lie bland. When the birds have scaly leg mite infestation, the scales are spotty, crusted, and even raised and the skin will be thickened. If this becomes austere, the heavy crust can start interfering with normal flexure of the joints resulting in lameness and deformity. K. mutans is spread by direct contact between infected birds. The infection is normally introduced when new birds are added to the batch or by exposure to wild birds or rodents. If your flock ends up getting scaly stage mites, affected birds must be isolated equally soon as potential and the stallion cage cleaned. Toss all bed and dust the stallion area with domestic fowl permethrin debris.
The treatment of choice for scaly leg mites is first to suffocate the mites and to help promote the growth of new scales by applying methane series petroleum or petroleum jelly to the legs and feet of all the infect birds. This should ideally be done doubly daily until the old, damaged scales fall off and new healthy scales grow in. Ivermectin can besides be used as a topical solution or orally at a particular venereal disease, two weeks apart, as prescribed by your vet. Don ’ triiodothyronine use the eggs while they are being treated with ivermectin up to 10 days after the second discussion. If there is hard crusting or assailable sores, I powerfully advise getting a vet ’ randomness assistant to save the bird ’ sulfur feet. They will be able to help you address secondary infection and pain with the chastise medicine. Take heart and hang in there because scaly leg mites may take several months to resolve.
To prevent the massive headache that is lepidote leg touch, isolate newfangled chickens bought in for at least a week to monitor for any symptoms before introducing them to your troop. Minimizing contact with baseless birds and rodents will besides help reduce the risk of introducing scaly peg mites but is preferably unmanageable to attain in a backyard flock. A scatter bath can besides be beneficial to reduce external parasites .
Bumblefoot
Bumblefoot can go by many names : Pododermatitis, foot Pad dermatitis, Paw Burns, or Footpad ulcers. It is a condition affecting the bottom of a wimp ’ south foot and is frequently first noted as hard, sometimes pus-filled pockets on the bottom of a chicken ’ south foot covered by a brown or black cloured scab. This can be an extremely painful condition and the birds will often be very reluctant to walk.
There are a few things that can cause silkies to be susceptible to this disease. Overgrown toenails can prevent them from being able to walk or perch normally. Silkies with familial or learn foot deformities will besides be more susceptible due to mismatched pressure being applied to the foot. A poor diet deficient in biotin and vitamin A will result in poor skin integrity and dry bizarre clamber that will be more susceptible to the invasion of bacteria due to the compromised peel barrier. Bumblefoot can be grade ranging from a meek swelling on the bottom of the foundation in stage one to severe swelling of the entire foot with a big abscess n the buttocks of the foot in mark V.
An crucial function of treating bumblefoot is first addressing the induce, Bumblefoot is primarily a problem of either poor sanitation of the areas where the silkies live or of surfaces besides hard or roughly for their medium feet. A clean cage, enough outer space to roam with different open textures, and appropriate perches will help prevent bumblefoot. If open texture or rule is the main cause, you can consider adding areas with artificial grass ( Astroturf ) or soft sand. Depending on the asperity of the lesions, treatment can include any of the trace :
For mild lesions, soaking the shuttlecock ’ s feet in halfhearted water with Epsom salt or diluted chlorhexidine, will help to soften the temper and proliferative scent weave and avail treat mild infections. Bandaging the feet with aesculapian honey or colloidal dress will help keep the feign area clean and damp to promote bring around. There are many types of infantry bandages described for chickens but in the end, equally long as there is enough pad and the bandage is not besides taut as to cause discomfort or obstruct blood flow it should work just fine. fair commemorate that it is very authoritative that bandages be kept dry as besotted bandages constrict hex can end up being damaging to your silkie ’ randomness foot. Change the bandages frequently. If the hurt is severe, casual bind changes will be needed, as the hoist starts to heal, you can do bandage changes every moment day, but do not leave a bandage on a chicken ’ mho animal foot for more than 3 days.
very severe cases of bumblefoot may require surgical debridement. This can only be done by your veterinarian with allow pain control and antibiotics. The earlier bumblefoot is detected, the bare the treatment is, so make surely to perform regular animal foot checks on all your silkies in order to pick up problems early.
Frost Bite
Silkies have a slenderly better allowance to cold compared to early chicken breeds but do not cope that well with cold combined with wet conditions. Snow and mud besides do not mix well with featherlike feet. Silkies seem to tolerate temperatures of up to -9 F or -22 C, however, if you live in an area where below-freezing temperatures are experienced on the regular during the winter months, your silkies will be at hazard for frostbite. This is not merely a condition of the feet and comb can besides be affected. Frostbite can be extremely hard to recognize in the early stages in silkies and is frequently only noticed when the peel starts to harden and shrivel. Frostbite occurs in several stages of which the beginning starts of sulfur the surface of the skin on involve areas turns a slenderly pale semblance. In more advance stages, the skin will turn a blue black discolor ( as a consequence of dry necrose ) and lento start to fall away. If you suspect that your silkies may be suffering from frostbite, get them out of the cold and into a board with a quick ambient temperature. Wrap the involve areas ( not excessively tightly ! ) and keep them in the strong board. It is best to get a veterinarian to check on your silkies to assess the asperity of the frostbite.
It is important no to do any of the pursuit :
- Do not apply direct heat to the affected areas.
- Do not rub, massage or apply any physical force to the frostbitten areas.
- Do not let them walk around on frostbitten feet as this can cause further damage.
- Do no put them back outside in the cold. The frost bitten areas are very susceptible to even more damage if exposed to cold again.
To prevent frostbite, provide insulating material and a heat source such as a heating system lamp, inflame launching pad, or chicken coop heater. Make certain that the chicken coop calm has appropriate breathing to prevent moisture build-up. Check your silkies every day during cold spells and if the temperatures are extreme, provide them with a impermanent indoor area to protect them against the cold.
8 Tips for Happy (Silkie) Feet
1. Check your flock’s feet at least every 2 weeks.
Silkies can sometimes hide metrical foot conditions under their feathery trousers as not all conditions show up as lameness. Checking their feet at least every two weeks will allow you to pick up any likely problems early and address them. In general, the earlier a animal foot problem is addressed, the better the prognosis .
2. Make sure the areas where they roam are free of mud (and snow).
A set of metrical foot problems can be avoided by keeping their feet dry. Their hair-like feathers do not repel water like most other shuttlecock species ’ feathers and get soak very easily. The wet feathers love to collect mud, poo, soil, bamboozle, or pretty much anything they can hang on to. This increases the risk for infections and frostbite.
3. Wash their feet (but not too often).
If the feathers on their feet have collected soil and mud, it is best to wash your silkie ’ south legs entirely. Fill a bathtub with halfhearted saponaceous water and let your silkie stand in it for a few minutes. lightly massage the feather to loosen any debris and rinse. piano dab dry with a towel. Most silkies tolerate a foot health spa very well. Just don ’ triiodothyronine do it excessively often, as washing their legs besides regularly, can lead to the normal skin barrier being compromised, making them more susceptible to infections and injuries.
4. Clip their nails regularly.
particularly keep an eye on those who have toes growing in leftover directions. If toenail become overgrow, the agile of the collar besides tends to extend far down the nail and this will cause a lot of difficulties correcting an overgrown toenail if it is not addressed promptly .
5. Make sure they have the perect perches.
And with perfect I mean round and placid. Perches of different thicknesses will besides be great to make sure that pressure is applied to unlike areas of the foot depending on which perch they sit on. This will help prevent bumblefoot.
6. Check the surfaces they walk on.
Hard-packed mud, concrete or paving, besotted muddy, and snow-clad surfaces can take their price on silkie feet. Move them to either dry flaxen areas ( sand is a good option for cage floor covering ) or easy pot if potential. The bottom line is to avoid identical hard, very cold, and wet surfaces ( I ’ thousand sure you will be much an technical on all the reasons for this by the time you reach this steer in the article ) .
7. Isolate new Silkie’s for 1 week before adding them to your flock.
This is the best direction to prevent scaly stage mites from infecting your flock. If the new dame does happen to carry the leech, signs will be picked up within a workweek and treatment can be started. It ’ randomness a lot easier to treat one silkie for scaly leg mite than your stallion flock !
8. Only select silkies with good feet conformation to breed with.
Foot conformation is a highly inheritable trait and therefore keep off choose birds who have wry toes pointing in eldritch directions or excessively many leg feathers constantly collecting mud and soil. Ideally only breed with silkies who have straight toes and toenails and a modest amount of leg feather .
The Bottom Line
Silkies have identical singular feet and equally singular considerations have to be kept in mind to keep your silkies happily scratching about and running around. Check their feet regularly and don ’ t hesitate to check with your vet if you are concerned about anything. Universally for all the problems you might face with regards to your silkies ’ feet – the earlier you address it, the better the consequence so, keep a near eye on those downy tootsies !
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