We have a problem

Yesterday afternoon it seemed that Cloud had injured her foot. Earlier she had looked fine but then next time we checked on them we noticed her limping and she had what looked like a cut on her foot. I sprayed her with the healing aid and skin repair spray that I already had.

I put her in the crate with food and water and googled what to do for an injured foot. It recommended vetericyn an antimicrobial wound care spray. I ordered this straight away on Amazon for delivery next day.

I couldn’t imagine how cloud had got this injury. I looked all round the run and could see nothing that might have caused this.

Cloud was stressed in the crate and had her beak open so I gave her some water to the side of her beak with a dropper and then put her back on the patio area of the chicken run with some mash to encourage her to eat.

I was horrified that Gold pecked at her wound. We were lucky with Autumn that none of the girls pecked her but Gold has lately started pecking my legs so this seems to be her new thing. Mango and Cloud settled in the shelter out of Gold’s way and I ordered some purple spray from Amazon also being delivered the next day. This is skin cleansing and disguises the redness/blood to deter pecking.

Before bedtime I decided to put both Mango and Cloud in the crate so that Cloud wouldn’t be so stressed as she was on her own. I then moved them both to the perch in the chicken shed half an hour before the pop hole closed. I added more pine shavings to give a softer landing when jumping down in the morning.

The next morning I was horrified to see that cloud had another bloody patch on her other foot. I realised at this point that it wasn’t an injury. It must be self inflicted which means it must be scaly mite and yet there aren’t any raised scales.

My heart sank. This would mean treating all the girls with scaly mite spray every three days for three weeks and deep cleaning the chicken shed.

I started with the scaly mite spray right away. I sprayed Mango and Cloud and left them in the crate while I sprayed each of the rest of the girls. I put vaseline over Cloud’s wounds before spraying with scaly mite as I didn’t want to spray on to an open wound. At this point the new sprays arrived.

I sprayed Cloud with the vetericyn and then I sprayed her with the purple spray. I then returned Mango and Cloud to the run.

I am so frustrated to be back here again. The only thing that I can think is that I got Autumn through this so I will get Cloud through this and at least I have caught it early. I will use the scaly mite spray every three days on all of the girls and in between I will spray Cloud with the wound care spray and the purple spray.

I left Mango and Cloud in the run and they perched in the chicken shed at bedtime. Before the pop hole closed I sprayed Cloud again with the wound spray followed by the purple spray. I have a ridiculous amount of sprays in the chicken storage cabinet!

Tomorrow I will empty the chicken shed and disinfect before putting in fresh shavings. I will do everything I can to get rid of this. It is horrible to be back here again but I will throw everything at it once more to get rid of this again.

Both Storm and Cloud are moulting so that will be the end of their season for eggs. I feel sorry for Cloud moulting on top of this problem. Moulting has come early this year. On the other hand Snow was looking in the nest boxes this morning so I think she is about to start laying again. It’s exactly a month since she last laid.