Baby chicks with bloody toes

I need some help, and I think there's no better place than asking the diversified intelligence here on Permies. I've looked on the internets for chicken toe problems, and what I find are curled toes or other foot problems, not what I have going on here. And I come seeking help because this is occurring over and over. All my chicks are four weeks and a few days old as of me writing this. The first picture is from a chick that I just found with a bloody toe about 30 minutes ago. It looks to me like she's somehow lost her claw, and the nubby quick is exposed. I've removed her from the rest since the others are pecking on her toe. I didn't see anything wrong with any of my chicks two hours ago. The second picture is of a chick that is healing, I found her seven days ago and has been in quarantine since so the other don't peck on her feet and she can heal. She had two bloody toes, was limping and preferred to stand on one foot, or sit. She is now walking, running and scratching with both feet, but I haven't put her back in with the other chicks yet, since her toes still look different and chicks peck on anything that doesn't look right.

Yesterday morning I found two chicks keeled over dead, I couldn't find anything wrong with them except both of them had something not right with a toe or two. I didn't take a picture and now I wish I had. Two weeks ago, I had a chick with the same thing going on, and she's doing fine now, but the tip of her toe is gone. She has one short, clawless toe, but it doesn't appear to be affecting her mobility.

My first thought is a claw is getting caught on something in the coop and being torn off. I can't find anything that might cause this. I would also think if one had a claw caught in something, the chick would stay put, instead of tearing her own claw off. My other thought is a vitamin/mineral deficiency causing weak claws to easily be pulled off.

Counting the two dead chicks, I've had five that had something go wrong with the tips of their toes. I'm down to 26 chicks now with leaves 23 that have been unaffected to give an idea of how many I have that currently don't have anything wrong with their feet that I can see. The first time it happened was in pine flake shaving for bedding, these more recent ones have the chicks living in hay bedding, which I cut with my lawnmower and raked. I say hay, but there's a lot of other weedy things in this and wouldn't really qualify as hay fit for forage.

This has me baffled. This is my fourth time brooding chicks, and I've never had this problem before.

Oh, no! Poor babies! Poor you! Separating them is the best way I know to protect them from the others. But, it brings other questions to mind, too. Are you using the same bedding, for the quarantined ones? If so, and they're healing ok, it's probably not a bedding issue. Unless maybe there were mites in a batch or two of it? Or, maybe one of the chicks is just intrigued by toes, and pecks the other's toes until they bleed?

The currently quarantined ones are back in the brooder they were raised in. I used the pine flake in the bales from tractor supply. My first bloody toe chick has recovered nicely. Toe looks funky, and still a little scabby in appearance, but I think she'll be fine. The one pictured that had two bloody toes appears to be doing well and I think will make a full recovery. I thought about a chick that attacks toes, but until I see it, it's just speculation. It's happening amongst several different breeds, so I think that rules out something genetic.

I did have a chick flip out and go insane about two weeks ago. I had checked on the chicks, everything was fine. I go outside, come back in like 45 minutes or an hour later and I hear loud distress chirping calls and it sounded unlike the chirps I'm used to. I go downstairs to the basement and one chick with blood on its beak is attacking the others which are running from it. I had three bleeding chicks, two had bad bloody butts and tails and I scooped them up into their own cardboard box to recover, and a third slightly bleeding above its tail. I removed the aggressor and dispatched it immediately. The two that were in their own box I thought were recovering nicely, and like five days later one was dead when I checked on them in the morning. The other has made a full recovery, but it's little nubby tail is bare without any fuzz. I hope feathers will grow. I've never had so many things go wrong brooding chicks.

That's so strange... did you get them from the same place you normally do? (Just trying to play detective)

Again. I'm really getting frustrated, and can't figure out what's going on. So the two chicks pictured above were reintroduced with the rest last night. Everything seemed ok this morning. All chicks seemed to be doing fine at lunch. I go out to the coop twenty minutes ago to open the door and let them scratch around for a few hours, and I peek inside the coop and the one with the two healing toes pictured above has a new toe injury. It's the short fourth toe that goes the other direction from the front three, on the other foot from her two healing toes. Thankfully, she still has her claw, and from what I can tell it may just be a minor flesh wound. This one is back in the basement to heal on her own and I'll try getting her back out with the others again. Sigh....

Carla Burke wrote:That's so strange... did you get them from the same place you normally do? (Just trying to play detective)

Yup. We got them from my pet chicken. We've gotten chicks from them three other times, always had great results, no complaints, and all those previous chicks grew to be healthy adults. We had no reason to try some place new since where we've been going has always been successful for us.

Jeeezzzz... Poor baby! Sounds like it was a very good thing you went back out. It's sounding more and more like you've got one with a 'thing' for toes...

Carla Burke wrote:Jeeezzzz... Poor baby! Sounds like it was a very good thing you went back out. It's sounding more and more like you've got one with a 'thing' for toes...

This is really what I'm beginning to believe. Interestingly, while the two were in the basement healing, there were no new cases. If I do have a toe biter on my hands, it's being selective.

is there any chance there`s anything in the flooring they could be getting their nails caught in? like a crack between boards or something? it seems so odd it`s the tips of the toes in all cases.
(because looking at this reminds me of when my rabbit got her claw caught in a crack and ripped it off, it would explain your distressed chick.)