Chicken Feet

Well, it's always something here in our menagerie, and this time it's Phoenix. He is our little bantam Cochin rooster. That's him on the left, the little one with the creamy-colored neck and black body. The feathers on his legs make him a Cochin. They also make him look like he's wearing pants. I love him. He's a great little rooster. Always very polite to his ladies, offering them any choice morsel he finds. For those of you who have never seen a rooster taking care of his hens, what happens is this: When you toss some delicious treats into the pen (tomato ends, old green beans, apple cores, etc.) all the chickens start running around pecking and picking. The rooster, if he's a good one, will find a morsel and make a certain cluck. Kind of a quork. This means, "I've found a tasty treat, if anyone wants it," and a hen or two will respond by checking out what he has. If it is indeed a treat, he will let them take it right out of his beak. If he's just being dramatic about a bit of regular old food, they usually ignore him.
Well, the other day we noticed his feet looking red and scabby (see picture on the right). I looked and searched my poultry books and the internet, but really didn't come up with anything. So I emailed the Chatham County Extension agent in charge of poultry, sent him a couple pictures and asked for advice. He got right back with me and suggested soaking the feet up to the hocks in a dilute betadine bath 3 times a week and see if that helps.
Phoenix, while the only one of our chickens to have a name (the other ones all look alike), is not the tamest. He's actually quite dodgy about handling. I was a bit concerned, but having caught him without too much trouble in the past, set out this morning with my barn boots, leaving the boy with his daddy, and mixed up the solution in an old red bucket. 1 oz. betadine to 4 c. water. I estimated the betadine in the Motorhead shotglass and added about 5 cups warm water, just to make sure it wasn't too strong. Caught the little guy without much trouble on the second try, and after he squawked like he was being attacked and eaten, got him calmed down.
The best way to calm a chicken is to make sure you've got their wings comfortably pinned against them, hold them close to your body so they feel secure, speak gentle, soothing tones, and I've found that stroking their beak will almost always work.
So today was the first treatment. Phoenix did great. After his initial freak-out, he remained calm throughout the ordeal, excepting a few loud bi-cawks when he was startled, once by Honey tearing across the yard to bark at some squirrels, and once just because he's a chicken. Next soaking scheduled for Thursday.