Black Toe – need antibiotic advice

The little partridge I’ve been raising has been doing so well up to now. I try not to handle him much, as I was planning on eventually releasing him back into the wild. But it has come to my attention what I thought was poo on his toe nail is actually a really bad infection in his toe.
His toe nail and the area just above are black, and the rest of the toe is extremely swollen. I washed the toe, did an Epsom salt soak for 5 minutes, disinfected with iodine, gently wiggled it, and the entire black piece fell off.
Here is a pic to show what I mean...(the bit on the end came off too)

Ugh. I feel bloody awful for not noticing this sooner.
I disinfected again, slathered the toe stump with honey (there was no bleeding) and bandaged him up. I normally only give antibiotics as a last resort, but the swelling really has me worried. I don’t want to have to amputate the rest of his toe (or heaven forbid his little leg) so I need something with a strong kick. The ones I have on hand are:

Super Booster with penicillin G and streptomycin sulfate
Pen-G (injectable for cattle)
Tetracycline (250mg capsules)

Which do you think I should give? Any advice is most appreciated, TIA.

Just an update:

I decided to go with the Super Booster w/ pen G to start because it's water soluble and that means less handling and less stress for us both. This little fella does not like to be touched. At all.

The swelling looks slightly down this morning, so if I can get a handle on the infection he should be ok. I hope....

Hey if you can using the smallest amount of water for him to drink or spray on his food Ionic silver and ACV in the water will cure it in no time at all

good choice on the super booster. The others would be too high concentration to dose him with.

Thanks guys. The booster seems to be working, so I'm going to treat the full 7 days. Then back to fresh/and ACV water. I still can’t believe this happened and he lost a piece of his toe. Feel like I let him down.

Pops, where would one find ionic silver?

Flicker Chick wrote:Thanks guys. The booster seems to be working, so I'm going to treat the full 7 days. Then back to fresh/and ACV water. I still can’t believe this happened and he lost a piece of his toe. Feel like I let him down.

Pops, where would one find ionic silver?

I have had roos with frozen toes and they did just fine after they fell off, they could even roost so I think your little wild one will adapt as well..

Thanks miry. I think you’re right. The loss of his toe tip hasn’t slowed him down any, or his appetite. LoL He’s a tough little guy and will hopefully do well when released.

I agree. I think he'll be just fine without that bit of toe. I had a hen that somehow bent one toe back. It must have been badly broken, but by the time I noticed I didn't want to cause more pain by setting it. She does just fine with one wonky toe. Also had a rooster lose the tips off his toes during one bad cold snap. They do adjust and adapt.
This little partridge was really lucky he had you to provide that good care and treatment that prevented the infection from continuing, Flicker.
You will have to keep us up to date on his progress, and especially the day you are able to release him. He may decide he really likes all this pampering and doesn't want to leave!

Thanks Kathy, but I doubt he'd want to stay. Lol This guy is super flighty and totally wild at heart. If released I don’t think he’d even look back, just fly away fast and furious.

I feel sad things happened the way it did, and the poor chick was left an orphan to begin with. There really was no choice but to take him in. He wouldn't have stood a chance out there alone. But I know he wants to go free now. You can see it in the eyes. He’s a wild thing and longs for it. I will grant this to him just as soon as the toe is healed. I'll try and get an updated pic of the partridge soon, he's changed and grown so much.

Oh no, flesh eating disease.....run for your life.

Eek Dan, that’s a really freaky thought and than some.

Word of warning: don't google flesh-eating disease before bedtime.