Bumblefoot dilemma

[sher4004]

Hello, Began this venture after much trepidation on October 10, 2014 and now I can't believe what we are facing already. Poor babies. I currently have 1 hen limping so yesterday I checked her foot and she has bumblefoot on both feet, then decided today to check all the girls tootsies and 7 out of 8 have it too. Unbelievable. So I lowered roosting perches, I already have hay in the outside run to keep it drier now that we have the run covered in lexan it is drying out nicely and have pine chips on the inside coop which has been and is totally dry. Any ideas for other modifications that I can make to alleviate this occuring? They are housed in an 10 x 18 garden shed filled with pine wood chips (pic shows paper too but changed roost side to all pine chips as it was easier to clean also food and water moved to otherside as well)and a 10 x 18 attached outdoor pen, now covered with lexan to make sure it is dry(vegetation all gone now). I watched utube videos today on treating bumblefoot, purchased necessary supplies, now just to do it...... 5 RIR and 3 Ameracaunas.

 

[azygous]

Are you using wood chips or wood shavings? They're different, chips being large chunks of wood. I use wood chips to mitigate the mud on the grounds around the outside of my coops and runs, and I've discovered that the chickens pick up occasional splinters. This can result in bumblefoot, even after you've removed all other sources of bumblefoot injuries.

 

[welasharon]

You should consider switching to sand.

 

[sher4004]

Are you using wood chips or wood shavings? They're different, chips being large chunks of wood. I use wood chips to mitigate the mud on the grounds around the outside of my coops and runs, and I've discovered that the chickens pick up occasional splinters. This can result in bumblefoot, even after you've removed all other sources of bumblefoot injuries.

I am using pine medium shavings from tractor supply. I also read last night on here in old threads about soaking feet in tricked neo so I am going to try that on the small ones as there is no lameness or swelling at. This time just the black spot on 6 of them.

 

[azygous]

That's a relief you have shavings. They won't be a problem.

What I do is soak my bumblefooters in warm epsom salts for fifteen minutes, then scrape the black scab off with my thumb nail. The "kernel" should be attached to the scab and usually just lifts right out.

Spray with Vetericyn, a wound care spray for animals, pack it with antibiotic ointment, place a bandaid over it and wrap the foot with vet wrap to keep everything clean and dry. Replace the bandage in two or three days, and check again in another couple days to see if it's healed.

I have one girl whose black scab came back on one foot. I need to do her again.

You caught it before it got real bad, so healing should be very fast.

 

[sher4004]

I am using pine shavings from Tractor Supply. I so do not agree with people that say chickens are easy.

What do you think about using pea gravel on the covered outside run? Too hard o their feet? Local zoo has blacktop in their coop so wasn't sure.

 

[sher4004]

I hope so, I ordered the Vetericyn last night after reading about it I hope that helps the situation, poor girls. Today one hen had a blob of poo stuck to her behind today that would not come off and looked like it was blocking everything. I brought her in and soaked her for 20 minutes just to loosen it enough to cut it off during which time she immediately pooped in the sink full of water eww, apparently wasn't blocking anything though if it continued it probably would have. Anyway she was too wet to put back in the coop so spending the night in the kitchen so I decided to soak her foot, pull off the scab and bandage hers tonight, wasn't so bad but I worried if I got it all though it was small to start with and I didn't want to hurt her, she is so sweet.

 

[azygous]

As far as putting pea gravel on the run floor, it would also be hard on their feet. Commercial chickens, the ones that are "cage free" are on a cement or asphalt floor so the employees can hose it down every day. These chickens live a max of two years only. Any feet problems arising are thus "remedied", and I would imagine they'd have some.

Why go to the expense of pea gravel when you could buy sand for the same cost or less, and the chickens would love it because they can dirt bathe in it and it'd be a cinch to scoop with a cat litter scooper? I have tried both the course construction sand and now have the finer "drywallers" sand, which I like much better. It's more expensive than the course, though. If your gravel yard has children's play sand, that would be a good one to get. Mine doesn't have that type since the kids around here all go to work on their farms and don't have time to play in sand. Yuk. Yuk.

 

[sher4004]

So glad you answered when you did, I was going to go pick up the gravel tomorrow for the front coop. Hmm new problem though, we added a second run to the back of the coop just to give then a bit more space and it does have two sections of concrete in it. Sand I think would just get washed away as that area is at the bottom of a hill and floods when it rains so I figured the concrete raised floor would be great and just fill in the missing areas of concrete with pea gravel to keep them out of the water and to stop predators from digging in. Now what??

 

[azygous]

You might pick up some good suggestions over at the Coop and Run forum. But if you have access to pine needles, or pine straw, as they call it in the south, that might be a good bedding to use over concrete, and as the flood water recedes, the pine needles wouldn't be prone to washing away. Chickens love scratching around in them and they aren't hard on feet. Also, they don't get mildewed as badly as straw does, tending not to soak up moisture as badly.