Pekin hen with swollen leg

One of my Pekin hens was badly limping. I separated her and noticed her joint (knee?) is swollen and warm. Her feet look a little suspicious. The one with the swollen joint has a small callus. The other foot has a larger one that could be a bumble. My feed store gave me two injections of penicillin to put into each blister/callus. The needle went in but I couldn't get the plunger to go. I was able to get medicine out outside of the foot but very little in. I soaked her feet in warm water with a little chlorhexidine and sprayed with blue kote as per feed store recommendation. I tried scraping the calluses the next day but they won't budge. She does seem more energetic and is putting some weight on her leg but the joint is still pretty big. I've been spraying her feet with poultry wound spray to keep them clean. What should I do next for her?

I am also giving her niacin in the form of kelp powder from capsules. Our ducks have a large area to range though so I know she's been getting plenty of bugs etc with niacin.

Here's the foot with the swollen joint:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/7
478727/width/200/height/400

Here's the one with the leg that's fine. Is this bumble? Or callus?


Swollen leg:

My pictures didn't work so here's another try:

Swollen leg side:


Good leg side:

Other concerning symptoms:

Green poop


And one of her eyes has been foamy and teary. Any hope for this poor girl? She's quacking now and wasn't at first. Also eating and drinking still.

Bumping, ready to help her!

Looks like she has an infection that may have reached her bloodstream.

That's a bumble on her foot - pretty advanced.



The bumble itself inside is going to be very chunky - so no surprise that an injection wouldn't get very far into that.

If you can get a vet's help, please do.

In any case, I would get her on an oral or injectable antibiotic. @casportpony is one person I usually check with on that, I simply haven't had to give injections. There are some other threads that describe it pretty well, as far as how much and where to inject. You need to know how much she weighs to determine proper dosage.

Okay - in addition to internal antibiotics, she needs direct treatment of the bumble. Please see post number 22 of this thread and follow it carefully. Clear iodine. Clear iodine. Not brown. No cutting. No wrapping. Soak, apply iodine, and wait.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/560693/need-input-on-bumblefoot-treatment-in-ducks/20

Amiga said:

Looks like she has an infection that may have reached her bloodstream.

That's a bumble on her foot - pretty advanced.



The bumble itself inside is going to be very chunky - so no surprise that an injection wouldn't get very far into that.

If you can get a vet's help, please do.

In any case, I would get her on an oral or injectable antibiotic.  @casportpony
is one person I usually check with on that, I simply haven't had to give injections.  There are some other threads that describe it pretty well, as far as how much and where to inject.  You need to know how much she weighs to determine proper dosage.

Okay - in addition to internal antibiotics, she needs direct treatment of the bumble.  Please see post number 22 of this thread and follow it carefully.  Clear iodine. Clear iodine.  Not brown.  No cutting.  No wrapping.  Soak, apply iodine, and wait.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/560693/need-input-on-bumblefoot-treatment-in-ducks/20

Click to expand...

Thank you! Isn't it odd that the bumble is on her "good" foot? Should I treat both feet for bumble in case? Would that be causing the green poops and swollen joint on the other side?

As far as an antibiotic: on hand I have corrid and liquamycin. If anyone know if those would help and dosage I can start that. Anything else I need to go to town and I have two little with the stomach flu. I know there's an avian vet in town too so I'll call.

Could be the bumble foot is less painful than an infected joint in the other leg.

I think that treating the bumble and giving oral or injectable antibiotics is the way to go.

Looks like corid is a coccidiostat - I don't think it would help unless she also has coccidiosis.

I am not a vet, nor a vet tech - but the liquamycin sounds like it might be the one to go with. Might this thread help?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/971134/oxytetracycline-dose-tbsp-tsp

Amiga said:

Could be the bumble foot is less painful than an infected joint in the other leg. 

I think that treating the bumble and giving oral or injectable antibiotics is the way to go.

Looks like corid is a coccidiostat - I don't think it would help unless she also has coccidiosis.

I am not a vet, nor a vet tech - but the liquamycin sounds like it might be the one to go with.  Might this thread help?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/971134/oxytetracycline-dose-tbsp-tsp

Click to expand...

Thank you! I started the topical bumble treatment. Sadly I have the liquamycin but no needles... I'm Going to call the vet to make sure this isn't a respiratory issue too because of the foamy eye. I have a mixed flock of 50 chickens, 11ducks, 10 guineas and 4 turkeys. Can't risk something like that spreading and taking everybody out! I have a lot of oak leaves in the pasture and the sheep cleared out all our greenery... Trying to regrow pasture grass but it's sooo hot and I'm in ca where we have a drought. It may be fall before I make much headway there. I'll bet these oak leave needles are bothering their feet. I'm raking as much as I can. Maybe I need to section off the ducks in a smaller area with pebbles. I'm going to check all their feet again. It's hard to tell callus vs bumble if they aren't limping.

Updating in case it helps others. I took our Pekin "Snowflake" to the vet yesterday and her infection was quiet advanced. We discussed injected antibiotics for a month and keeping her quarantined etc. But due to the extent of her lameness and size she wouldn't ever be able to walk well giving her a poor quality of life. We also wouldn't be able to eat her eggs ever after the antibiotics and I don't know how I would separate them. We chose to euthanize her and have her cremated vs burying so that a wild animal wouldn't dig her up and get sick from her infection. Sad but I learned a lot and the rest of my flock will be better for it! They have a huge yard with a couple small pools spaces around. What the need is a smaller yard with a much bigger pool so they aren't in their feet as much and in the water more. I sectioned off an area around their house and set up a livestock tank pond. I put hay between the house and pond to make it soft and a rubber mat on a ramp for easy access. They are so happy! I hope it saves the rest from any more foot troubles. RIP snowflake

And I'm getting a much bigger round tank to set into the ground for their pond. But this is a good start!