Is This a Spur?

HenOrRoo1 said:

Our Buff Orpington, Amber, let herself out of the coop earlier today and I picked her up, decided to check her for bumblefoot while I had her in arms, and found this on her foot:








Is it a spur? I thought only roosters got spurs. If it is, what do I do about it? Should I try to cut it off or file it? Will she be fine if I leave it alone? She doesn't seem bothered by it. The half inch or so closest to her foot looks like it has blood flow, so I don't want to cut into it and hurt her/have her bleeding. Any advice, especially if you've dealt with this before, is appreciated!

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HenOrRoo1 said:

I'm going to use the pliers method to remove the outer spur. I watched a couple videos on You Tube demonstrating the technique and I'm confident I can do it. The spur is curving back toward her leg, so I'm going to remove it. Otherwise I would leave it alone.

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Wyorp Rock said:

Sounds like a plan

Let us know how it goes.

I have a rooster, who will eventually need some trimming/blunting so I'm always interested in learning new things.

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chickengeorgeto said:

A hacksaw or fine hacksaw blade is a much better and more humane tool to use when trimming spurs.

Don't trim spurs closer than 3/4 of an inch from the birds shank or ankle and before you begin sawing rub your saw blade vigorously with either a bar of soap or chunk of beeswax to seal any capillaries and blood vessels that you might cut as you saw.

Keep the soap or beeswax handy and hub a bit on the severed end of the spur to help seal it. Bear down really good.

Do remember to sever the spur parallel to the shank so that you don't create a sharp leading edge on the spur, and if you do, a quick once over with a small flat-mill-******* file will dress the edges or round them off.

This way your rooster doesn't have a bloody & sore nail bed sticking out on the back of each leg that might take months to heal or be an open invitation for an infection..

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