Help!! Chicken with swollen foot!

ray2310

Songster
10 Years
Apr 4, 2009
227
3
119
Smithfield, PA
This morning we noticed one of our hens has a swollen foot, and is limping. (we have 20 laying hens total, no other swollen feet or limping in other hens)

chickenwithswollenfoot.jpg

Picture of our girl whom has swollen foot, above.

chickenwithswollenfoot2.jpg

Picture of a close-up of swollen foot, above.

bottomviewofswollenfoot.jpg

Picture of the bottom of the swollen foot, above.



I researched bumblefoot and maybe that is what she has? She clearly has a black spot on the pad of her foot, however we looking at our other girls feet.. and many have the same spots?

otherchickensfeet.jpg

Picture of another chicken's feet, both with black spots on bottom, above.

We inspected our coop.. no sharp roosts or objects that would cause injury, soft bedding.. etc... they spend Monday-Friday during work hours in their coop and run, but free-range in the evenings and weekends. (no piles of junk or anything.. just the usual sticks and stones)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. we do not want to use antibiotics.
 
Thanks, from all the looking on this site we thought that might be it.

I guess the next step will be to soak her foot in Epsom salts and then try to remove the plug from her foot.
 
Quote:
I would check them out, make sure the spots are scabs, soak them, see what it looks like if you pick the scab off.

Speckledhen deals with this all the time and says systemic antibiotics never seemed to help.
 
It's bumblefoot and the hen with the marble size swelling between the toes needs to have the swelling lanced, from the top, and try and find the plug. Follow the info on the bumblefoot threads, re: soaking in warm Epsom salt water. You may have to operate on the pad as well to soak and remove the black spot and any plugs in the pad. But when the swelling in on the top like that, it's easier to remove by going through the top.
 
Yep, it is bumblefoot as stated by everyone else.

I'm currently dealing with that here as well and speckledhen, along with Ruth, has given me lots of great info. Just keep in mind that it's not as bad as it's chalked up to be to treat!
wink.png
You do need to wear rubber gloves though because it is a staff infection and very contagious.
 
my kabir chcken has a bumble growth in his feet. how will it be treated?
incidentally, how is this prevented?

thanks
 

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