Is this bumblefoot? Or something worse?

[Julieschicks]

Saw our naked neck limping badly this morning. Separated her and noticed some kind of cut or scrape on the side of one of her toes. That toe looks swollen and it was red around the sore. She’s currently in a pet carrier in my dining room. I did an epsom salt soak, washed the foot with soap and water, blew her dry, and sprayed it with vetericyn. She’s having a really hard time even staying upright. She like leans way back then falls over and can hardly get herself turned right again. She was vaccinated for Marek’s so it seems like it has to be related to this foot sore. She’s trying to eat and drink, and is alert, but otherwise seems so sad and pitiful. Is there anything else I can do?? She’s currently laying on her side since it’s just too hard for her to sit up on her leg. She did eat half a baby aspirin, but doesn’t seem to have helped with any pain so far. Is she going to die??

 

[nightowl223]

Bumblefoot is a big swelling area, generally on the bottom of the foot. The symptoms you describe could be many things, up to and including being eggbound or having something like a slipped tendon. Some pics of the injury, closeup, and of the bottom of her foot, would be helpful. But the leaning way back - you describe it like she's standing like a penguin - sounds an awful lot like being eggbound, or the eggyolk perotinitis, which is even worse.

Check her over for any other injuries, too. But feel around on her abdomen, and see if you feel what seems to be an egg in there, waiting to come out.

Hopefully some others will chime in, too.

 

[Julieschicks]

Unfortunately this is the best picture I could get. There’s no lump, just overall swollen. The bottom looks normal, just like the other foot. She’s about 19wk and as far as I know has not laid any eggs yet. We have 8 chickens the same age and found a soft shell egg the other day on the coop floor and I know for a fact it was one of the 8, just don’t know which one and none have laid any since. That was about 3 days ago.

 

[nightowl223]

Unfortunately this is the best picture I could get. There’s no lump, just overall swollen. The bottom looks normal, just like the other foot. She’s about 19wk and as far as I know has not laid any eggs yet. We have 8 chickens the same age and found a soft shell egg the other day on the coop floor and I know for a fact it was one of the 8, just don’t know which one and none have laid any since. That was about 3 days ago.

Young layers often lay a shellless egg as their system gets going. It's nothing to be concerned with. The whole egg-laying process is a bit complicated, and they sometimes have a glitch or two in the beginning. What I would be concerned with would be something called internal laying, causing perotinitis, or being eggbound, where an egg doesn't actually get laid, but sits there, blocking their cloaca, where they can't even poo. Has she been pooing normally?

 

[Julieschicks]

So yes, she is pooping. Is it normal? Maybe? I did notice a couple of her poops seemed a bit odd because they had indigested stuff in them. Like the kids pulled some little seed pods off a weed yesterday and gave them to the chickens and I saw some of them in her poop this morning. Then just a little bit ago I cleaned a poop out of the carrier and saw it had some pieces of grass in it. Does that mean her food isn’t getting digested enough in her crop? I didn’t even think to check that earlier when I had her out of the carrier.

 

[Julieschicks]

Just an update in case anyone else wants to chime in. After doing some reading on the fact she also has some undigested food in her poo, I went ahead and started giving her metronidazole since I already had some. Maybe she got infected with Clostridium through the cut on her toe?? She was pretty poorly this morning, but still alive. Got her to drink some straight Nutri-Drench and water and she perked up a bit. Sprayed more Vetericyn on her toe, which was looking much less red. Put a fresh towel in the pet carrier and put her back in facing the food/water bowl and she started eating immediately. Still doesn't want to sit on her legs and just leans over on her side. But seems to be hanging in there. She's back inside the house in the carrier today so we'll see how she is when we get home this afternoon.