- May 28, 2008
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Our "Little Chicken", a Golden Penciled Hamburg, a year old, started limping two days ago. Last night I read all about bumblefoot and other possibilities on here. Just got back in from treating her foot. She had a scab on the bottom of her pad, the pad was puffier than the healthy foot, but not grossly swollen or otherwise infected or whatnot.
Soaked her foot in warm water for several minutes and tried removing the scab. Small pieces of it were coming off (I was using a large needle). Soaked the area some more with a wet cotton ball, poured some hydrogen peroxide over it. After that I could get some leverage under the edge of the scab and it started coming off easily. It didn't leave a huge hole; instead, it was just 'chicken foot meat' in there, looking fairly healthy (I guess! first timer here). I squeezed her pad a bit trying to see if anything was in there deeper that I could drain out. Since there was no hole into the depths of her foot pad, I wasn't comfortable digging around in there. I cleaned the whole area well with rubbing alcohol swabs, put a big glop of antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped it with gauze and taped with surgical tape.
By that time Little Chicken was relaxed and laying with her eyes closed in my 8yr old's lap LOL. I joked about it being a Chicken Day Spa experience for Little Chicken- foot soaks, the works LOL.
BUT, now I'm worried that I just removed a perfectly-working scab for no reason!
I put her back in the hen house and she didn't seem too pleased by her new "sock" and pecked at it a bit. I suspect that when I check on her in a moment the wrapping on her foot will be off already.
Any advice for me? I guess at this point I just keep a very close eye on her? How will I know if I need to do more exploration for a bumblefoot 'core' in her foot?
Soaked her foot in warm water for several minutes and tried removing the scab. Small pieces of it were coming off (I was using a large needle). Soaked the area some more with a wet cotton ball, poured some hydrogen peroxide over it. After that I could get some leverage under the edge of the scab and it started coming off easily. It didn't leave a huge hole; instead, it was just 'chicken foot meat' in there, looking fairly healthy (I guess! first timer here). I squeezed her pad a bit trying to see if anything was in there deeper that I could drain out. Since there was no hole into the depths of her foot pad, I wasn't comfortable digging around in there. I cleaned the whole area well with rubbing alcohol swabs, put a big glop of antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped it with gauze and taped with surgical tape.
By that time Little Chicken was relaxed and laying with her eyes closed in my 8yr old's lap LOL. I joked about it being a Chicken Day Spa experience for Little Chicken- foot soaks, the works LOL.
BUT, now I'm worried that I just removed a perfectly-working scab for no reason!
I put her back in the hen house and she didn't seem too pleased by her new "sock" and pecked at it a bit. I suspect that when I check on her in a moment the wrapping on her foot will be off already.
Any advice for me? I guess at this point I just keep a very close eye on her? How will I know if I need to do more exploration for a bumblefoot 'core' in her foot?
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