Swollen foot, full of liquid, in a guinea

[Lsox]

Hoping that someone could help with diagnosing a guinea fowl with a big swelling on its foot. This guinea injured its left leg over a month ago. After a couple of weeks of sitting without moving, it slowly started being more mobile again, though not running with its guinea friends. It's now about three months old and much smaller than its siblings, but I put that down to it being injured for so long. Today I noticed that the other foot had a pronounced swelling. I wondered initially if it just looked big in comparison to its injured leg, which lost a lot of tone, but there is a big swelling on the ball of its foot that seems to be full of fluid. There was a patch of loose/dead skin near the toes, so I wondered whether it was bumblefoot, but expected that to be hard rather than liquid.

Any ideas? Feels like an abscess or blister. Somehow it's managing to limp on both sides when it moves around and looks like it's squatting when it runs...

Thanks,
Luke

 

[LaFleche]

Does the swollen foot feel warmer than the other?

If so this might be caused by overexertion trying to rest the injured leg.

 

[Lsox]

No, not at all... On the initial injured leg, there feels to be a bit of something like cartilage around the top of the leg but as far as I can tell on this swollen one, nothing else wrong.

 

[LaFleche]

How does she react to your touching her "swollen" foot?

I was just thinking if you might want to take a look at the feet of another guinea for comparison.

Maybe it is just that the foot on the formerly injured leg has atrophied from not using it, so the other definitely overexerted one seems swollen in comparison?

 

[Lsox]

She doesn't really react at all - but then when she had her previous injury, she didn't react then either, so not sure if she's just hiding the pain. The other guineas don't have swollen feet in the same way. She just got up onto one of the perches in the coop and I was able to get a shot of her standing - the right foot looks to have a big bulge on the heel and she isn't grabbing the perch securely (wouldn't sit down, just stood unsteadily on the perch, toes wobbling).