Hi...Im here...
First of all, staph will not get to your babies and kill them, unless they have open wounds and you touch the staph and then the open wounds on the babies.
I would suggest wearing medical gloves (available cheap in most drug stores) when treating the feet of the chickens that have the bumblefoot.
Its unclear to me if you are seeing swelling now or just saw it months ago.
Google bumblefoot and look at the images by clicking on "images" on the left hand side of the google results page. Also, I have a few pics of very bad bumblefoot on my meetup page, which is in my signature.
Just look in photos and under medical. The recent one that I put up is a very bad cast that had festered for months in a hen that someone gave me. She didnt know that it was a problem but you can see that the bumbles traveled to in between the toes and became huge.
Bumblefoot doesnt just go away...it presents originally as a dark callus or scab that can be cut off and the plug below it dug out, or carefully soaked and massaged and coaxed out.
The very early ones sometimes are basically on the surface but you do have to dig around a little and try to get the pus out. You have to do this because often there is a tiny black scab that hides a huge infection underneath.
Many people dont treat it and just let the chickens go till they cant walk. Many people also put bumblefoot chickens down...I completely understand that because it can be very hard to treat.
Left untreated, the infection travels and gets involved in the tendons and joints. It seems to me that it eats away at the attachment of tendons to the bones, and destroys and softens the bones too. The chicken's body tries to fight off the infection by making pus, but chicken pus is very thick and he seems to follow the kernel as it travels...and the kernel does travel, the infection does spread.
Heavy breeds tend to get this and it can be caused by splinters in the perches or something like a thorn bush.
If you have had chickens for this long and they seem to have some dark scabs on their feet without swelling for months...no redness or hardness to the foot pad or between the toes, it may not be what you think.
I would scrub and soak their feed to see if its just dirt.
I tried the koi antibiotic on numerous chickens as suggested here, and also some other types on a duck with a problem in the winter, and I didnt think that it worked any better than Tylan 5o injected directly into the swelling and coating it with neosporin then wrapping it with vet wrap. I change bandages every 3-5 days depending on the bird or the infection. I dont want to mess with it too much and sometimes it will heal better if left alone if you can get it out.
Your situation is different because you dont even have the birds anymore. If they dont like to be held upside down then wrap them in an old towel and let them lay across your lap while you look. bring a bucket of water and try to scrub the feet off and see if they seem infected or as if they have increased since youve had them. A chicken may poop on you even if you have them wrapped, but a towel over the lap helps alot with that.
I wouldnt go opening up anyone's feet unless you have time to keep up with it...also unless they are showing signs of pain or the pads or between the toes seem harder than a normal chicken foot (they are usually soft with looser skin) I would leave it alone.
The only thing is that if you catch it really early, you can just pop off the scab, scrap it a little to get any bit of very soft pus out, and put some neosporin on it, wrap it and let them go...sometimes the scab has a white stalactite type of protrusion on it and that would be likely the beginning of the kernel. The scab can be anywhere on the foot and if you look at the picture on my site youll see that the between the toes situation is common and that the kernel will try to exit that way too.
anyway, I guess that the question is, how long have they had these scabs and...well, can you take pics and post them? that would be the best thing...just wash them good first.
First of all, staph will not get to your babies and kill them, unless they have open wounds and you touch the staph and then the open wounds on the babies.
I would suggest wearing medical gloves (available cheap in most drug stores) when treating the feet of the chickens that have the bumblefoot.
Its unclear to me if you are seeing swelling now or just saw it months ago.
Google bumblefoot and look at the images by clicking on "images" on the left hand side of the google results page. Also, I have a few pics of very bad bumblefoot on my meetup page, which is in my signature.
Just look in photos and under medical. The recent one that I put up is a very bad cast that had festered for months in a hen that someone gave me. She didnt know that it was a problem but you can see that the bumbles traveled to in between the toes and became huge.
Bumblefoot doesnt just go away...it presents originally as a dark callus or scab that can be cut off and the plug below it dug out, or carefully soaked and massaged and coaxed out.
The very early ones sometimes are basically on the surface but you do have to dig around a little and try to get the pus out. You have to do this because often there is a tiny black scab that hides a huge infection underneath.
Many people dont treat it and just let the chickens go till they cant walk. Many people also put bumblefoot chickens down...I completely understand that because it can be very hard to treat.
Left untreated, the infection travels and gets involved in the tendons and joints. It seems to me that it eats away at the attachment of tendons to the bones, and destroys and softens the bones too. The chicken's body tries to fight off the infection by making pus, but chicken pus is very thick and he seems to follow the kernel as it travels...and the kernel does travel, the infection does spread.
Heavy breeds tend to get this and it can be caused by splinters in the perches or something like a thorn bush.
If you have had chickens for this long and they seem to have some dark scabs on their feet without swelling for months...no redness or hardness to the foot pad or between the toes, it may not be what you think.
I would scrub and soak their feed to see if its just dirt.
I tried the koi antibiotic on numerous chickens as suggested here, and also some other types on a duck with a problem in the winter, and I didnt think that it worked any better than Tylan 5o injected directly into the swelling and coating it with neosporin then wrapping it with vet wrap. I change bandages every 3-5 days depending on the bird or the infection. I dont want to mess with it too much and sometimes it will heal better if left alone if you can get it out.
Your situation is different because you dont even have the birds anymore. If they dont like to be held upside down then wrap them in an old towel and let them lay across your lap while you look. bring a bucket of water and try to scrub the feet off and see if they seem infected or as if they have increased since youve had them. A chicken may poop on you even if you have them wrapped, but a towel over the lap helps alot with that.
I wouldnt go opening up anyone's feet unless you have time to keep up with it...also unless they are showing signs of pain or the pads or between the toes seem harder than a normal chicken foot (they are usually soft with looser skin) I would leave it alone.
The only thing is that if you catch it really early, you can just pop off the scab, scrap it a little to get any bit of very soft pus out, and put some neosporin on it, wrap it and let them go...sometimes the scab has a white stalactite type of protrusion on it and that would be likely the beginning of the kernel. The scab can be anywhere on the foot and if you look at the picture on my site youll see that the between the toes situation is common and that the kernel will try to exit that way too.
anyway, I guess that the question is, how long have they had these scabs and...well, can you take pics and post them? that would be the best thing...just wash them good first.
