How to Correctly Wrap a Chicken's Foot!

Great work putting this together, thank you! Today was my first time treating bumblefoot and I had no idea how I was going to wrap a chicken foot! A quick search on backyardchickens brought me to this article. Your step by step instructions made it super easy to do and I got a chuckle out of your humour too! It was actually easy to do on my own by swaddling her snuggly in a towel. The dressing held up all day with no issue.

Used this today after treating bumblefoot on both feet of one hen and this article is awesome. The wraps turned out just right by following these instructions. This really helped me a lot. They are staying on and she doesn't even seem to notice they are there.

Excellent article, great pictures showing the different steps of the foot wrapping process.

I've wrapped my girls in a towel to help immobilize them while performing any kind of medical care by myself. It's useful to preventing them from scratching me, and keeps them calmer during whatever medical procedure or inspection I'm performing on them.

Very helpful article with great pictures! Just what I was looking for!

Very informative and useful information! Good photos as well

Thank you so, so much! I recommend this highly and encourage everyone to follow her great instructions as it worked beautifully yesterday! The directions are perfect and easily understood and since I had my two guys here we did the teamwork without having to hold her upside down, especially since we did this early evening when the hen house was sleeping and her craw was full. She totally relaxed while held holding her from a seat above to allow her to stand in the epsom salts foot bath, using a clean few-inches deep enough stainless dog water bowl. She looked like it immediately soothed her poor sore foot! Next gently rinsed the foot with the liquid antiseptic recommended, patted it dry gently with piece cut of the sterile bandage, then held the other piece of dry sterile gauze with drop of bacitracin on the sore spot, followed by the wrapping of the foot and it all worked well with 1st wrapping being successful! She immediately started walking around putting her full weight on both feet, watched her awhile when she went to the chicken house door when we walked her in and she immediately jumped up the two bars to join her sleepy flock on the usual top roost! I regret not doing this sooner, as she began limping weeks ago and I know she must have been in a lot of pain looking back. We were hesitant to work on the injury not knowing how we could have done this treatment and not necessarily an either-or decision about needing to actually cut the foot, not having yet talked to our vet who actually described your very techniques!! We will watch her in the coming week or two while doing this treatment every other day and will get our vet involved if we have more concerns as she already mentioned that she can do any remedy involving cutting/ surgical type procedure. Thanks so much again!

This was so helpful My chicken jumped on top of our garden fencing and it cute her foot. Thanks so much!

Wonderful information! Well done!

Excellent article.

If I ever had to treat one of my chickens for any kind of injury I feel like I could use this information to assist me with my duties.

I feel she has really researched this problem and applied the easiest and best technique to benefit the chicken.

The funny parts were great and made it easier to read especially when she poked fun at herself.

This is a SUPER article! It’s very informative, has beautiful pictures, with a generous dose of humor mixed in. I’m still chuckling at “stinging scratches” (who hasn’t had those?), and your hen repeatedly glancing at the floor while flexing her toes. Thank you so much!

This is an AWESOME tutorial...and hilarious to boot.

"Or you can get some idiot you know to help hold her down. Scratches for all!"

Phenomenal. Great, high quality pictures and fantastic information. The fact that you actually thought through 'the no nos' is just a bonus.
Great job

Excellent informative article with easy-to-understand step-by-step directions and great photos too. As a bonus, I love your humor!

This is a wonderful article! I've dealt with bumblefoot in my flock before, and the Vetwrap I put on usually wouldn't stay on more than a day. Since I was usually always out there by myself, I get what you're saying about mad hens! Mine are used to me handling them, but that doesn't mean they like it. I never felt comfortable putting them on their back. I'd squat down and clamp them between my legs, and then hold their foot up, so that they would stand on one foot. The only problem with this is that my face is really close to them, and it got scratched a few times. Your hens are good models, and very cute!

Extremely well written!!

Excellent article. The pictures and explanation make this easy to follow.

Thank you for this demonstration

Great write up and pics. Very thorough. I always felt a used too much wrap on a hen's foot. Turns out I do. Oops! I learned something though.

Only thing I still do differently is packing the open wound with the ointment rather than using just a dab. There tends to be a pocket under the skin after bubble foot is surgically removed because there's a void where the infecting was. I make sure there's enough ointment to fill the void. This lasts longer and ensure any missed infecting gets a direct dose of antibiotic from the ointment.

I like the bit of humor in the article!

Very good method of wrapping a chicken foot.

I will keep this article bookmarked in case this ever happens to one of my chickens. Thank you for explaining the things that can go wrong with pictures as well. Your explanations are crystal clear and easy to follow!