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.
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 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 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!
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.