18 plus birds suddenly plagued with bumblefoot. I've never had a single case before. Affecting many

[CallieSFlock]

Last night while counting my birds at lockup; I noticed one of my hens (an Easter Egger) was hesitant to put her foot down. I inspected her feet and sure enough, she had bumblefoot. I was surprised as this was the first case I'd ever had. I wondered what had caused it. I knew I had better check the rest of my flock the following day. Fast forward to this morning.
When I opened my coop this morning; I checked each of my bird's feet before letting them out. My second bird in, I had another with bumblefoot(another Easter Egger)! When I grabbed my third chicken and it also had bumblefoot (Easter Egger), I knew something bad was afoot. Out of my ten birds, only three were unaffected (2 Easter Egger hens and a Bantam Cochen rooster)! That's not to say that they all had the worst stage of bumblefoot. However, it was alarming that so many of them were affected and 4 of them need surgical intervention.
With so many of my flock in bad shape, I wondered about my roommate's flock. I started looking at their birds. The first two I grabbed, were the same as mine. One was a French Copper Maran, and one was a Brahma. They both need surgical intervention! I moved on to their big coop and checked their chicken's feet one- by- one. The majority of their chickens were also affected. They have multiple breeds. Easter Eggers, WellSummers, Marans, Dominiques, Brahamas, and a lone Silkie. The Silkie was completely unaffected in anyway at all. I don't know if she's just lucky, or resistant. Every other breed had a member who suffered from some stage of bumblefoot.
About 3/4 of our entire population has been plagued by this outbreak. Including our Guinea hen who lives among our chickens and shares a coop with them. The bumblefoot has an unusually presentation.
I've noticed that on some of the birds that the are black spots on their feet, legs, or nails that were not there previously. They are related to the bumblefoot. In addition, this "agent" seems to literally be eating holes into their feet. I am suspicious that it might be a fungus instead of a Staph.
I am located in Barnesville, Ga. About two weeks ago were had a tremendously powerful storm come through. It blew the lid off of the chicken feed and some rain got into it. I was told to dump the entire top of it, about 20lbs or so to get rid of the wet food and then to sprinkle D.E. over the top to absorb any leftover moisture. If I could've had my way, I would've dumped it all and started with fresh food. I don't have any money and work for my chicken's food though, so i did as i was told.
Of course when I got towards the bottom of the barrel, the food was moldy and packed to the sides. Our chickens started suffering diarrhea. I dumped the rest of the moldy food immediately and explained that I needed yogurt for probiotics.
I was told to give the chickens D.E. that it would kill any lingering fungus in the digestive tract. I've been dusting their food, but most still suffer from watery stools.
When I separated out the chickens today, I asked for help with surgery. I was told that a salve would work and no surgery was required. I disagree and want your opinions. I will be posting pictures.
Our chickens are free range but are fed gamecock conditioner feed. They get fresh water from a hose everyday. I scrub their water container everyday or every otherday. All water containers are prone to grow algae so it is a must.
I am allergic to oysters. As such, we wash our egg shells and feed them back to the chickens. It has been very hot here. The coops were recently cleaned out. Please let me know if you need more pictures or if you have any questions.

 

[Squishychicken]

What's the floor of your run made out of? Is ther anything sharp ylthey could cut themselves on?

 

[AltonaAcres]

Those feet look normal to me.......are they limping for another reason?

 

[Squishychicken]

When was the last time you checked for bumble

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Last night while counting my birds at lockup; I noticed one of my hens (an Easter Egger) was hesitant to put her foot down. I inspected her feet and sure enough, she had bumblefoot. I was surprised as this was the first case I'd ever had. I wondered what had caused it. I knew I had better check the rest of my flock the following day. Fast forward to this morning.
When I opened my coop this morning; I checked each of my bird's feet before letting them out. My second bird in, I had another with bumblefoot(another Easter Egger)! When I grabbed my third chicken and it also had bumblefoot (Easter Egger), I knew something bad was afoot. Out of my ten birds, only three were unaffected (2 Easter Egger hens and a Bantam Cochen rooster)! That's not to say that they all had the worst stage of bumblefoot. However, it was alarming that so many of them were affected and 4 of them need surgical intervention.
With so many of my flock in bad shape, I wondered about my roommate's flock. I started looking at their birds. The first two I grabbed, were the same as mine. One was a French Copper Maran, and one was a Brahma. They both need surgical intervention! I moved on to their big coop and checked their chicken's feet one- by- one. The majority of their chickens were also affected. They have multiple breeds. Easter Eggers, WellSummers, Marans, Dominiques, Brahamas, and a lone Silkie. The Silkie was completely unaffected in anyway at all. I don't know if she's just lucky, or resistant. Every other breed had a member who suffered from some stage of bumblefoot.
About 3/4 of our entire population has been plagued by this outbreak. Including our Guinea hen who lives among our chickens and shares a coop with them. The bumblefoot has an unusually presentation.
I've noticed that on some of the birds that the are black spots on their feet, legs, or nails that were not there previously. They are related to the bumblefoot. In addition, this "agent" seems to literally be eating holes into their feet. I am suspicious that it might be a fungus instead of a Staph.
I am located in Barnesville, Ga. About two weeks ago were had a tremendously powerful storm come through. It blew the lid off of the chicken feed and some rain got into it. I was told to dump the entire top of it, about 20lbs or so to get rid of the wet food and then to sprinkle D.E. over the top to absorb any leftover moisture. If I could've had my way, I would've dumped it all and started with fresh food. I don't have any money and work for my chicken's food though, so i did as i was told.
Of course when I got towards the bottom of the barrel, the food was moldy and packed to the sides. Our chickens started suffering diarrhea. I dumped the rest of the moldy food immediately and explained that I needed yogurt for probiotics.
I was told to give the chickens D.E. that it would kill any lingering fungus in the digestive tract. I've been dusting their food, but most still suffer from watery stools.
When I separated out the chickens today, I asked for help with surgery. I was told that a salve would work and no surgery was required. I disagree and want your opinions. I will be posting pictures.
Our chickens are free range but are fed gamecock conditioner feed. They get fresh water from a hose everyday. I scrub their water container everyday or every otherday. All water containers are prone to grow algae so it is a must.
I am allergic to oysters. As such, we wash our egg shells and feed them back to the chickens. It has been very hot here. The coops were recently cleaned out. Please let me know if you need more pictures or if you have any questions. View attachment 1798333 View attachment 1798334 View attachment 1798335 View attachment 1798336 View attachment 1798337 View attachment 1798338 View attachment 1798339 View attachment 1798340

I guess I am not seeing any sores, maybe just little nicks, but their feet look pretty clean to me? Maybe I just can’t see what you were seeing from the photo?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Oyster is used for calcium for layers I also do not see bumblefoot there

 

[ChemicalchiCkns]

Many do not look like bumbel foots. The last one may be. The true ones are a scab that is clearly its own thing, separate from the normal pad, and a different Texture, hard.

 

[CallieSFlock]

What's the floor of your run made out of? Is ther anything sharp ylthey could cut themselves on?

The chickens reside in various coops. My coop has a wooden floor. Their main coop has an earth floor. One of their small coops has an earth floor and one has a wooden floor. We use wood chips in all of our coops. They have all been changed recently. The wood chips in my coop are stirred daily and replaced weekly or every other week depending on how dirty they are (I likea clean coop). The only run we have is a 10x10 dog kennel. It obviously has an earth floor. Our chickens free range once I let them out of their coops in the morning. There is nothing that has changed other than the feed incident. There isn't anything sharp for them to cut themselves on. Whatever this is, it seems to be causing the holes in their feet. It seems to be eroding into their flesh.

 

[CallieSFlock]

Those feet look normal to me.......are they limping for another reason?

Most of the pic I choose aren't the worst looking per se, they just show the weird black coloration of whatever this is. I also have to say, the pictures don't do the damage to their feet justice. I was surprised when I went through my gallery. I will take pictures of the worst off bumblefooted chickens tomorrow and add them. I was just so overwhelmed today and it was dark but the time I realized I didn't have the best pics.

 

[CallieSFlock]

When was the last time you checked for bumble

It's been at least two weeks ago. I'd say between 2-3 weeks.