3 Roosters with Single Swollen Toe Joint/Infection

[Eluna]

Hello!

I’m not new to chicken keeping and have treated bumblefoot on domestic birds and on wild birds as a volunteer at a wildlife rehab. I’m so confused about what is going on with my flock.

I have three roosters who each have *ONE* swollen joint on a toe. They had been working out their hierarchy recently, so when the first rooster presented with the swollen toe, I assumed he had an infection from the little fighting they did and took him to the vet for antibiotics.

Then two weeks later a second rooster presented with the same symptoms. The SMZ I got from the vet wasn’t changing anything about the swelling in the joint for the first guy, I lanced the abscesses (and the vet lanced them) and a tiny bit of pus came out but that was it.

I took the two of them back to my avian vet and got clindamycin to treat what I assume is a bacterial infection. X-ray showed infection had reached the bone on my first guy.

They have some bumble on their feet, but not on the pads and not on the toe that is swollen - mostly on the back of the foot below their spur and I’ve been treating that. Again I think it’s from when they were working out the hierarchy.

And now a third rooster has the same symptoms. One toe with a swollen joint.

They’re free range and go into predator proof housing at night. None of my ladies have any issues with swollen toe joints. I have three other roosters who are fine so far.

I have *no* idea what is going on and have never seen this before. The infection is not spreading, they don’t seem to be affected systemically, acting normal except favoring the foot sometimes. Even the pad of the foot isn’t swollen.

If the clindamycin is working (it’s been about 10 days and I don’t see much change) it’s working very slowly. I have a four week course for each of them.

Please let me know if you have any ideas! I’m going to try to soak them in Epsom salts and maybe use a drawing salve because I’m at a loss!

 

[alinas2010]

Hi, so sorry to hear about your Roos. Are they pretty hefty boys? Is the roost high? What do they run around on all day? Could you post some pics of the bottoms of their feet please.

I’m glad you have access to a vet for treatment, especially since the infection is down to the bone. Sounds like you’re doing everything you can to treat them. But let’s see the bottoms of the feet and see if we can spot anything else. They may benefit from the soaks and some wrapping with ointment.

I’ve seen in stubborn bumblefoot cases where one of the educators has had really good success with packing sugardine into the open wound. Sometimes instead of being a kernel or core, the bumblefoot is cause by stringy pus material that is dispersed throughout the tissue and is super stubborn to get rid of. In post number 8 by @coach723 she describes this and then talks about about making a sugardine paste that is helpful in treating this type of infection:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bumblefoot-not-healing.1443809/#post-23973555


It’s worth a shot if nothing else has worked, although drawing slave is generally pretty good for bumblefoot, also. Keep in mind that bumblefoot (in chickens) does generally take a while to heal no matter what treatment route you choose to take.

 

[LaFleche]

To me the first picture looks like a broken or dislocated toe which can easily happen when roosters fight.

 

[coach723]

If they got broken or dislocated then it could also be bone callus forming around the break, but I would assume that would show up on xray. MS (mycoplasma synoviae) can also cause swollen joints, whether it could impact just one joint, I don't know.
Some bumble foot infections do tunnel through the tissue, so if you are treating one spot, it's possible that it's reached another. My roo referenced in the previous post on sugardine, presented with a lesion on the bottom of the foot pad, and there was pus all the way up to his ankle. I had to lance both ends and clean it out both ways. The fluid I flushed with would go in the bottom of the foot and come out the ankle, it was really bad. The sugardine eventually cleared up that and it healed, I did put him on SMZ-TMP and clindamycin for about 6-8 weeks as there was evidence of bone involvement as well. He lived another 3 -4 years after all that with no recurrence (eventually died of old age at almost 13). It took months to get it all healed up though.