About to treat Bumblefoot for the first time. Advice appreciated!

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Hi all. These pics are of Buffy, my 1 year old Isa Brown. We noticed she was a little gimpy this afternoon. (Otherwise acting normally, currently chasing moths around the yard). Swelling was moderately noticeable from the top of her foot. Checked her feet and found this “blister.” Googled and learned all the internet has to offer about Bumblefoot. So I’m prepared to treat it but was hoping some experienced folks could give me some guidance. Here are my questions:

1- I believe we’re past the stage of self-healing and that I will need to cut and clean it. Based on the pics, would you agree?

2- How in the heck do you securely wrap a chicken’s foot???

3- Some folks, it seems, keep their healing bird isolated from the flock while others patch ‘em up and toss them back in with the flock. Which do you recommend? I have the capacity to bring her indoors, so I think that’s what I should do. But do I need to be concerned about reintegrating her to the flock? (I have 5 laying hens, no serious aggression issues, but Buffy is already at the bottom of the pecking order).

4- What do you wish you’d known the first time you treated a chicken with Bumblefoot?

5-The only area I don’t regularly scoop the poop out of us the space under my deck, where the birds like to perch on a brick wall. I imagine between the abrasiveness of the brick and lack of cleaning, this is probably where she got it. Is there any way to deter the girls from perching on this wall?

6- I’m not against taking her to the vet, but get the impression that I can successfully treat this at home. Would you advise differently? (ironically I’ve been caring for a human family member with infected foot wounds, so I kind of feel like an old hat at this).

 

[Eggcessive]

You can start out with soaking the feet in warm Epsom salts water for 15 minutes a day. Sometimes you can do that for a few days, and then try to remove the scab and squeeze out the yellow plug inside. There is a lot of info and pictures of the surgery and bandaging the foot here:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/bumblefoot-causes-treatment-warning/

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Thank you!

 

[Eggcessive]

Let us know how it goes. I have seen a lot of bumblefoot over the years in my flock from having rocky ground. I tend to ignore it unless the chicken is limping, has a red and swollen footpad, or the bubble between the toes on the top of the foot. Then I usually do the surgery. Good luck.

 

[rooroo2319]

Hi all. These pics are of Buffy, my 1 year old Isa Brown. We noticed she was a little gimpy this afternoon. (Otherwise acting normally, currently chasing moths around the yard). Swelling was moderately noticeable from the top of her foot. Checked her feet and found this “blister.” Googled and learned all the internet has to offer about Bumblefoot. So I’m prepared to treat it but was hoping some experienced folks could give me some guidance. Here are my questions:

1- I believe we’re past the stage of self-healing and that I will need to cut and clean it. Based on the pics, would you agree?

2- How in the heck do you securely wrap a chicken’s foot???

3- Some folks, it seems, keep their healing bird isolated from the flock while others patch ‘em up and toss them back in with the flock. Which do you recommend? I have the capacity to bring her indoors, so I think that’s what I should do. But do I need to be concerned about reintegrating her to the flock? (I have 5 laying hens, no serious aggression issues, but Buffy is already at the bottom of the pecking order).

4- What do you wish you’d known the first time you treated a chicken with Bumblefoot?

5-The only area I don’t regularly scoop the poop out of us the space under my deck, where the birds like to perch on a brick wall. I imagine between the abrasiveness of the brick and lack of cleaning, this is probably where she got it. Is there any way to deter the girls from perching on this wall?

6- I’m not against taking her to the vet, but get the impression that I can successfully treat this at home. Would you advise differently? (ironically I’ve been caring for a human family member with infected foot wounds, so I kind of feel like an old hat at this).

I’m not an expert by any means, but I had a hen who had bumblefoot and a relative (who’s a nurse) operated on my hen successfully. My hen survived the surgery and healed quite well, so here’s what worked for us:
1. while doing stuff to her foot, hold her in a towel and keep her head covered to lower her stress and keep her from fussing
2. hold her feet in a large plastic tub filled with warm water and epsom salt (we found she was most comfortable when the weight was off of her foot) and soak until the water isn’t warm
3. when operating, wear gloves and clothes you aren’t concerned about ruining
4. after soaking, dry off her foot and use a sterile razor blade and cut off the scab
5. massage the pus and buildup out, and the kernel should come out as well if it didn’t already come off with the scab
6. once it seemed like the infection was out (there was still some inflammation though) we used kwik stop to stop bleeding
7. after wiping up her foot (don’t wipe all the kwik stop off) we wrapped her foot in a lot of gauze like a cast and taped it with electrical for because it worked best
8. we kept her inside for about a week and fed her her normal chicken feed and added scrambled eggs and mashed sweet potato into her diet as well as a probiotic to her water
9. we changed the bandage every day or every other day, and before we wrapped her back up we did another epsom salt soak, cleaned her foot and put some neosporin on the wound

The swelling eventually went down and her foot healed great. Our flock took to her coming back well but I can’t guarantee that yours will do the same, so letting her spend some time outside but having her sleep inside after the week or so is up wouldn’t hurt. Hope those helps and feel free to ask any questions!!

edit: the surgery was performed outside on the porch to avoid contamination inside, and she was laid on her side with the towel wrapped around her. I suggest having a second person present to help keep her face covered (my hen would shake it off her head a bit) and to keep her still if she starts fussing and squirming.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

As an update we’ve done 2 Epsom foot soaks. The first was Saturday night shortly before bedtime. In the morning, she was not limping, but the swelling was still very noticeable. I did another soak this morning, and when I came home this evening, the swelling had reduced! I’m going to continue with the soaks. If she stops showing improvement I’ll reconsider surgery. This pic shows Buffy loving her spa, and my bizarro cat, Brody, eating the corn I was bribing Buffy with.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that you are seeing improvement. She seems to like her spar treatment and entertainment.