Abscess on foot. **pic** UPDATE

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

I've been dealing with Bumblefoot too:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=217732

Lots of good advice here - I'm bookmarking this thread it since 11 out of my 13 hens had it on at least 1 foot and I can use any help I can get with this.

A couple things I found helpful that have not been mentioned yet:

Keep your chicken away from their food for about 1/2 hour before starting (having them poop in the middle of surgery is not pleasant).

Feet soaking tip for those who don't want to sit and hold their chicken for 15 minutes (or 2 chickens for 30 minutes, etc):
I turn the lights off in the bathroom (the bathroom with no window), place my pan of water/epsom salts in the shower with the curtain closed, and then place the chicken in the pan and shut the bathroom door. Since it is completely dark in there, the chicken will stay quiet and still till you come back for her. I have several hens with bumblefoot, so I am usually working on one, while another is soaking her feet.

 

[ScoobyRoo]

Quote:
If a plug is coming out every time you remove the scab then you didn't get all of the plug out the first time. I would go back in and remove as much of that plug as I could.

Everytime I remove the bandage, soak and clean it, it looks like I got everything because then all I see is meat/flesh and it looks clean. I wrap it up and it is the same thing all over again. I just can't see anything else in there except the pink fleshy stuff. Where is this infection hiding?!? Oh well,,,,,,

 

[wolfspecter13]

I can't help but chuckle as I read all these - what a bunch of chicken nuts we all are!!

This is Day 2 after the Great Surgery - I will be going out to remove bandage and check my surgical efforts in a bit. Although I got 2 pretty good size plugs out of her foot, there still seemed to be some "sinewy" looking, same-colored softer stuff in there. Her foot had little pus and was still a bit swollen when I stopped. I am hoping that I did get all the crud out and now she just needs to heal. I guess I will know more shortly.

Anyway I mention the softer sinewy stuff here because I know cysts like these often send out tentacles that root in tissue further from the original site of the infection. Maybe if you did not get all those tentacles out (or most of them), they are re-forming another little cyst?

Good luck! - wolfspecter13

 

[Bluebells]

Yes, they do take to you when you are caring for them. Be careful when you put her back with her flock (bullying). Find the worst bully immediately and pretend care for her to overcome any envy issues. You're doing such a great job!

 

[Bluebells]

My chicken vet says it is a varuca that causes the infection to enter. She says varucas cannot be cured, they don't go away.
I wonder whether the varuca is the "plug" everyone is talking about.

Good news: there is a special kind of bandage for chicken feet.

Reading this thread I am wondering whether to take Margaret to the vet to have it lanced or whether to try it myself.
Just worried about the infection, staff bacteria not being a good housekeeper. Manage to clean the hen house almost
every day but rarely wash it, for instance. If I can afford the vet, I will try her, but I wonder whether she really knows.
She had us giving her antibiotic injections subcutaneous on her back for a week, but infection has not gone down much.

Also, I was thinking of soaking foot in warm salty water adding peroxide and echnacea. Reading the thread, I know I can.
Vet had said not to waste time soaking feet. Odd, because our human infections improve with warm compresses and soaking.
I wonder why she said that.