Another possible bumblefoot question

[1HarleyLady1]

I’ve had my RI rooster for about a month, and is limping on the right foot. He has some feathers on his foot and leg and did have a sore on his leg when I got him which has healed. He has started limping and I noticed one of his toenails is missing (sorry, can’t get photo til have someone to help me) and the very tip of his toe is black, looks like the photos of bumblefoot. Is this likely to be bumblefoot, or just a scab from losing his nail? I am going to pickup the supplies this afternoon to treat it as bumblefoot, but wondering if this is an unusual spot to get it or if it’s just sore and scabbed from breaking off the nail at the base. I’ve never had a bird with bumblefoot before.

 

[azygous]

It would be very rare to have a bumblefoot infection on the toe, especially when loss of a toenail is extremely common for a chicken. The older they grow, the more toenails they will lose, especially the heavier birds.

You need to do further examination to determine if the black tip is just a scab or dirt or necrotic tissue. If if it's necrotic tissue (dead), there is usually swelling behind the blackened portion.

The best way to do a thorough exam is to soak the foot first for about ten minutes in warm soapy water. Dawn dish soap works best. Then pull any hard scab off. It won't hurt any healing progress to do this. Then you will be able to see if there is any infection under the scab (pus).

Get a photo as soon as you can, but soak and scrape off the scab before you take a pic.

 

[RossAcres]

So it may not be "bumble foot". I think it is just an infection from having an open wound (which is basically what bumblefoot is). I would treat it like bumblefoot. There probably won't be a "corn" in it, but it would be good measure to completely clean it out and bandage it.

 

[1HarleyLady1]

It would be very rare to have a bumblefoot infection on the toe, especially when loss of a toenail is extremely common for a chicken. The older they grow, the more toenails they will lose, especially the heavier birds.

You need to do further examination to determine if the black tip is just a scab or dirt or necrotic tissue. If if it's necrotic tissue (dead), there is usually swelling behind the blackened portion.

The best way to do a thorough exam is to soak the foot first for about ten minutes in warm soapy water. Dawn dish soap works best. Then pull any hard scab off. It won't hurt any healing progress to do this. Then you will be able to see if there is any infection under the scab (pus).

Get a photo as soon as you can, but soak and scrape off the scab before you take a pic.

Thank you, will do and will check back later.

 

[1HarleyLady1]

So it may not be "bumble foot". I think it is just an infection from having an open wound (which is basically what bumblefoot is). I would treat it like bumblefoot. There probably won't be a "corn" in it, but it would be good measure to completely clean it out and bandage it.

Thank you, will attend to it when husband is home to help me with this big guy. Will post later what we find.

 

[1HarleyLady1]

I won’t have help until tomorrow to soak/treat his foot, but was able to get this photo of the toe in question and a bit of sore spot on his leg. I don’t see anything on the bottom of his foot. Also, should I try to trim the foot feathers?

 

[azygous]

You don't really need to do any thing to treat that. That little toe tip had become infected. Chickens have an immune system response called auto-amputation. They wall off the infection with swelling, and the blood supply to that part gets cut off. The infected tissue then dies and falls off. The black tip will fall off any time now, leaving a healed toe. I've seen this in my flock.

However, bumblefoot will not react as conveniently. Auto-amputation usually doesn't occur with bumblefoot infections because they're on the foot pad. This isn't to say that a very serious foot pad infection can't spread to the entire foot and it could then auto-amputate, but before that happens, the shank bone would also be infected.

Your patient will be just fine. But do check his foot pads to be sure he doesn't have a real case of bumblefoot.

 

[1HarleyLady1]

You don't really need to do any thing to treat that. That little toe tip had become infected. Chickens have an immune system response called auto-amputation. They wall off the infection with swelling, and the blood supply to that part gets cut off. The infected tissue then dies and falls off. The black tip will fall off any time now, leaving a healed toe. I've seen this in my flock.

However, bumblefoot will not react as conveniently. Auto-amputation usually doesn't occur with bumblefoot infections because they're on the foot pad. This isn't to say that a very serious foot pad infection can't spread to the entire foot and it could then auto-amputate, but before that happens, the shank bone would also be infected.

Your patient will be just fine. But do check his foot pads to be sure he doesn't have a real case of bumblefoot.

Thank you! So that toe infection is likely the cause of his avoiding walking on that foot? That’s a huge relief! I will check the foot pads again, but wasn’t able to see any problem area last time I was able to get a quick look.

 

[azygous]

Oh, yes. Toe infections cause a chicken every bit as much pain as an infected toe tail on your foot. Our immune systems aren't as efficient as chickens'. Your infected toe would cause you pain and suffering for much, much longer than it did your chicken.

 

[1HarleyLady1]

Oh, yes. Toe infections cause a chicken every bit as much pain as an infected toe tail on your foot. Our immune systems aren't as efficient as chickens'. Your infected toe would cause you pain and suffering for much, much longer than it did your chicken.

Really appreciate this info. Having recently had an injured toe myself, I really feel his pain so may be overthinking all this. I do have one more question, there is redness/irritation at the lower leg and base of his foot feathers. Should I spray some Vetericyn on that or put Neosporin on it?