Arizona Chickens

I will get some good pics up tomorrow. I've been doing a lot of research and I think I may try soaking them in a Tricide Neo/distilled water solution for a week. It's a product used to treat fish skin, oddly enough, but has been proven to treat bumblefoot in poultry as well. It does not involve cutting the foot or removing the plug/scab, therefore does not require wrapping the foot. I cannot fathom pulling the scab out, cleaning, medicating, and wrapping 20 chicken feet :confused: I'll do it if I have to but hopefully this soak will work instead! Apparently the stuff is pricey, which is a bummer. Oh well, they're definitely worth it. I'll keep you posted on this method...if I end up doing it and if it works.
I think I have narrowed down the culprit to the roosts...they are square shaped and not round. So we will sand the edges down tomorrow. They aren't necessarily sharp, but I just can't think of any other way they would have all gotten this. On both feet. The whole dang flock. :barnie
I'm just glad I caught it early, they don't seem to notice or be bothered at all by it. I need to treat it ASAP before it gets any worse.

This is one reason I go easy on soaking down the runs. The added moisture seems to foster bumblefoot in my flock.

Lowering your roost height and having soft bedding for them to land in when they jump down may also help. If they are jumping down onto a hard floor (or hard-packed dirt) they can hurt their feet and develop bumblefoot. The larger the chicken the more likely they will hurt their feet when they jump down from a roost.

If your birds have bumbles that are just beginning they might not be too hard to treat. Just swabbing the affected areas with Betadine solution would go a long way toward clearing it up.

I've never had to operate on a bumblefoot. I did have a few birds with developing bumbles one year that were bad enough I had to wrap them. I washed the birds' feet, then applied a sugar/betadine mix which was held in place with gauze and strips of vet wrap. The sugar/betadine packing was a trick I learned from an old-timer thread on BYC several years ago. It worked pretty well at drawing out the infection, and it was cheap. I was surprised at how well the wraps stayed on their feet. Most of the bandages were still in place when it was time to change them.

Edited to add that the treatment procedure would be a lot easier with bantams than large fowl. It wasn't easy getting my 10 pound rooster to stand in the foot-soaking basin. He had other ideas about what he wanted to be doing, and they didn't involve getting a pedicure. :lau

Good luck!
 
Last edited:
@MagicChicken thank you so much for all the useful advice. I didn't even think of the moisture in the run- that makes so much sense though. Wet, warm sand is a perfect medium for staph infection, which is what bumblefoot is. Do you use misters in your coop/run? I stopped spraying the run down but the misters are on most of the day and it gets very damp in there. This could easily explain the sudden outbreak (which I am 99% sure it is bumblefoot, when I post pics later today you guys can help me determine if I'm right in my assumption). This morning I will be adding more sand to their little landing pad from the roost, and sanding down the roost bars so they're rounded. I also have Vetricyn that I am spraying the feet with. I hold them until it dries and then let them run free.
:lau The thought of your rooster refusing his pedicure gave me a good laugh...mine are so used to being handled I could probably paint their toenails haha
 
Make sure that it is bumblefoot for sure. It seems very odd that soo many of your chickens are having it. Compare what your chickens have to this website. I have read it thru times before. BTW in over 20 years, have never encountered it.

The website Chicken Chick host is also a BYC member.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/bumblefoot-causes-treatment-warning/

Wishing you best with whatever you need to do.. :hugs
Thank you for the link! I love this lady's site, it's a good one :highfive:
 
They have now changed the trophy points statice. You will see what level that you are at with this new one by looking under your avatar and nic here in your postings. Mine now say's "Crowing". Here's the link that tells about how they changed the levels now:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-trophy-point-levels.1251359/
I liked being "overrun with chickens" better, personally, because none of my girls are ever "crowing"! Oh well. Thanks for posting this, I would have been confused as to the title change when I saw it.
 
Ok here are some pics of the bumblefoot:
image.jpeg
image.jpeg
image.jpeg
And on a happier note, here is a pic of the new coop roof that we put up about a month ago:
image.jpeg
 
Yup, certainly looks like small cases of bumblefoot. I'll have to agree with MagicChicken too, on the perch height and jumping down as well. The one bird i have that has it is a Brahma rooster that walks "heavy footed" and I'm pretty sure he just worked a grain of sand or something into his foot.
 
Well it does look like bumblefoot but early. I would look into a drawing salve "Smiles PRID" that you can put on their foot, wrap it, gauze or whatever, then the next day you can usually take that scab and pull it off with the kernel. Not always is there a kernel - but most times. I've only had two, one that required surgery and one with the PRID. The one with the PRID was so easy and it did not have a kernel in it just yellow gunk. After you will need to antibiotic it - neosporin or whatever and wrap again for a couple days. I got the PRID at Walgreen's - it was on the back shelves by the Pharmacy where I live but I imagine you could ask about drawing salves. AND you can use it for other things like splinters you can't seem to get. Also I'm interested in trying it on my inevitable ant bites if I remember before I scratch them into sores! I want to see if it will take that white poison out. Like I said if I remember! Stay cool and safe all.........
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom