Badly infected leg on rooster, please help!

[Tonyroo]

Yep you can't place him indoors in a tiny house there's no room. Are you able to separate him from any flock members so there's no interaction among chickens?

 

[Paule]

Look at the bottom of his feet, may just be me, but the toe pads look swollen and it looks like he may have bumble foot as well.

I checked for bumblefoot and he doesn’t seem to have that. I’ll check again when it gets light.

 

[Paule]

@Eggcessive @aart @Tonyroo

I found an old guinea pig cage and set that up in the potting shed with a heater. There were some small food and water dispensers that I set up. I wedged them down at the slightly downhill end so hopefully they’ll stay upright.

I soaked his leg in warm water and hibacleanse and was able to remove the scabs fairly easily. Part of the scab looked like it was constricting circulation. I put polysporin on it and when I put him in the cage he started eating right away. I gave him pellet, cracked corn, and mealworms for protein.

Of course he crapped like three times in his fresh bedding so I removed that before I covered the cage. He also tried to climb onto the water dispenser where he’s not going to fit. I guess it’s normal that he wants to roost on something?

I’m in Washington state so it’s getting dark and he should calm down.

 

[LaFleche]

Hi,

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I am housesitting and don’t have a lot of chicken caring experience. I don’t know the age of the chickens or much about their health background.

The rooster has a badly infected leg and is swelling by the day and the foot and leg are noticeably hotter than the non injured leg. He is still walking but limps.

Two young roosters were removed nearly a month ago and my guess is that he got injured fighting them and his wounds went undetected for some days. He also has scabs on his comb and a healing puncture wound on his thigh.

I noticed lots of scabbing around the foreleg a couple of weeks ago. I have been applying warm compresses, cleaning with hibaclense, then applying iodine and polysporin under nonstick gauze and vet wrap. He’s not getting better!

I can’t afford a vet, they’re not my birds. I can’t get in touch with the owner who is on a boat in the Caribbean. I read about using fish antibiotics, is this possible? Are there any pain meds I can give?

I feel overwhelmed! Help!

Thank you,
Paulé

These wounds might be caused by his own overgrown spurs as with every step he takes the sharp and pointed ends will cut into his own legs. that might be the reason these wounds cannot heal.

If this was my rooster, I would trim back his spurs using a dremel.

With spurs this long he will not be able to sit or roost properly as he will get impaled.

 

[Xouie]

You are an amazing house-sitter taking such good care of this rooster! He looks so angry in the one picture — but that’s ok, he’s safe and clean. Great work!

 

[LaFleche]

I want to applaud you for your effort and all the trouble you are taking on even though you are just housesitting and he is not your rooster!


@Xouie beat me to it.

 

[Tonyroo]

These wounds might be caused by his own overgrown spurs as with every step he takes the sharp and pointed ends will cut into his own legs. that might be the reason these wounds cannot heal.

If this was my rooster, I would trim back his spurs using a dremel.

With spurs this long he will not be able to sit or roost properly as he will get impaled.

Can you suggests more options, not everyone own a Dremel tool.

 

[LaFleche]

Can you suggests more options, not everyone own a Dremel tool.

A rasp can be used as well. The important thing here would be to trim the tip and round it properly so the rooster will not gore himself.

For me using the dremel has turned out to be the best, quickest and easiest way with no bloodshed at all. There are various videos on youtube showing how to do it.

Of course there are also videos on other options, but I consider most of them quite hurtful for the rooster, for instance twisting the outer spur off with tongs.

 

[aart]

These wounds might be caused by his own overgrown spurs as with every step he takes the sharp and pointed ends will cut into his own legs. that might be the reason these wounds cannot heal.

I was wondering the same.
Would be good to see him standing to assess spur location.

 

[Paule]

You are an amazing house-sitter taking such good care of this rooster! He looks so angry in the one picture — but that’s ok, he’s safe and clean. Great work!

Thank you! He’s actually been quite tolerant of everything!