bumble foot in all my chickens

[rahaf]

This threads been dormant a bit, but if really like to know how it turned out.
I have 20 hens and 2 roosters. My flock is a mix of Easter eggers, olive eggers, black copper marans, welsummers, and blue americaunas. This spring I had one girl come down with bumblefoot. I soaked it with Epsom salts, removed the kernel, and coated with vetericyn and vetwrap.

Now I noticed another girl with a red inflamed bumble and inspected the flock. 16 of them have the small black scabbing the center of their pads. They are true free range and have run of the whole properly. The coop is clean and perches are sanded 2x4s. There are so many with scabs its going to be too time consuming to soak treat and bandage them all and do daily rebandaging. I hate to confine them to a run, but I don't know what else to do to prevent the bumbles. I've gotten so much conflicting information. Some have told me that if there is not an abscess eventually the body will push out the kernel and heal itself. One person I know says leave them and if it gets crippling they go in the soup pot (mine turned into pets, that's not an option).

I'm not sure what to do at this point and if free range is a viable option. If hate to lock them up. They are so happy roaming around.

so in my case, turned out i didnt even need to intervene at all! if they have a scap but not limping and acting just as normal u shouldnt worry about it, bc the black spot is almost like how our cuts as humans get covered in that black dried stuff yk? so from what i did learn the bumble foot is usually when theres pus and is getting worse pretty fast, even after i worried my ass off and gave them antibiotics it turned out it wasnt needed at all cuz none of them were actually limping or had any pus/inflamed etc, youll know when one needs intervention at all trust me lol,i rlly dont think u need to enclose ur birds cuz i also thought i should after i found out sbt their scabs but chickens will chicken no matter what in my experiance! they even dug up my small pots and dug anyway lol, im not an expert at all but this was just my experiance! im sure birds in the wild have all kinda scabs on their feet and not all of them would turn into bumble foot

 

[Cgorges]

Omg, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Any post u see with even a little scab says "its bumble, cut it out". I was starting to question how chickens can ever be chickens and scratch around doing chicken stuff if that's the case.

 

[Cgorges]

@rahaf could you please look at these and tell me if they look like the scabs you had heal on those own? I operated on the one with the redness and swelling. Did get a corn and a lot of our from that one, so clearly was humble, but these are the ones I'm not sure about.

 

[Cgorges]

Btw they black one ran through poop, so there's that on the pad.

 

[rahaf]

@rahaf could you please look at these and tell me if they look like the scabs you had heal on those own? I operated on the one with the redness and swelling. Did get a corn and a lot of our from that one, so clearly was humble, but these are the ones I'm not sure about.View attachment 3572534View attachment 3572535View attachment 3572536View attachment 3572537View attachment 3572538View attachment 3572539

these look a lot like what my hens had! their foot pad expanded which i guessed its their bodies way of dealing with injuries even after thr kernel falls out itll likely still be there to act as an extra cushion (at least thats what madr sense to me) but from seeing this i dont see redness or inflaming and if u dont see them limping then i dont think they need anything, most of the time if they have a bumble that needs intervention theyd start limping from day 1 not day 10 or so, bc thatd either mean smth got stick under the kernel or an infrction etc if that makes sense, id say from what i had happen to me dont stress about it unless its affecting their daily activity which ik u said majority of them dont seem bothered right?

 

[rahaf]

Omg, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Any post u see with even a little scab says "its bumble, cut it out". I was starting to question how chickens can ever be chickens and scratch around doing chicken stuff if that's the case.

no literally i panicked so bad with mine and couldnt sleep cuz i didnt know how id deal with all my hens for 2 weeks treatment AND theyre skittish so id have to run after them everyday!! but it rlly was that simple and they wouldnt have needed my help at all lol, like how would huge farms with hundreds of thousands free range chickens that literally live in forests would deal with any tiny scab they see on their feet yk

 

[Cgorges]

no literally i panicked so bad with mine and couldnt sleep cuz i didnt know how id deal with all my hens for 2 weeks treatment AND theyre skittish so id have to run after them everyday!! but it rlly was that simple and they wouldnt have needed my help at all lol, like how would huge farms with hundreds of thousands free range chickens that literally live in forests would deal with any tiny scab they see on their feet yk

Exactly how I felt, my wife was not impressed with my tossing and turning last night. My girls come for treats but are almost impossible to pick up until they go up to roost for the night. I was thinking there's no way I stay up til midnight dressing their feet every night just to have it happen again when they free range. Being an avid hunter I also thought how strange it is to have never seen a bumble on a wild pheasant or turkey. And couldn't believe that other peoples birds can successfully free range yet I'm failing so badly with mine.


Also to answer your above post none of they don't seem bothered at all. They all scratch and dig and do their thing just fine. Even the badly swollen one didn't favor her foot. I do feel like surgery was a good choice with her though. The amount of pus in the one was disturbing.

Thank you so much for responding. I feel like I can let them back out of their run again.

 

[rahaf]

Exactly how I felt, my wife was not impressed with my tossing and turning last night. My girls come for treats but are almost impossible to pick up until they go up to roost for the night. I was thinking there's no way I stay up til midnight dressing their feet every night just to have it happen again when they free range. Being an avid hunter I also thought how strange it is to have never seen a bumble on a wild pheasant or turkey. And couldn't believe that other peoples birds can successfully free range yet I'm failing so badly with mine.


Also to answer your above post none of they don't seem bothered at all. They all scratch and dig and do their thing just fine. Even the badly swollen one didn't favor her foot. I do feel like surgery was a good choice with her though. The amount of pus in the one was disturbing.

Thank you so much for responding. I feel like I can let them back out of their run again.

i also had my mom keep on telling me it wasnt that serious too and i swear even tho she barely knows anything about chickens shes always right.. like idk how she does it but tbh i should just listen yo her at this point shes never wrong lol
and yes thats actually smth the vet told us too he said if theyre hard to even catch then they shouldnt need help at all! im glad it seems only one of yours needed help and they can keep free ranging and im glad i could help! im not an expert at all but ive had my take on this situation lol