Bumble Foot

[Lily97]

A friend of ours has a chicken that we would like to get but it has bumble foot.
So my questions are:

• Is bumble foot contagious to other chickens?
• How do you treat it at home without going to the vet?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

A friend of ours has a chicken that we would like to get but it has bumble foot.
So my questions are:

• Is bumble foot contagious to other chickens?
• How do you treat it at home without going to the vet?

bumble foot is a staph infection!

 

[Mehjr10]

Search on BYC for bumble foot treatment. It can be done at home.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I recently did the surgery and it wasnt fun at all, plus I had to nurse her for over a week and the vetrimycin alone was 40 bucks a bottle...
this the link I saved on how to do surgery.... http://hencam.com/henblog/2012/08/bumblefoot/

search you tube and you will find a video just search bumblefoot

 

[janinepeters]

I would not take a chicken with bumblefoot. It is an abscess which forms after a cut on the bottom of the foot becomes infected, so it is technically not contagious, but the bacteria involved is usually one of several difficult to treat ones, such as Staphylococcus aureus. You don't want those kinds of bacteria around if you don't already have them. Also, the abscess can be very difficult to treat, and recurrence is common.

If you do decide to take the chicken, there are non-surgical alternatives I would try first, since the surgery is done without an anesthetic and therefore quite painful. If it is mild (not red, not hardened, and not so swollen that bumblefoot is obvious from looking at the top of the foot), then there is a good chance you can soak it out with epsom salts or TricideNeo. I have used the latter twice now, with success, though others say it did not work for them. Someone who has treated a lot of hens with bumblefoot recently says it works about 70% of them time.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I would not take a chicken with bumblefoot. It is an abscess which forms after a cut on the bottom of the foot becomes infected, so it is technically not contagious, but the bacteria involved is usually one of several difficult to treat ones, such as Staphylococcus aureus. You don't want those kinds of bacteria around if you don't already have them. Also, the abscess can be very difficult to treat, and recurrence is common.

If you do decide to take the chicken, there are non-surgical alternatives I would try first, since the surgery is done without an anesthetic and therefore quite painful. If it is mild (not red, not hardened, and not so swollen that bumblefoot is obvious from looking at the top of the foot), then there is a good chance you can soak it out with epsom salts or TricideNeo. I have used the latter twice now, with success, though others say it did not work for them. Someone who has treated a lot of hens with bumblefoot recently says it works about 70% of them time.

I agree it was painful... everthing I read said that they dont think the chicken minded it, well I must say my hen tried to pull her foot away from the scalple plenty of times with a cluck and I did it with a sharp new one and as fast as I could while my hubby was holding her. And the soaking nightly for a half hour and then the time wrapping her back up was torture to my back! And you must quarintine too... honestly it was a major worry about her and not knowing if I could help her or not, The first day I used an antibiotic ointment and it still was extremely red the next day I got the vetrymicyn is a miracle healer and well worth the cost just to have around for any pet wounds!