Bumblefoot AND scaly leg mites

[Porpie Pie]

Nothing but issues lately over here. I posted a thread about my Buff Orpington Rosie and how she had brown fluid coming from her beak and I was treating for sour crop just in case but she also i think had water belly which if i understand is infection?? She was eating and drinking fine but losing weight and getting worse so I had to end her suffering. (I miss that little girl so much) Now I've got a blue orpington Miss Evelyn who I notice today had a nice case of scaly leg mites. Brought her in to soak and treat and noticed her toe was at an odd angle which is when I noticed the bumblefoot. I should also mention that when I picked her up she lost brown fluid from her beak like Rosie did. I checked Rosie over and couldn't find any wounds. Not sure what the heck is going on in my coop. I know mite and lice season is upon us so I swept out the coop wiped everything down with vinegar and water and power washed the heck out of it. Let it dry put down a layer of DE, filled the coop with sand for the summer instead of cedar chips and mixed it up with some more DE. Only thing I did not do which I'm regretting now is dust my birds with DE but I see them bathe pretty often. I have a Pekin hen and drake the hen was either coughing or sneezing today. Not sure if this is all related or if anyone has ever experienced this before? This is my 3rd summer with chickens and I have not delt with the same thing twice. Also wondering how everyone else deals with bumblefoot? Is it best to cut it out or use the tweezers and soak? Icky things usually fascinate me but true torture for me would be anything cutting into the bottom of feet. I'm about to face my fear head on whether I like it or not. I hope I don't faint.

 

[Earthdale]

I hope they do well, I have (thankfully) never had this problem.

 

[coach723]

For bumblefoot this is what I do:
https://www.tillysnest.com/2015/12/non-surgical-bumblefoot-treatment.html/?spref=pi
I do not resort to cutting unless it's absolutely necessary. Pictures would help. Bumblefoot can take a while to resolve, so it's often not a quickly resolved thing, even very small ones can take weeks to months.
DE is not really effective and it can cause respiratory irritation, may be why you suddenly have coughing or sneezing. If you have mite's/lice then a product with permethrin is usually what is used. Comes in sprays, concentrates and powders. Info here:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/
For scaly leg mites, info here:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/scaly-leg-mites-in-chickens/
Lastly, it's better to use pine chips than cedar, the fumes from cedar can also cause respiratory irritation.

 

[HollyWoozle]

Great advice above. DE is pretty useless in my experience so far but permethrin does the job!

 

[Porpie Pie]

OK so this is Miss Evelyn. I thought I got a better picture of ther scaly leg mites than I did and then her bumblefoot. I did see each of those articles and I did the gasoline and oil dip on the rest of my flock. ( no a&d ointment on hand so i used veggie oil) I want to do this on Evelyn but I wonder if it will bother her bumble foot or if it will be OK. I'm soaking her legs twice a day in Epsom salt and I brush them with a soft bristle toothbrush ( I don't brush the other birds legs just dip) and seem the get lots of junk out each time then coat in oil, put neosporin on it ( the purple color is blue kote then I seen the article with neosporin so i switched) then I wrapped it. I really didn't want to cut the bumblefoot if I didn't have to. The other thing I worry about is her squishy abdomen. It felt deflated and normal this morning and I haven't seen and brown fluid come up again and her crop was empty this morning. Some of my other girls have squishy abdomen too but I don't see any leg problems or bumblefoots or wounds.

Also I'm really surprised about the DE this is the first time I've heard it doesn't workI'll look into the other stuff and find a new use for the 2nd full bag of DE I bought