Bumblefoot and...???

[amateurchick]

Hi, all. So I've read through forum posts but have further questions:

Situation:
Three weeks ago I added a new barred rock chicken to my flock (now total of 4) and then went on vacation for 10 days shortly after. I returned to a filthy coop and the petsitter hadn't changed their water supply once while I was gone and it was full of poop and dirt.

Chicken Conditions:
One of the barred rocks molting, or so I thought. She is now doing a drunk walk and falling over. She'll still scratch and wander around, but over two days her unsteadiness has gotten worse. She also looks horrible from the molting--is it molting if she's sick? I quarantined her this morning and left her with a scrambled egg and turkey mixture and also some yogurt. She pecked at it a little and then fell into the food. I'm not sure what else to do with her.

After the separation, I went to check on the others, and the other barred rock had these feet (below). I've read through forum posts and have determined that she must have bumblefoot; however, I'm not totally convinced this is all that's going on because the other one is sick/dying? Could this all be related? (The falling over barred rock doesn't have feet like this.) I'm going to try to do the surgery and soaking thing or are her feet too far gone and she just needs a vet at this point?

Any more information would be great!

 

[Pathfinders]

Hmm.

Did you quarantine the new bird from your existing flock before adding her to them?

 

[amateurchick]

No, no I did not. That was a mistake, I'm sure. I believed the lady that sold it to me and she said her chickens were all healthy and bug free. Did I just cost myself a flock?

 

[Pathfinders]

No, I don't think so, but nothing is certain with chickens, and IANAV (I am not a vet.)

Let's take two separate things separately. The falling over may be related to food that spoiled and/or got moldy, given the situation while you were away. So there may be some botulism or other poisoning thing going on.

I would try to treat the one with the apparent bumble foot in the usual manner, and see how that goes.

I would keep the falling over one away from the others. And it might not hurt to get some Tylan powder to mix in everyone's water, just in case of some sort of bacterial thing (it might help with the bumblefoot too.)

I don't normally advocate knee-jerk antibiotic use, but in this instance I think it would be a good idea.

Take some close up photos of the bumblefoot and let us see how they look.

And don't panic, keep calm, all may indeed be well eventually.

 

[luvmigrls]

OK here is what I think I know. Bumble foot is diagnosed with the scab on the bottom. So you saw that? You must have found the info with pics on surgery. I tried it twice on one of mine with no luck. She bleed enough to scare me, so I stopped cutting and treated with a good antibacterial and bandaged. Around the same time I also had one doing the moon backward and one molting, then another starting the moonwalk thing.I put some dewormer in their water just in case and I checked for lice/mites and dusted them and the coop with diatom earth. I got feedback from some suggesting it was Markels disease (very serious, affects whole flock) and some neurological and respiratory. Never found out what if at all any of these things had in common. I would find the past post in same category that gives a link for poultry illness/diseases. Its helps to narrow down and rule out some things. Mine all pulled through and are still with me.Maybe someone will come along with the answer. Good luck.

 

[luvmigrls]

Just saw that Pathfinder had responded while I was typing. She mentioned something bad or toxic eaten, I had forgotten that was another thought I had been given with mine. Looks like help is on the way. FYI don't kick yourself about, we learn as go.