Actually, it‘s not uncommon for them to end up with bumblefoot after dropping down from a height.
Even just jumping off their roosts onto a hard coop floor can give them “bumbled-feet” (my own silly word there, lol), especially if the roosts are set pretty high. Besides making the coop easier to de-poopify, straw or shavings on the floor of the coop provide needed cushioning.
That said, I’d think that a jump from that high *
might* have the potential to cause a more acute injury. Bumblefoot takes at least a few days to develop... They aren’t gonna jump down off something high and
instantly have bumblefoot. It’s basically an abscess that forms around damaged tissue— whether that damage is a deep bruise, or a puncture— the tissue dies and then the abscess forms.
Was your guy limping right away? Or was he limping a little & then it continued to get worse? The second scenario would be more typical of bumblefoot. If he immediately refused to bear weight on that foot, or was immediately limping badly... seems like that would point more to a sprain or break.
Of course there’s always a chance that he was already starting to develop a “bumble” and dropping from the height
really hurt. Making it seem like the whole injury came from the fall.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they‘d just follow all the rules and keep themselves out of trouble—yeah, right!
