Bumblefoot or something else?

[hilltop_homestead]

My daughter accidentally stepped on one of our 6 week old pullets' feet about 4 days ago. Since then, the chicken has held the foot high and basically hopped around on the other foot. When I flex the leg and foot they are flexible and she doesn't show any signs of distress or pain, but still will not use the foot at all. This morning I checked on her and the entire ball of the injured foot is very swollen and had not been before. I did some reading and kept coming up with information about bumblefoot, but wasn't sure if that was the problem because there is no scab and the injury came from being stepped on, not her stepping on something sharp. I will try to get a picture added but am at a loss of what to do. Should I soak in Epsom salts? Use an antibiotic cream? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[speckledhen]

She may have a broken or dislocated toe. I wouldn't think that was bumblefoot, but probably a simple injury related to the accident. You can certainly soak the foot in epsom salts water, but I'd give her a baby aspirin twice a day to help with swelling. Not sure what else you can do unless you really can ID whether it's a break or not.

 

[hilltop_homestead]

I will try the baby aspirin for the swelling--but I am thinking, how on earth do you give a pill to a chicken?


I did soak her foot in salts and noticed the swelling is up her leg too. There is one tiny dark spot on the leg; hard to tell if it's a scab or not, but she seems to be more sore on her leg than on her foot.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. She does seem alert in spite of lying down a lot; she eats, drinks, and poops, so those are good signs. I just really hope she pulls through whatever this is because my daughter will be guilt-ridden and heartbroken if she doesn't!

Thanks!

 

[speckledhen]

I just gave two baby aspirin to a grown hen. She just ate them out of my hand. Some won't do that and you may have to disguise them somehow or just open the beak and place it in the mouth.

It's possible that she already had an issue and your daughter stepping on her just made it worse. Sounds like an infection in the leg, or it could be. Hard to say. If she had tendon damage, there would be infection in the soft tissue and a course of penicillin may be in order for that.

 

[kbmead]

One thing I would do is separate the injured chick from the rest. Last summer, we had an 8 week-old chick that developed a lame foot. It dragged itself around okay, was eating/drinking fine. We didn't know any better and left it with the others in the coop and they attacked it very badly around the head. We brought it inside and kept it in a cat carrier and tried to nurse it back to health, but it died.

We had thought that only the sight of blood caused chickens to attack each other, but we were wrong.