Bumblefoot? (pic)

[WyoChickenMamma]

One of my pullets was limping this morning and when I picked her up to check her out I found what I believe is bumblefoot on both of her feet. I have not had my hens long, and suspect that she had this started before she came to me. She has not started laying yet, but should be at anytime. I feel so bad for her. I brought her in, soaked her feet first in some soapy water and then in Epsom salt. She seemed to relax and calm down some. I then started to clean away that black scabby stuff, it came off in pretty good chunks and started to bleed some. I just kept at it until she started to flinch. I then used the gel formula of Vetericyn and wrapped her up nicely with some hot pink vet wrap...she is stylin' while she is in the hen infirmary (a dog crate in my garage). I am thinking that we will soak her again tonight and keep doing it twice a day until all the black is gone and no more signs of infection. My heart just aches for her. I was tempted to do one foot at a time, but decided that since I can keep her in the garage and in soft bedding we might as well get it done and over with. My poor little girl.

Sorry if the quality is not that great, my son took the picture with my cell phone.

Should I be doing something else for her? How long can I expect it to take to heal?

Thanks in advance for your comments/suggestions.

 

[nurse_turtle]

Yes ma'am. Bilateral (both feet) bumblefoot. There are many threads on here with good instructions regarding what to do now. It sounds like you have it under control. Good luck.

 

[BlackberryFarm]

Oh Ouch!!

Sounds like you are already on top of things.

You might consider putting the dog crate next to the rest of your birds. That way she'll get some sun and she won't get lonely.

When we had a hen with wry neck, it helped her a lot to be next to the rest of the girls.

Good luck caring for your girl.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I have to say that if I had not been reading this forum I would have not known what to do...so a huge big thank you to all of the people who have discussed this, posted pictures and what not. I will take more pictures as this progresses and share with others.

She is resting easy in her little infirmary. I think I will keep her there until she heals nicely since it is both feet and my hens free range.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

Okay, after several times of soaking and cutting on those bumblefoot feet, with not much change. We ended up having to give her 4 doses of penicillin. To which she responded to quite nicely. Today, we started all the other hens in my flock with Tricide-Neo. I have six more out of a flock of 35 that came to me with bumblefoot sores. So we soaked them and then moved up to the garage to soak that one...I pulled her out of the kennel and started to put her feet in the water when my DH said, wait lets see how they look tonight...guess what??? The sores are gone! I am soooo happy. I had noticed last night that she was getting around better, putting weight on the bad leg...but never thought they would be just gone like that overnight. I am so happy for her. Now the bad part is she has to stay in the kennel until Thursday night. She is about to lay any day...sings the egg song, squats and what not. If I put her back now I won't know which egg is hers and since we need to withdraw her eggs for 7 days beyond the last dose of antibiotic she must stay in the garage. I am sad for her for that reason, but doing the happy dance that we saved her.

Edited to add pics.

Sorry for the picture quality, I snapped them really quick with my cell phone...also sorry about the poo on her foot, I snapped before we had a chance to clean them off. Huge difference from the first pictures.

 

[dawg53]

Good job!