Last week I found bumblefoot in my flock. I have 6 adult hens, and 3 of them had the telltale scabs. One had swollen feet and that is why I started checking feet. A second bird had one foot with a pretty large scab (not sure it is really a scab, it looked almost translucent) and a small one on the other foot. A third bird had tiny spots on both her feet. I feel like a really bad chickie mom.
So, after research, I ordered a 5 gallon package of Tricide-Neo (ordered Tuesday a full week ago and arrived Thursday the same week). I immediately started with Vetericyn and oral antibiotics on the two more serious girls. This was at the recommendation of my vet. He isn't an avian vet, but he has some experience with chickens. The evening the tricide neo arrived, I started soaking feet for 7 minutes twice a day. (I'm mixing it 1/2 gallon at a time using 1.5T per 1/2 gallon of distilled water).
One week later: The third chicken is completely clear of any spots on her feet and her treament is concluded. The two who were on the antibiotics have finished that treatment.
The other two were improving, but not nearly fast enough. I have to leave for a week on the 12th, and my DH isn't even remotely interested in soaking chicken feet twice a day. My daughter (a wildlife biologist and chicken owner) is here for a couple of weeks, so yesterday morning we did the bumblefoot surgery described in another (really helpful) thread on both the remaining chickens. We soaked their feet and then sort of scraped around the edges of the plug to remove it. I was surprised at how different each infection was. One of Lily's feet had almost no pus in the wound even though the foot was swollen (though considerably less swollen than when we began with the tricide neo). The other one had yellow pus, but I couldn't find any sort of hard center in it. The worse foot on the other chicken (Angel) had two hard centers that popped out when the plug peeled off and more pus even though her foot wasn't swollen. The less involved foot had a little pus and drained nicely.
Both chickens were treated with triple antibiotic ointment and bandaged using a bit of a human bandage and vet wrap applied gently (not stretched much). In the evening, we removed the bandaging and soaked their feet again in tricide neo. There is conflicting info here about whether to use it on an open wound, but I decided to try it since their feet were still swollen. We worked on the wounds again with the tweezers and got a bit more gunk out of them. Rebandaged and put them on the roost for the night.
This morning I repeated the treatment (by myself without digging around in the wound any more -- they looked fairly clean) and rebandaged them again. The bandages I took off didn't show much sign of draining, and the girls are not behaving as if their feet hurt at all.
I am hoping to see dramatic improvement over the next few days, and I am going to continue the tricide neo soaks.
Oh, yes, I think I found the source of the injuries that brought this on. On my pop-door/ramp there is a latch at the top. The screws that hold the latch on (from the outside) were protruding through the wood at the end of the ramp. They were quite sharp. The problem has been remedied with a bit of wood over the screws.
As a sidelight, the Vetericyn seems to have cured a longterm infection (or something) I had on one hand. It has been itchy and sore for months and I've tried everything. After using the vetericyn on the girls feet last week it felt better, so I just kept using it on ME. Amazing stuff. My hand doesn't itch and the skin has stopped peeling. It may be a form of psoriasis, not sure.
So, after research, I ordered a 5 gallon package of Tricide-Neo (ordered Tuesday a full week ago and arrived Thursday the same week). I immediately started with Vetericyn and oral antibiotics on the two more serious girls. This was at the recommendation of my vet. He isn't an avian vet, but he has some experience with chickens. The evening the tricide neo arrived, I started soaking feet for 7 minutes twice a day. (I'm mixing it 1/2 gallon at a time using 1.5T per 1/2 gallon of distilled water).
One week later: The third chicken is completely clear of any spots on her feet and her treament is concluded. The two who were on the antibiotics have finished that treatment.
The other two were improving, but not nearly fast enough. I have to leave for a week on the 12th, and my DH isn't even remotely interested in soaking chicken feet twice a day. My daughter (a wildlife biologist and chicken owner) is here for a couple of weeks, so yesterday morning we did the bumblefoot surgery described in another (really helpful) thread on both the remaining chickens. We soaked their feet and then sort of scraped around the edges of the plug to remove it. I was surprised at how different each infection was. One of Lily's feet had almost no pus in the wound even though the foot was swollen (though considerably less swollen than when we began with the tricide neo). The other one had yellow pus, but I couldn't find any sort of hard center in it. The worse foot on the other chicken (Angel) had two hard centers that popped out when the plug peeled off and more pus even though her foot wasn't swollen. The less involved foot had a little pus and drained nicely.
Both chickens were treated with triple antibiotic ointment and bandaged using a bit of a human bandage and vet wrap applied gently (not stretched much). In the evening, we removed the bandaging and soaked their feet again in tricide neo. There is conflicting info here about whether to use it on an open wound, but I decided to try it since their feet were still swollen. We worked on the wounds again with the tweezers and got a bit more gunk out of them. Rebandaged and put them on the roost for the night.
This morning I repeated the treatment (by myself without digging around in the wound any more -- they looked fairly clean) and rebandaged them again. The bandages I took off didn't show much sign of draining, and the girls are not behaving as if their feet hurt at all.
I am hoping to see dramatic improvement over the next few days, and I am going to continue the tricide neo soaks.
Oh, yes, I think I found the source of the injuries that brought this on. On my pop-door/ramp there is a latch at the top. The screws that hold the latch on (from the outside) were protruding through the wood at the end of the ramp. They were quite sharp. The problem has been remedied with a bit of wood over the screws.
As a sidelight, the Vetericyn seems to have cured a longterm infection (or something) I had on one hand. It has been itchy and sore for months and I've tried everything. After using the vetericyn on the girls feet last week it felt better, so I just kept using it on ME. Amazing stuff. My hand doesn't itch and the skin has stopped peeling. It may be a form of psoriasis, not sure.
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