Bumblefoot question

[Dorothy522]

Fairly new chicken mom. I have 15 girls, they just turned a year old. I noticed the other day that one of them had a slightly swollen foot, so I investigated and realized she had bumblefoot. None of the others had swollen feet/lameness or showed any signs but I started checking their feet and at least half of them also have it. All mild cases or just starting.

What the heck did I do that half the flock has it? I will post photos of their coop and run. I did add a downed tree limb and some branches etc a few months ago (Feb?) so they had some enrichment. There was a pallet too (not the smoothest) and I removed that and most of the limbs/branches. I clean poop out of coop and run daily. They used to roost in the top rafters of coop and we ended up blocking those off so they roost lower now. Top roosting bar added within last few months.

Run floor is dirt and sand. The spiky thing at the end of the tree limb was a bush we pulled out of the yard and they were eating the bugs and grass out of it. I’ve never seen any of them standing on the root ball but idk. Branch too rough? They also dig holes to dust bathe.

Everyone is eating and laying etc.

I’m learning and trying my best and obviously want to remove/fix the hazard. I don’t know how long bumble takes to develop. Weeks/months/days? Advice please!

 

[nuthatched]

Can we see pictures of the feet?

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

I agree with nuthatched that pictures of the feet might give us some useful info.

Based on your setup I think it's most likely that they are getting splinters from some of the beams. If you run your finger lightly along some wood and it's just rough that's ok, but if you get prickly splinter feelings that might be your problem. I had a girl who started getting bumblefoot every spring when she started laying again and it took me a minute, but I eventually realized she was getting splinters from her nesting box when she would scratch the straw around to perfect her nest. I put some cloth under the straw and haven't had a problem since. If they are big jumpers it's also possible they are just landing on sharp bits in the dirt when coming down from the roosting bars.

 

[Dorothy522]

Can we see pictures of the feet?

I’m always alone wrangling them so it’s hard to catch/hold/take photos. I’ll try to though next time I catch one. It looked like classic bumblefoot though on the bottom middle pad.

 

[Dorothy522]

I agree with nuthatched that pictures of the feet might give us some useful info.

Based on your setup I think it's most likely that they are getting splinters from some of the beams. If you run your finger lightly along some wood and it's just rough that's ok, but if you get prickly splinter feelings that might be your problem. I had a girl who started getting bumblefoot every spring when she started laying again and it took me a minute, but I eventually realized she was getting splinters from her nesting box when she would scratch the straw around to perfect her nest. I put some cloth under the straw and haven't had a problem since. If they are big jumpers it's also possible they are just landing on sharp bits in the dirt when coming down from the roosting bars.

I have vinyl underneath the shavings in the nest box so hopefully that portion shouldn’t be an issue, the inside floor is expanded horse stall pellets and some leftover shavings. I switched over to the pellets begining of March.

I’ll go check the roost bar again, I didn’t feel anything splintering it was just rougher than the bottom long bar. But I’ll check again