Bumblefoot question.

[SquishSquash]

I just discovered that my oldest hen friend has what appears to be bumble foot. I've looked in my books and checked out some threads on here and they all seem to say the same...I need to soak, pull plug, squeeze out infection, soak, apply triple antibiotic ointment, wrap, repeat...a few times a day. Folks, I am a stay home mom of a three year old and I'm not sure I can give this kind of time and attention for this treatment right now =( Can I use an ingestible antibiotic or some other form of less "labor" intensive method? I'm also very concerned about bringing a staph infection into my home.

More info: The swelling is small and soft; not yet hardened. I do see a little black plug on the bottom The hen is walking, eating, and drinking fine.

Any advice appreciated!

 

[seminolewind]

If it's small and soft, you might want to soak the foot for a few minutes, then sort of cut around the spot. Squeeze out whatever gunk is in there, then soak and squeeze a few times. Apply ointment and gauze and wrap the foot up. You may want to clean the foot and put a new dressing on it daily.

 

[purpletree23]

If she is walking fine and the swelling minimal I would just leave it alone. It can clear up it's self. I's my feeling that bumblefoot needs to be taken care of if the chicken is having trouble walking or the infection has definitely swelled the foot.

If it's not broken don't fix it. I'll bet you a penny that if you checked the pads of your other chickens some of them will also have small black spots.

 

[SquishSquash]

Purpletree23, Thank you so much for your penny's worth =) Being that the infection is caused by staph and having a small child around, I really don't want to risk spreading bacteria or inviting it any closer than necessary. Of course I'm concerned about my sweet bird, she's a special one to me, but I have to be more concerned with my son. Do you know if there is danger of getting the infection if the would is plugged with the black spot, or is it just opening the wound that would cause possible spread? I hope and pray that you're right and the wound will just heal! The chicken is acting perfectly normal; seems oblivious to the swell on her foot (it's only about the size of hmmmm....pistachio?.

 

[Eggcessive]

There is staph everywhere. If your chicken starts to limp or the bumblefoot area becomes very red and/or swollen, then you need to cut it out. Otherwise just watch it.

 

[purpletree23]

Just what eggcessive said. Watch and wait. If it gets worse then you can take care of it. Many posts on bumblefoot say 'there was nothing in there etc'. Why treat something when it isn't a problem? Many of my hens have black spots on their feet because they get poked by a thorn or something else sharp even though I take great care to find anything sharp in their run. In three years I've only had to do one bumblefoot surgery on the bottom of the foot. I thought I got everything out and the foot healed. About a month later the infection started to come out of the top of the foot. Finally was able to get everything out.

If anyone is eating you probably want to stop reading right here.

It's a lot like a pimple. You get a raised red bump and it either goes away or you get a whitehead. If you get a whitehead there is a certain point when you know that a warm wet cloth placed on it for about 15 minutes will help everything come out even the white core. If you get everything out it goes away. If not it will reoccur and get infected again.

Another example is a splinter. You might not even know you have one until your body attacks the foreign object and makes the area around it raised, red and full of white blood cells and tries to push it out of the body.