Yes, that's a big one. I see a core on the bottom and possibly a couple of more on the foot? I don't think you are going to be able to avoid surgery on this one, it's so large. I would start with soaking the foot as advised and then applying the iodine/sugar poultice daily to help draw down the infection. Put the mixture on the foot and apply a guaze pad and then wrap with vet wrap to keep it on. If she is going to be outside on ground, apply a waterproof bandaging tape over that. Refer to my pictures in this thread. After several days of doing this, the scab ought to be soft enough for removal. You would want to wrap your bird up snugly in a towel and use something sharp to lift the edges all around the scab. It takes some time and effort to loosen this scab. Have some sterile equipment when you do this and wear gloves. The idea is to work in a circle around the scab lifting as you go until most of it is loosened. Then pull out the scab or plug with the tweezers and then look in the hole for any pus cores or kernels. Get them out. You usually can't find them all, so don't be discouraged. Just press and squeeze, rinse, look, squeeze etc. It may take several days after surgery to get everything removed. It is still going to be swollen. After surgery I would reapply the poultice and wrap it good with the guaze pad, vetwrap and waterproof tape. I would not do the soakings after surgery because if your bird poops in the water (which they often do) you are introducing bacteria back in the wound. I would just change the bandages out every other day and try squeezing and rinsing any pus you may still see. Then reapply the poultice, and wrap again. You may have to do this for a couple of weeks to get a bumble of that size down some. If you see more than one scab on that foot you may have to work on all of them. You may have to lance the swelling above the foot also and see if you can squeeze anything out of that. Put poultice on all openings you make. Keep the foot dry while bandaged (although I let my chickens out when bandaged although she was near complete healing), don't let her walk in mud or such. Change, clean and reapply every couple of days. Also, some PenG injections could be beneficial in a case this severe. You can find that at feed stores in refrigerated section. Dosage is usually a tenth of a ml per 10 pounds inject in breast muscle or thigh muscle. If it was my bird I would probably do this for five days. If you want to try a non invasive method, I have read about this, but really have no input to give on it: http://ouroneacrefarm.com/non-invasive-bumblefoot-treatment-success-stories/I think bumblefoot is what my Bama Mama may have. I just noticed this morn as she was last on the roost when I opened the door to let them out into run to eat. I was in tears. I take very very good care of my chicky girls, however I don't look at the feet much.
I am in their coop 3 to 4 times a day. I have a heat lamp for cold and clean bottom of coop every other day. I went out and checked to make sure everyone else is ok. They are. In looking how to take care of this I almost got sick. I don't know that I could do this. Does the chicken scream and fuss with towel over her? My hubby not going to be much help. I brought her in and soaked her foot a bit and I have her in a clean dry kennel with food and water where she can stay off her foot and also be warm. She is in my kitchen up on chairs so I can keep an eye on her. If you could tell me for sure this is what it is I can give a try or just take her to vet in the morning?
It actually looks like it's coming out the side of it. ???? Man I sure hope it gets ok. I would soak it in epsom salts every day once I did the surgery to. Just to try and keep it from getting infected! GOOD luck with it!
