She did not have a scab on the bottom of the foot but she did have a puncture in the bottom of her foot that had some scabbing on it. Once I removed the little plug out of the little hole, I was able to take out some of that cheesy crud out with a pick that came with the surgical kit we have (we run a bird rescue and have an extensive first aid kit for the birds, ducks and chickens). So once no more was coming out, I had my husband cut her to get that stuff out of the pad of her foot. It's very swollen, or not swollen, but you can just see that there's a lot of that crud in the pad of her foot and I wanted to get it out.
The piece between her toes, when I first tried, nothing would budge but a lot of blood came out. Then the cheesy stuff came out in two pieces. I tried to squeeze more out, but this red bulbous thing appeared and each time I grapped it with the forceps or the pick in my surgical kit, she screamed and more blood came out. I was hurting her and she started shaking so I decided I'll have to take her in to have the vet do it.
I feel stupid because I sat in on my rooster Charlies surgery. So I watched the vet do this and yet I couldn't do it myself. But that's because at the vet, Charlie and my other two chickens that had this done were under general anesthesia. Here I knew I was inflicting pain and I got weak in the knees and couldn't go through with it.
Today she is walking but obviously I didn't get this stuff out and I don't want to put her through any more pain by opening it up again when it's already sore. So I'll have to sit in on her surgery to see exactly how he does it and how he digs out that red bulbous stuff. Will told me it was her tendons and I freaked out and said that's it, I'm done. I also gave her Metacam for pain before I started on her.
