Bumblefoot?

[LearningToFly]

My year-old hen is limping. She has a swelling on the "palm" of her foot. The first thing that came to mind is 'bumblefoot'. How do we know if she has it? Can I treat it without going to the vet?

 

[iluvsedward]

I have heard of people fixing it themselves.. I think you pop it or something..There should be tons of threads on this. just search bumblefoot and you should find a solution.

 

[CarolinaKid 8]

It maybe a cut ,Have u looked at it closely to see acut or scratch?????

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Does it have a black spot on the underside where she walks? That would be classic for bumblefoot.

If it is just swelling, then I don't know what the problem is if it is unilateral.

 

[klmclain1]

Here are the two resources I use for diagnosing and treating bumblefoot:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bumblefoot-how-to-treat-your-chickens-with-surgery-graphic-pics
http://successwithpoultry.blogspot.com/2009/09/bumblefoot-chicken.html

 

[LearningToFly]

Well, she had a scab-looking thing on the bottom of the foot. My daughter bathed her today. It's warm out and the bird was looking pretty bedraggled. After she was clean, we wrapped her in towels (the bird, not my daughter), covered her head with a cloth, and performed surgery.

The scab could possibly have been a foreign object; it was hard to tell. It was straw colored (could have been straw) and disintegrated as we tried to remove it. We used surgical tweezers and dug all the object and the necrotic tissue out, cleaned the wound, applied antibiotic ointment, and bandaged the bird, who slept through the whole procedure.

She's walking around the yard now, still treating the foot gingerly but walking stronger on it than she did before.

Thank you for your advice. We've had chickens for almost 5 years and this was our first experience with something like this.

 

[klmclain1]

Be sure to change her bandage - and clean the wound, redress it - every day. Each time, inspect (feel around) for any bumps. If you find any, you'll have to go back in. It happens often - I had to go back in after I did major surgery on my girl. Found ONE MORE kernel - but now she's fine! Good job!

 

[sharol]

I had 3 of my 7 girls with signs of bumblefoot last summer after a protruding screw in the ramp had injured them (bad chick mommy).

I did the surgery with the help of my adult daughter and then soaked their feet twice a day in a tricide-neo soak for about 10 days, bandaging each day after the morning soak and removing the bandages in the evening for overnight on the roost . When I had to fly west for a week, my husband (who wasn't in for the foot soak thing), sprayed their feet (on the roost) with vetericyn (clear liquid, not the thicker stuff).

If you search for tricide-neo in the forum, you will find the treatment info. One warning, it is expensive. You will want to figure how much powder to measure into a smaller amount of distilled water to conserve the soak since it is only good for a few days before you have to throw it away and make new stuff.

AS of now (this was in September), the one with the smallest scabs is completely healed. The one with one foot involved is completely healed, and the one that was the most seriously infected is still healthy and laying. One foot still has a small scab, but there isn't any swelling of the leg or foot (which is what alerted me to the problem in the first place). She isn't completely clear of it, but seems to be happy and comfortable, and not it any pain.

We don't know if it was the surgery, the tricide-neo, or the vetericyn that did the job. Something sort of worked.

Sharol

Well, she had a scab-looking thing on the bottom of the foot. My daughter bathed her today. It's warm out and the bird was looking pretty bedraggled. After she was clean, we wrapped her in towels (the bird, not my daughter), covered her head with a cloth, and performed surgery.

The scab could possibly have been a foreign object; it was hard to tell. It was straw colored (could have been straw) and disintegrated as we tried to remove it. We used surgical tweezers and dug all the object and the necrotic tissue out, cleaned the wound, applied antibiotic ointment, and bandaged the bird, who slept through the whole procedure.

She's walking around the yard now, still treating the foot gingerly but walking stronger on it than she did before.

Thank you for your advice. We've had chickens for almost 5 years and this was our first experience with something like this.

 

[Allison Lloyd]

Hi there - just performed my first bumble foot surgeries this afternoon using all the info I could find on the internet. Looks like 4 of my 5 chickens have bumble foot. My four older chickens (5 years old) have it in both feet; the youngest one (1 year) not at all. Don't know what caused the initial injuries - they free range - will keep looking for a cause. All the birds still acting normal (running, scratching, etc) except one lays down a bit more than usual. Just noticed a pink lump on one of the birds feet yesterday and just started investigating. No leg swelling.

The first chicken's black spots are so large and hard that I wasn't able to remove a plug after soaking in epson salt warm bath twice today (10 minutes each)- so I sprayed Vetericyn and put Vaseline on the spots and then wrapped with gauze and Vetwrap. I hope that tomorrow I will have more luck.

The 2nd chicken had a plug that was 1.5 inches long when I finally removed it! However, after reading this forum, I will have to go back in and remove the surrounding infected tissue with tweezers.

Her other foot and the other two chickens' feet have at least one black spot on them but I am unable to remove a plug. I removed as much of the black scab as possible. One just had pink tissue underneath. So I didn't wrap that foot. Is this just early stage of infection?

Have you needed to treat your birds for this daily since September? How long did it take to heal? When can I expect to stop bandaging their feet?

That was a lot of bird time today...
Allison