Chicken dead from bumblefoot?

[arrowti]

Last night all of our chickens were good and alive, with no signs of illness. Our chickens are mostly flighty and don't like being handled so we only check them closely once a month as a collective effort (last check was mid April), and we have a lot of chickens. This morning my dad was in a hurry to pick up our pork from the butcher (we raise pigs) and so didn't go into the coops when letting the chickens out this morning. I just went out to get eggs and found a 3 year old red sex link dead on the floor of the coop, on her back, neck stretched out, legs in the air. Comb blue/purple (like when a cornish has a heart attack). That was my first guess, until I saw her foot.

She had a large green lump on her foot with a bumblefoot scab. Picture included:


Her vent was a little swollen but I didn't check for an egg being stuck - it wouldn't be our first sex link with a stuck egg. My question is how long does it take for a bumblefoot infection to become system wide and fatal to chickens? I feel terrible, because this could've been prevented by checking our chickens far more often. This past month has been extremely busy, between several litters of piglets born, some with troubles, and we've been bringing in pigs to the market from the previous litters... we got 70 meat chicks recently as well, and between work and finals week for college, we've neglected health checks on our birds.

First step we'll take is to up our health checks. If we get it done on our 40 birds every 2 weeks would that be sufficient in treating cases of bumblefoot in time? This is our first case of bumblefoot, by the way (I'm assuming that's what this is)...

If anyone remembers my previous thread about Psycho, our easter egger with nuerological symptoms, we sent her in for a necropsy to make sure it wasn't infectious - and it wasn't. She had brain tumors from a non-infectious origin, and they are thinking it was genetically predisposed - but nothing more on that.


We'll check them all tonight when they're in their coops, since catching them out on the yard in daytime is almost impossible with these birds.

All the other birds look healthy right now - no respiratory problems, limping, or lethargy. We have two molting hens, and one of them is almost bald... poor girl... Of course, none were limping yesterday, so an individual foot check is in order.

Any advice would be appreciated. I think I'll even check the ducks...

 

[teach1rusl]

I'm no expert on bumblefoot, but in my opinion, there's no way THAT level of bumblefoot would be the cause of your chicken's death - it was something else...maybe heart failure or some other organ issue.

I had a poor pullet whose feet became so swollen that they bled - the vet concluded that she'd had an extreme case of bumblefoot. She didn't walk much due to the pain, but it didn't kill her (although we put her down, as medication attempts didn't fix the issue). Your chicken's bumblefoot appears to be a low - moderate case.

 

[ak27]

Hi everyone, I would like to share my experience. If you ever notice a swollen or bumblefoot on your chicken please bring it to the vet or treat yourself immediately. Don't let your chicken suffer until they cant walk. Today my only Rooster died due to a bumblefoot of a severe case.To be honest, I don't have any experience before handling chicken. I lived in an urban area where only dogs and cats are living. Since I'm staying in lot house, one day a rooster came to the back of the home and I was so shocked and thought probably escaped from someone kitchen. Meant I thought some ppl bought this rooster to make a meal. Then, I started to admire and fed him. The next day, the rooster attached to me and my family member, and then we planned to keep the chicken at the back of our house. It's only stayed for 8 months. During that period, we had a lot of memories and attached more to the rooster. A month back, I noticed a small swollen bubble on my rooster feet and I thought its just an insect bite and avoided it. But a week back, my rooster had a terrible day, he couldn't walk at all and I quickly check his foot, on the bottom, there was a huge bumblefoot. I immediately google it and try to treat it at home but I know it's too late. The next day I brought him to the vet. The vet gave me iodine and ask to apply it to my rooster's infected feet . He told me need to do surgery after a week so the bumblefoot can soft in one week. After I visited the vet I felt relieved and better. On that day,all my family member helped me to gave medicine to the rooster and taking care of it. On the following day, the rooster is getting so week and I felt so scared and immediately I went to the vet to get an antibiotic injection and I asked him to proceed with the surgery as soon as possible cause I know my rooster is in pain and I cant see it. The vet told me the bumblefoot needs to be softened in order to proceed with surgery. After I back home, my rooster only stay alive for a day, the next day he died cruelly before me. I was so heartbroken and cried . I'm feeling too guilty about not treating him at an early stage. I know it's just a rooster but during the 8 months, my rooster created a lot of memories. So guys, please treat your pet or poultry immediately if u have noticed.