Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I'm only wrapping them until the foot starts to heal and the hole is filled in (and that happens really fast). Butch only had his feet wrapped for a couple of days, and I expect to remove Lily's wrappings, soak her feet in tricide neo tonight and rewrap. Then probably remove the bandages on Saturday night before she goes to roost (and soak again).

I'm starting to wonder if its more common that we first realized. Several of Loralee's birds had it even though there was no limping or visible swelling from the top. This afternoon I looked at Matilda and even though I looked at hers the other day, today I saw that what I previously took for dirt is actually a bumble. I've decided I'm not going to treat her right away since she is not limping at all. She is one who likes to stand in the water to cool off, so if I can wait until Fall when its not so hot and she doesn't want to spend all day in the water, that would make healing easier. The problem is, in taking the bumble out, it creates quite a deep hole in the foot that has to be covered until it is fully healed and that could take weeks. And, it will mean changing the dressings regularly. I need to treat my one hen who is limping from it but I think I'll wait on any that are not limping, at least until the worst of the summer is over. But seeing as we found so many in a short space of time (between mine and Loralee's), I'm wondering if lots of chickens and ducks are wandering around with bumbles that aren't bothering them at all and perhaps don't even need treatment? I think I need to research this more.

Danz, if you have any that are easy to grab and pick up, look at the soles of their feet. If there is a black dot on the cushion of the foot, that is a bumble.

 

[sharol]

Tricide-neo is a fish remedy that seems to work with bumblefoot. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/303829/vet-suggestion-for-non-invasive-bumblefoot-cure is the thread here that deals with it. I got it from an aquarium store back east. It isn't cheap. https://www.pondrx.com/products/16166.html is where I got it, and they ship FAST. You can mix a quart at a time (2.25 teaspoons per quart of distilled water) and you can use it for a week over and over as long as it doesn't get too nasty. I'm soaking 7 chickens, so it only lasts about 4 days before it gets completely disgusting. It worked last fall, but it may have lost potency while I was storing it. Hard to say. It completely cured one chicken's feet and reduced the swelling on a couple of others a year ago.

Vetericyn spray (I used the plain before and bought the jell this time) on their feet at roosting time seems to help too.

If big chicken breeders spent the time with their birds that we do....

I'm going to do the week, daily soak with tricide, and if that doesn't get rid of the problem, I'm going to monitor for complications and keep spraying with the Vetericyn (for those of you near Emporia, Bluestem has it cheaper than Amazon).

Thanks for the update Sharol. Looks like you were typing and posting the same time I was! Yes, those pictures look just like what we are seeing - fortunately none that look as bad as some of those though.

I'm sorry about Lily - I hope this time you were able to get it all. I'm not familiar with the tricide neo you mentioned - where do you get that?

 

[michelleml]

I hope i don't have to do this bumble-foot surgery i check feet but nothing so far. I found a blog that shows very good pictures I posted it before but can post again if anyone wants it.

how many hens would you recommend for a family of 5? I'm wondering if i will have enough eggs to sell to make up for feed cost? we have 3 hens and 1 roo how many do you think i would need?

 

[Hawkeye95]

Tricide-neo is a fish remedy that seems to work with bumblefoot. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/303829/vet-suggestion-for-non-invasive-bumblefoot-cure is the thread here that deals with it. I got it from an aquarium store back east. It isn't cheap. https://www.pondrx.com/products/16166.html is where I got it, and they ship FAST. You can mix a quart at a time (2.25 teaspoons per quart of distilled water) and you can use it for a week over and over as long as it doesn't get too nasty. I'm soaking 7 chickens, so it only lasts about 4 days before it gets completely disgusting. It worked last fall, but it may have lost potency while I was storing it. Hard to say. It completely cured one chicken's feet and reduced the swelling on a couple of others a year ago.

Vetericyn spray (I used the plain before and bought the jell this time) on their feet at roosting time seems to help too.

If big chicken breeders spent the time with their birds that we do....

I'm going to do the week, daily soak with tricide, and if that doesn't get rid of the problem, I'm going to monitor for complications and keep spraying with the Vetericyn (for those of you near Emporia, Bluestem has it cheaper than Amazon).

Vetericyn is for sale at the Derby Atwoods. It's $25 for an 8oz bottle and then it comes in larger bottles (more expensive) and Atwoods has both the eye formula and the kind that sprays on wounds. I didn't buy it-- but I had no idea I had a bumblefoot issue. I just saw it the other day back on the chicken aisle. There is a LOT of it there.

I hope i don't have to do this bumble-foot surgery i check feet but nothing so far. I found a blog that shows very good pictures I posted it before but can post again if anyone wants it.

how many hens would you recommend for a family of 5? I'm wondering if i will have enough eggs to sell to make up for feed cost? we have 3 hens and 1 roo how many do you think i would need?

We have 9 hens, and that is a lot of eggs. Mine lay well, so I get about 8-9 eggs a day. Here in the last week, I've been getting 6 eggs a day. I am up to my eye balls in eggs. We give them away left and right.

 

[Hawkeye95]

OKay, I found this here on BYC-- someone wrote this and they said that they have had a lot of experience with bumble foot. This post really worries me... makes me wonder if birds are just dying left and right from it. Sounds like injecting the bumble site and swelling areas with Tylan might be the best way to combat a really bad infection. If so... I may be on the hunt to buy some Tylan. My medicine cabinet grows....

Copied and pasted:

"You have to cut it out as soon as possible. Look at the link on this forum that goes to the surgery (it should be stickied at the top of the emergency section)....scrape all of the white gunk out and try to get the kernel, which at its worst looks like a corn kernel or a stalactite . If the black callus has a stalactite sticking inwards from it, that may be it...but you still need to get the pus out in case it has any tiny particles of that in it. The kernel reaches in and grows in compartments that it makes....its pretty crazy but you can find it established in places where you couldnt imagine that it would be...so follow the pus. It likes inbetween the toes on the top!
Tea tree oil doesnt work (!!) but injecting it directly with Tylan will work ...just first get all the pus out. Use bactine spray as a pain killer.
Bumblefoot is a staph infection and the actual infection is the kernel that is in the pus. Youve got to get as much of the pus out as is possible. Use good tweezers and some sort of knife scraper thing like small scissors or a dental instrument. Spray it well with bactine and keep everything clean. You can run the foot under water...and its gonna bleed alot...
be careful of the white tendons in the foot but otherwise scrape all around in the hole until all of the pus is out.
The problem is that while youre dabbing it with tea tree oil or blue kote and waiting, the staphis going into the bone and it will kill the foot and/or the chicken. I just lost one that was given to me by someone and th eperson hadnt noticed that the foot was terribly swollen....I worked on it for hours; never seen anything like it!
But it was just too late. Poor thing got worse and worse and finally died of the infection.
Ive had it go up the leg in some of them and actually soften the bone and tendons.
Some just put down bumblefoot chickens, but Ive had some good success in treating...but its very touch and go.
Try to find the source of the infection!! You perches may need ot be sanded or you may have a thorn bush in an area where they are scratching.
Its not something that just comes up by itself...something sharp makes a hole in the foot and the infection (which is everywhere) gets in. Then it slowly grows until its all up the leg and in the bone.
If you catch it really early and pull out the plug in the foot and scrape around, it gives the bird a better chance of survival.
Look at a healthy chicken foot...there isnt a "fat pad" much to speak of...usually by the time the chicken has a black callus plug, its gonna have a pad full of infection and it will need ot be scraped out, packed with neosporin and wrapped.
The soak is much more involved because you have to do it so much. Its dangerously strong stuff and I didnt find that it worked better....try it in the early stages.....and if you've got a foot that still has pus in it, then Im sorry to say that you only went part way...and you still have to clean it out.
the ones with blu kote will get it much worse if you dont try to address it now. Sometimes its not swollen at all and there is alot of pus inside...
Id get it out, bandage them, and keep them clean...repeat as necessary...and spend the time to really clean it out...
the only thing that can go very wrong is if you cut a tendon, you can hurt the foot permanently...and I do have a couple of hens that cant walk perfectly because of that little mistake...but they were very bad cases and they were also how I learned...they have had a long, long life since then and are happy.
Also, I have not had much of it since I found the source in my yard!
besides the girls that came with it from another place, Ive had very little, and on the birds that Ive treated successfully, Ive had no recurrence. But it took literally months....and I used inject able antibiotics such as tylan 50, directly in the wound and kept the pus out.
I have that leghorn who's body compartmentalized the foot and it dried up and fell off!!...she walks on a stump and I keep some vet wrap on it....recently I noticed that she had a little callus on the bottom of her stump when I was changing the bandage and....boom...recurrence...right up the leg....the infection must have left a tiny part in there. It was a kernel and came out clean, but now Im watching it carefully because she is a great hen and very happy...a good layer and one of my older birds.
Staph is a very serious thing, and thats why you need to be careful yourself...wear gloves!!
Good luck!"

 

[sharol]

the Vetericyn is $33 for 16oz of Wound and Infection Care, HydroGel Spray at Bluestem (and $29 for the plain liquid). There are several types of their products.

Vetericyn is for sale at the Derby Atwoods. It's $25 for an 8oz bottle and then it comes in larger bottles (more expensive) and Atwoods has both the eye formula and the kind that sprays on wounds. I didn't buy it-- but I had no idea I had a bumblefoot issue. I just saw it the other day back on the chicken aisle. There is a LOT of it there.


We have 9 hens, and that is a lot of eggs. Mine lay well, so I get about 8-9 eggs a day. Here in the last week, I've been getting 6 eggs a day. I am up to my eye balls in eggs. We give them away left and right.

 

[Trish44]

Looking at that link that was posted with the pics, the 4th picture over on the 2nd row was what my hen's foot looked like when I noticed her limping & her foot was swollen at that point. I actually did do the surgery by myself since I can't picture my DH helping hold a chicken without complaining, easier to just do it myself. I wrapped her up in a towel so she couldn't move, kind of like swaddling a baby only leaving her feet free. She didn't seem to be in pain even with me digging in her foot. After the initial time of doing the surgery I did soak the foot every other day. I used the vet wrap because it stayed on well & is easier to take off also. You can get epsom salts normally at Wal Mart in the pharmacy area. If you can't find it just ask someone & they'll help you find it. It does help draw out the infection & clean it up. You have to use the hottest water you think the hen can stand to soak the foot. I have not had any further problems with that particular hen since I worked on it last year. I haven't gone through all of my chickens & checked all of their feet, but I have not seen any limping either. Bumblefoot can be caused from trauma from jumping down off the roost if it's too high & not enough padding underneath or walking on sharp rocks or something like that too. They get an injury & then the infection sets in & becomes chronic. And anybody working on a chicken with this infliction should definitely wear gloves, you don't want to get staph, it's a nasty infection.

Today has just been a bummer of a day overall. My DH was in a roaring bad mood today, so of course anybody in his path gets it & you end up being in one too, arrgghhhh! I was so glad when he went to work, I'm sorry but there are just times like today when I'm glad to be alone for a few hours. Ahh, peace & quiet!

My little guinea keets seem to be doing well so far, they're hot of course, but moving around now & exploring their pen. It's so funny to me how they move around in a group. You don't see chickens moving around all in unison like that. I think guineas are one of the few birds that do that. It seems like it's more game type of birds than others.

My hens keep cutting down on laying more & more. I had been getting 6 eggs a day & now today I only got 3. I have 12 or 13 hens that normally lay when it's not 110 out, so to only get 3, that's not good. I'm afraid I won't have many eggs to sell this week. I've been working on painting a sign to go at my driveway for the eggs. I've been meaning to get one done for awhile, but hadn't done it. I figure now is a good time to get it ready & then not put it out until it cools off & the hens start laying better. My new hens should start laying in a couple of months too. It's supposed to be 109 tomorrow & then start cooling off a few degrees after that, still 100, but that's better than what we have had. I'm so ready for it to get below 100. Our county fair is going on right now & I wouldn't mind going to look at the poultry if it wasn't so darned hot. I sure hope they have enough measures in those barns to keep the birds from dying in there.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Good Luck Marximus! Hope it passes.
I had just read where cattails were an essential food for birds. Wild birds eat the seed and geese love eating it too. It has lots of nutrition in it and it's various parts although it is intrusive. I know people here have baled some and sent it south for bulk filler for cattle.

Yupp - the entire cattail and every season is edible! I am going to make pickled cattail shoots this coming spring Should be interesting! My little coop is filled the mowed stalks and once it cools, I plan on gathering as much as I can so it can be used through winter for bedding for the chickens and the cats.. free bedding! YAY

 

[sunflowerparrot]

So, boyfriend and I went to Lowes and looked around... my coop isn't going to be cheap... wow - abour $1300 for a 8x12. But, we'll be using good materials and hopefully not have to worry about too many repairs down the road. This does not include the cost of the electrical stuff that we'll do too. I will have a wire dug underground that will run from our meter pole to the coop... then about 3 outlets in the coop, a light that will be on a switch, a safety plug for a heat lamp, outlet for a window AC and a ceiling fan.. I think the chickens will have a nicer place to live than me!! My brother is a licensed electrician and I paid to fly him here from New Orleans in exchange for doing all my electrical work for me Was cheaper than hiring an electrician and I get to see my brother and he gets a 2-week paid vacation! We have 3-phrase electricity in the "barn" (building really.. but barn sounds much better) and he'll do a little bit in there like put in a plug for a deep freeze I am going to need to get before October.

I wish the temps would cool down ... I wish it would rain ... I wish my coop was done ... I wish my puppy was here ... I wish, I wish, I wish

What do you wish for?

 

[Trish44]

sunflowerparrot, you're so lucky you have someone to do the electrical work for you. I wish I had my coup more done & I could sneak him over to my place for awhile. I'm not going to have electricity to that coop. I don't know what I'm going to do come winter, but I guess I'll figure it out. I have to run extension cords to the coop I have now & the pen beside it to keep the water from freezing in the winter. Now I have all of these extra pens to worry about this year, that's what I get for wanting more birds. I guess I'll be breaking out ice & carrying water 2 or 3 times a day, ugh. I'm with you, I wish it would rain, I wish it would cool down, & I wish my coop was done too.

I kind of mentioned that I might not be able to go with my DH to Missouri next weekend today & it didn't go over well. Oh well, that's life I guess. If the weather could just cool down some I wouldn't have to worry so much, but as long as it's over 100 I just don't feel like I can just leave town for two days. I would be a wreck worrying about whether my birds were here dying.