Foot Injury or Bite?

[BooBear]

Blueberry was healthy and fine yesterday until the evening. She suddenly went under the big hutch, lay down, and would not move. Rita, her best bud was fussing over her in a concerned way so I knew something was wrong. Went to pick her up and she had a hurt foot that was oozing dark fluid. I could not see an cuts so think she must have got bitten but am not sure.

She would not walk on the hurt foot but would hop on the other leg. I cleaned it with hydrogen peroixide and put her in the brood pen to keep the others from harrassing her. Her breathing is heavy.

This morning I saw more of the fluid around her foot were she slept. She seems to be putting some pressure on the foot now; however, she through up. She is looking rough, so I am worried she was bitten by something poisoneous. What should I be treating her with if I am not sure what bit her?

 

[BooBear]

she keeps moving to the water and is drinking way more than normal.
I moved the water cus I was worried she was gonna fall asleep in it and drown; but, she limps back to were it is.
Dad thinks she is drinking alot to flush out the toixins in her system from the bite.

Have not received any other replies so am hoping she pulls through.

We have brown recluse spiders, black widows, occasional scorpion, small centiped looking bugs, water moccisans, cotton mouths, and rattle snakes; but I am not sure which if any of these could have bitten her.

 

[BooBear]

Blueberry is moving around a bit more. The bite site looks yukky. Still worried about her over drinking. She drinks so much she pukes.
However, she has just started showing interest in food.

We are thinking that she has a spider bite and Dad said to try charcoal pultice. As Blueberry has feathered feet she does not like pressure as the area is really tender and hurts her. So after soaking her foot n cleaning it gently, I did the charcoal without wrapping and sprinkled some charcoal over her food.

Dad got the tip on the charcoal from an old friend. The charcoal drawls the poison out while it drys. By ingesting some it draws the toxins out of the blood stream and helps you heal faster. It works as Dad does this when he gets bit from a spider so hopefully this works for Blueberry.

 

[BooBear]

update:

Blueberry is doing much better, she is moving around and not over drinking. The charcoal pultice seems to have helped alot.
Still going to keep her in the little hutch for a few more days and keep an eye on her to make sure she continues to make good improvement.

Guess I will be adding charcoal to my bag of emergency tricks for poisonous spider bites.

Even though no one responded to my thread just wanted to let everyone know how she recovers incase anyone else experiences a similiar emergency.

 

[TeamChaos]

WOW! I just got caught up on this thread and I'm so glad Blueberry is on the mend. Nice work! I used to live in FL and a friend of mine had a dog that gotten bitten by a brown recluse- she lost a huge chunk of flesh, yikes!

 

[klmclain1]

Wow! Keep an eye on it and make sure the wound area doesn't get bigger and bigger. If it does, then it probably is a brown recluse. I'd guess it's more like a black widow bite. I'm so glad she's doing well. I've never seen people discussing anything quite like this so you probably didn't get answers because no one knew! Keep us posted.

 

[BooBear]

Thanks I will.

It is weird one for me too as I never thought about any kind of bug hurting a chicken being they are on the menu.
I am hoping she continues to improve as she is one of my favorites in the flock and is fiesty to boot.

 

[PappasMomma]

I just had the same scenerio happen this afternoon with my little white leghorn. I found her under the brooder coop and when I got her out, I saw her foot is swollen and purple between the toes. I washed it off and put some Vet RX on it and put her in the isolation coop. Im not sure where to go from here but I will keep a close eye on her. What kind of charcoal did you use? The kind you barbecue with or the kind you put in a fish filter? I have no clue. She was fine yesterday.

 

[PappasMomma]

Here is a picture of her foot. I soaked it in epsom salts then cleaned it again with iodine and put neosporin on it. I see no sign of a callous or spot that might indicate bumblefoot. Feedback appreciated.