Help for Some Nasty Swelling on A Couple Hens Feet

[strawberryfields]

Despite my "label" here on this board I have been keeping chickens successfully for well over twelve years. I have never experienced the issue I am currently having with a beautiful Wheaten EE. She is a doll and I have also noticed this same issue with another EE I have. The whole toe area is swollen as you can see from the photos.

It does appear that one might be able to "pick" a scab from each area of the foot, but am not sure if the other chicken has both "scabs" to choose from or not, will have to double check.

You can see how nasty it looks, but I am pretty sure some days (like yesterday) it looked even worse.

The foot is tender as is evidenced by the hen limping, but she doesn't seem to be in too much trouble as this does not seem to effect how much she eats or her roosting habits or her general behavior, except for the obvious limp.

Any thoughts??? Would love some ideas!!!

 

[dawg53]

It looks like bumblefoot on the top of her feet between her toes. Type "Bumblefoot" in the BYC search box, there are many threads relating to bumblefoot and how to treat it.

 

[TwoCrows]

You might be dealing with bumblefoot and I would suggest lancing the areas of those scabs. However, if you go into these areas and you don't get any pus, but blood and clear fluid, you might possibly be dealing with MS, Mycoplasma Synoviae. It is a bacterial infection that causes fluid to build up in the foot joint and pad of chickens and turkeys. Usually the only the left foot is involved. You also mentioned another chicken that also has this condition.

MS is contagious. I am dealing with a case of it in my own flock as well. I can see opaque scales on the leg of your bird near the foot joint. That maybe the fluid building up in the tendon sheaths of the foot. In my case, it started out as bumblefoot, from a puncture wound to the foot. But MS is an opportunistic bacteria and attacks the bird when there is other infection dragging down the immune system. So my bumblefoot patient turned into an MS patient, spreading her bacteria throughout the flock.

If you are positively noticing this in other members of the flock, then I would say that you are dealing with MS. You will need to use Baytril for a long period of time to take care of this nasty bacteria. It is difficult to treat.

 

[strawberryfields]

Thank you sooooo much for the good information! I have never dealt with this before. I did a search on the forum board for bumblefoot and feel like tackling this project today! Now I am worried about the MS... Again, thanks so much for the good information!

I hope the best for you and your flock twocrowsranch.

 

[strawberryfields]

This was nasty. A white substance that had to be dug out, it did not come out on its own, no matter how much squeezing I did. I followed the directions of a post on here that I found from a quick search on bumblefoot. OMG!!! Once it seemed pretty clean I double checked and swiped some more, and suddenly blood started gushing! I mean gushing! The bowl I was soaking her leg in turned bright red with her blood. The blood was literally squirting out of the wound. Since the post I had read said that no amount of blood would matter, I held the wound shut with one hand and began working on the other side. Finally, I had to give up, because the bleeding was not stopping. I bet I stood there for twenty minutes or so trying to stop the gushing blood.

Finally, when the bleeding stopped, I packed the wound with fresh gauze and wrapped her whole leg up.

So now my question would be... How long should I wait to try and go into the other side to rid her of the infection from the other side of her foot? I thought she was going to bleed to death tonight! I would not want a repeat. How long should I let that side heal before trying again?

Or would it be better to try and heal this with anti-biotics?

 

[TwoCrows]

It is normal to have all that bleeding. When I do bumblefoot surgeries, when the blood starts to flow, I know I am about done. There is a main artery in the leg along the back side, near the foot joint, that you can squeeze to stop the blood from flowing. I find that slowly picking around is the best technique so that you don't get too much blood too quickly during the procedure.

I would go ahead and do the other side as well soon. That way they are healing up a the same rate. After a few days, starts soaking the foot in epsom salts for 5 or 10 mins a day for a week or so. Keep the foot bandaged for several weeks and check it daily for a while to make sure pus is not reforming. Sometimes it is impossible to get it all out on the first surgery. Don't start any antibiotics unless the infection really gets out of hand. Surgery would still need to be done to drain the gunk.

You did good! Keep us posted on her progress!