hen with hole in foot?

[chickengirl3400]

While putting the girls back in the coop after their free-range time, I noticed one of my oldest hens favoring one of her feet. The bottom of the foot looked swollen, so I caught her and flipped her over to have a look.

The pad on the bottom of her foot is swollen, and she has a large scab-looking thing covering a large area of the pad, roughly the size of a nickel. I picked at the scab for a moment, but it was on tight and seemed to bother her, so I left it on and smothered the area in betadine.

I checked her other foot and noticed a very small hole in the center of the pad, which looks like a smaller version of the same issue. She didn't seem to mind me picking at this scab and wasn't favoring this foot, so I removed the scab to look at the area.

NOTHING appeared to be wrong within the hole, just raw pink skin. I smothered this area in betadine as well. I checked her all over for mites, but she was clean, and I've never had a mite problem.

I caught several of my hens, and one of the other old hens had a tiny scabby hole on one foot, but did not favor the foot or have any swelling. My old cochin and old rooster have no problems, nor do any of the younger ones.


These two hens are probably about 8 years old. All of my girls are on laying pellets, get 2 hours of free-range time daily, and get cracked corn in the evenings, as well as table scraps.

Their run has been damp in a certain area for about a month, due to lots of rainfall and apparent hatred of their hanging water container, which they seem to get a thrill out of tipping over. They also have a water container that stays on the ground.

Any suggestions? Has anyone ever had this problem before?

Thanks so much!

 

[Chicken Woman]

Bumblefoot Search as there is alot of info and pictures you can compare

Hope they do ok !!!

 

[chickengirl3400]

THANK YOU!

That looks exactly correct, and the causes of the bumblefoot sound plausible in this situation.

Any suggestions on a particular antibiotic that works well?

 

[Chicken Woman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblefoot_%28infection%29


Bumble foot All birds Cuts or bruises on foot pad allow entrance of organisms. Lameness, swollen foot, scab on foot pad. P-Avoid high roosts, sharp litter. T-Open abscess with sharp knife, remove pus, paint with iodine or sulfa ointment. From Welp hatchery article

 

[davidb]

most of the time if you have bumble foot, the roost is to high and or the ground they land on when coming off the roost is to hard

 

[Attack Chicken]

I've delt with bumblefoot before and dealing with a case right now..I wash the chickens foot off really good. Then if you can pull the scab off and puss comes out clean it and then put neosporin on it and wrap it up. If the scab does come off but no puss comes out what I did was mix honey and vasoline together and apply it to the area and wrap it up, changing the bandage everyfew days. The vasoline should bring up the bumble to were you can pop it then fill it with neosporin. What I did after I wrapped the foot up in gauze then athelets (bad spelling) tap I put a baby sock on the foot. At the top of the foot I put a strip on tape around the sock to hold it on. The sock keeps out dirt from getting the gauze. (It doesn't work when it's wet out). Hope she gets better.

 

[Chicken Woman]

http://www.avianweb.com/bumblefoot.html

 

[chickengirl3400]

I have roosts that are appropriately low to the ground, but a few particular hens (her being one of them) insist on getting up into the rafters of the henhouse to roost, then jumping to the ground in the mornings, which seems the most likely cause of the bumblefoot.

I guess need to put up some netting to keep the girls out of the rafters, and deepen the litter as well.