Hen with poorly foot

[richardeblack]

Thank you Maria
Yes they are a constant worry but so much fun as well. They do make me laugh with their antics.
Tried squeezing the leg down to the pad and some dried dark coloured bits came out far enough to tease out with the tweezers. Not much though. I will give her another go late tomorrow afternoon then bandage her up with loads of salve and see how she is when I get back.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to drain her water belly tomorrow as she is very swollen but think it would be too much on top of the foot.
I just put salve on this time so will see what happens tomorrow.
Our trip is holiday, meeting my wife's cousins, one from America (Port Jefferson) the other from Guernsey. Julia from America has her daughter and son in law over too with their two kids who we haven't seen yet.
It will be good but I'll be glad to get home to my chicken.
Thank you again.
Richard

 

[MarlaMac]

Thank you Maria
Yes they are a constant worry but so much fun as well. They do make me laugh with their antics.
Tried squeezing the leg down to the pad and some dried dark coloured bits came out far enough to tease out with the tweezers. Not much though. I will give her another go late tomorrow afternoon then bandage her up with loads of salve and see how she is when I get back.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to drain her water belly tomorrow as she is very swollen but think it would be too much on top of the foot.
I just put salve on this time so will see what happens tomorrow.
Our trip is holiday, meeting my wife's cousins, one from America (Port Jefferson) the other from Guernsey. Julia from America has her daughter and son in law over too with their two kids who we haven't seen yet.
It will be good but I'll be glad to get home to my chicken.
Thank you again.
Richard

Sounds fun. I just wanted to say, my name is Marla, not Maria. No worries - it appears in my 7th grade album that way too. Been dealing with it my whole life.

I don't have any experience with water belly (hope I never have to), so I cannot advise on that. I hope your girl does well while you are gone.

 

[richardeblack]

My apologies Marla.
I wasn't really looking for advice on the water belly, just trying to make my own mind up. I think I am stressing her quite a lot as it is.she is definitely getting around better though.
I do wonder if a previous hen had bumblefoot and the infection spread. She also had water belly and I went to drain her because she was walking strangely but no fluid came out. I seem to remember someone commenting on the picture say she had bumblefoot but she was very weak by this time and I thought it was the final stages of ascites. Maybe if I had dealt with the bumblefoot earlier she might have survived a little longer.
I know I will start looking at their feet regularly from now on.
Thank you again for all the help and good wishes. I will try and video tomorrow's treatment if possible but will have to do it inside as rain is forecast all day.
Richard.

 

[MarlaMac]

The thing about this chicken thing is that we all learn a long the way. I believe that if we do the very best we know how then we are ahead of the game and our chickens are lucky to have our care. No use crying over spilled milk.

Monthly checks are imperative. I do that. I currently have a gal I am treating for a very small bumble. It is so much easier to deal with if we catch them early on.

My bumbles almost always start as a sanbur that the chicken steps on. Horrible plant and we are in the 3rd year of trying to eradicate them. But our flock free ranges over several acres (they have 60 but stay closer than that, of course) so we have a lot of ground to cover.

Thanks for keeping me up to date.