How do you manage treating 5 chickens with bumblefoot?

[citychicks99]

I've been clearing my yard of blackberry bushes and made the mistake of not cleaning it completely. Five of my six hens now have bumblefoot in various stages and I'm feeling so overwhelmed with how I'm supposed to do this that I'm looking at rehoming them if I can.

I'm currently treating 3 hens. One of them has advanced bumblefoot and I'm giving her antibiotics and 20 minute daily foot soaks. The second hen seems to be healing. Both plugs came out and I'm not seeing black forms reform. I'm thinking of only soaking her every other day for 10 minutes to make the time more manageable. The third hen's one foot has the black plug that hasn't come out. The other foot has no plug and is currently pinkish red. I've been soaking her every day for 10-20 minutes and using PRID to try and draw it out.

I just checked the other two hens today and both show early signs of bumblefoot. Light pink on the bottom and the plug is really small but hasn't formed yet.

Could I soak all of them every other day instead of every day (except for the one with advanced bumblefoot.). How can I make this more manageable if I can't re-home them?

 

[chickengr]

I only treat advanced bumblefoot with antibiotics, soaking and taking the plug out. they have to learn to deal with it as there are small stones around that can cause bumblefoot. small plugs are totally ignored.

about 10 years ago I treated any sign of bumblefoot but learned that chickens are not babies and can cope with that, lol.

 

[citychicks99]

I only treat advanced bumblefoot with antibiotics, soaking and taking the plug out. they have to learn to deal with it as there are small stones around that can cause bumblefoot. small plugs are totally ignored.

about 10 years ago I treated any sign of bumblefoot but learned that chickens are not babies and can cope with that, lol.

How many of those chickens are able to heal on their own? I just figured it'd be easier to treat it in its early stages before it gets advanced. I'm dealing with one right now and she looks like she's in a lot of pain.

 

[chickengr]

I just check chickens every day. if the plug is dry I ignore it. I treat when it starts to swell.

if your chicken is in pain and her foot is swollen treat her with doxycycline. you should separate her if possible.

 

[rosemarythyme]

At most I'll only treat 2 birds at once so I'd handle the most severe one first. Sounds like the second one mentioned is on her way to healing so I'd stop with treating her, so you can concentrate more on the third. The two that are very mild can wait.

My hens stomp around in my blackberry bramble looking for fruit and it hasn't caused issue, so not sure if that's the cause, but it is worrisome if the majority all have the same issue.

 

[chickengr]

I've been clearing my yard of blackberry bushes and made the mistake of not cleaning it completely. Five of my six hens now have bumblefoot in various stages and I'm feeling so overwhelmed with how I'm supposed to do this that I'm looking at rehoming them if I can.

I'm currently treating 3 hens. One of them has advanced bumblefoot and I'm giving her antibiotics and 20 minute daily foot soaks. The second hen seems to be healing. Both plugs came out and I'm not seeing black forms reform. I'm thinking of only soaking her every other day for 10 minutes to make the time more manageable. The third hen's one foot has the black plug that hasn't come out. The other foot has no plug and is currently pinkish red. I've been soaking her every day for 10-20 minutes and using PRID to try and draw it out.

I just checked the other two hens today and both show early signs of bumblefoot. Light pink on the bottom and the plug is really small but hasn't formed yet.

Could I soak all of them every other day instead of every day (except for the one with advanced bumblefoot.). How can I make this more manageable if I can't re-home them?

what breed are your chickens? if they are heavy maybe their roost is too high so they get hurt when they jump down. the landing space should be soft. if you have concrete floor you should put something soft (straw, pine needles, etc.).

 

[Taranakian]

Not related to the bumblefoot, but to the blackberry... just for the case it helps.

We just put our first eggs in the new (to us) incubator, which gives me approximately a month to deal to the blackberry that I've largely ignored over our acre because of overwhelm - fearing this exact thing if I don't get enough of it out that they can manage.

I've made some surprising progress so far because I happened across a video on YouTube of some guy using a pole mounted hedge trimmer to go after it. His was petrol powered, but I figured I'd pick up the 18V battery powered one from my favourite line of tools and return it if it didn't do the job.

It's fantastic. I've probably cleared 50% of our blackberry in about 4 hours of labour and the took was $150. Once I get the rest knocked back, I think I could probably keep it that way by committing an hour a fortnight to taking the pruner around my property and either wear it out (over the course of a few years) or let my soon to be chooks eat the fresh leaves and shoots, keeping it managed for me.

I finally feel hope that I can get my blackberry under control and keep it that way seeing as we're spray free and like I might be able to keep poultry without harming them.

It might be worth looking into.

Best of luck with your chooks, and the overwhelm.

 

[citychicks99]

I just check chickens every day. if the plug is dry I ignore it. I treat when it starts to swell.

if your chicken is in pain and her foot is swollen treat her with doxycycline. you should separate her if possible.

I'm unable to get doxycycline without a prescription so I've been giving her amoxicillin. I tried separating her and bringing her inside but she just stands there the entire time and won't eat much. When I bring her to her flock, she seems to be in a better mood and will eat leaves.

I think their roost is too high. It's maybe 4 feet. I used to put pine shavings on the floor but I was dealing with mites and lice and it was a pain to keep replacing it so I left the floor bare until I took care of that problem. And now I have a new problem. We're going to make them a new roost today that's lower and put some sand on the floor. Hopefully that helps and maybe the ones developing it won't progress.

 

[citychicks99]

Not related to the bumblefoot, but to the blackberry... just for the case it helps.

We just put our first eggs in the new (to us) incubator, which gives me approximately a month to deal to the blackberry that I've largely ignored over our acre because of overwhelm - fearing this exact thing if I don't get enough of it out that they can manage.

I've made some surprising progress so far because I happened across a video on YouTube of some guy using a pole mounted hedge trimmer to go after it. His was petrol powered, but I figured I'd pick up the 18V battery powered one from my favourite line of tools and return it if it didn't do the job.

It's fantastic. I've probably cleared 50% of our blackberry in about 4 hours of labour and the took was $150. Once I get the rest knocked back, I think I could probably keep it that way by committing an hour a fortnight to taking the pruner around my property and either wear it out (over the course of a few years) or let my soon to be chooks eat the fresh leaves and shoots, keeping it managed for me.

I finally feel hope that I can get my blackberry under control and keep it that way seeing as we're spray free and like I might be able to keep poultry without harming them.

It might be worth looking into.

Best of luck with your chooks, and the overwhelm.

My boyfriend introduced me to the powered trimmer too and we cleared a lot of the bushes really fast. Taking care of the the remains was more time consuming. At first we were bagging it but we started burning it because it was a lot easier. I made the mistake of leaving the bushes on the ground and they happened to want to lay eggs above that area that time. Now I'm covering any bushes with a tarp.

 

[citychicks99]

At most I'll only treat 2 birds at once so I'd handle the most severe one first. Sounds like the second one mentioned is on her way to healing so I'd stop with treating her, so you can concentrate more on the third. The two that are very mild can wait.

My hens stomp around in my blackberry bramble looking for fruit and it hasn't caused issue, so not sure if that's the cause, but it is worrisome if the majority all have the same issue.

When they start healing, do you just change the bandages every few days but no foot soak?

Is it possible for the grade 1 to not progress and heal on its own? I've never had this issue before but I also never checked their feet, so I wonder if they've had it but I just didn't know. The only reason I noticed it was because they had scaly leg mites.

They had mites and lice and I thought it'd be easier to leave the floor bare until I took care of that issue, so I think it's a combination of their high roost and hard floor and the dry blackberry bushes on the ground. Even I would get splinters while I was working on it. We're going to make them a new lower roost today and use sand on the floor and cover any sticky things on the ground with a tarp.