How do you manage treating 5 chickens with bumblefoot?

[GregoryPeckory]

I totally understand your overwhelm - we once had 6 birds with BF and my husband literally shouted at the sky when we found the 6th.

We used to clean, soak and re-bandage every day, but over time realized that only the severe infections needed an every other day treatment, and for mild cases (with no swelling and a black scab that comes off with small plug) we clean and bandage once a week. Good luck - we also had to address environment issues but once they were taken care of and everybody healed, we haven’t had a BF crisis again. Hang in there!

 

[rosemarythyme]

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

Once it's cleanly scabbed over and swelling is going down I no longer wrap or soak. I give it a couple weeks to make sure it continues to improve and if so then it'll eventually heal up, even if it's very slow progress.

Is it possible for the grade 1 to not progress and heal on its own?

To be honest I'm not sure, I've never had bumblefoot so severe that I couldn't just remove the black scab, clean it out a couple of times, and have it eventually go away.

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.

I think higher roosts and insufficient bedding is more problematic than occasional thorns or splinters - obviously if it's just everywhere then yes clearing as much out of the way is beneficial (I have a solid acre of blackberry to tame!) But the birds like the berries so they stomp through my piles of trimming so I do try to get rid of those fast. Because a scratch or puncture by itself doesn't necessarily lead to problems, it's the infection that settles in. Keeping their feet as dry as possible (which is hard during our wet fall through spring) and reducing hard surfaces and hard landings seem to be the most effective things in reducing risk of bumblefoot.

My top roost is probably as high as yours but I have at least 3", maybe 4" of bedding. Still I've come to favor lighter breeds as they simply don't land as hard and don't develop the same foot issues as heavier breeds.