In the middle of bumblefoot surgery and need help - fast!

[ruth]

I've operated on bumble foot a few times and I always end up soaking in warm salt water and massaging and squeezing and cutting and prodding for at least an hour sometimes before I find the plug and get all the gunk out. I then fill the hole with Neosporin and wrap the foot with thin strips of vetwrap and put the chicken in a kennel to recover. After a week I take off the vetwrap - the foot has always been healed and the chicken is free to rejoin the flock. I don't give antibiotics and I have not had a chicken get a recurring case or end up limping. Every one has been good as new after surgery. Maybe it's all that hour of soaking in warm salt water - very warm and very salty. Once I had to cut through the top of the toes where the marble size swelling was to get the plug.

 

[speckledhen]

Glenda, mine get it all the time because I live on rocky, thorny acreage. The interior of the coops is not the problem. I can sand every inch of the inside and they'd still get it because they scratch on ground with striata of sandstone (sharp edges) and nasty greenbriar vines, plus they jump on the woodpile and find old glass from the previous owner's burn piles all over the place. Been here seven years and glass just keeps perking to the top of the soil after rainstorms. So, no matter what I do, I cant stop them from getting abrasions. Then, the staph invades.

 

[ruth]

Mine love to go through the burn pile and scratch and scatter it all around - same with compost pile but at least there's nothing broken or rusted in the compost pile - all sorts of debris in the burn pile.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

We have 13 laying pullets (about 9 mos. old). Only 3 have/had any type of swelling, but some of the other pullets currently have that same small scab on the bottom of their foot. Can they have this scab and not develop bumblefoot (full blown infection) or does this scab mean they already have the infection and the swelling is inevitable with time? Do I have to actually cut any foot with a scab or will these chickens be fine if I leave them alone? Cutting into their feet was awful - I dread doing anymore. I did 5 feet total (among the 3 hens) and think some of the surgery were successful, but couldn't fine the plug everytime.

The bandages are still on - I figured out to wrap them around the feet so that they don't slip off (using something similar to vetrap, but by Johnson & Johnson).

I'm not sure exactly how they're getting the bumblefoot, but have a couple ideas:

We live on a 1/2 acre lot - the backyard is 1/2 grass & 1/2 rock landscaping. Desert rock landscaping is popular here in AZ and the previous owner added LOTS of rocks to his yard. There is still plenty of grass for the kids & animals, so the rocks were never an issue till now. If the rocks are the problem, then I may not be able to keep my chickens - there's no way we can get rid of all these rocks (we did remove as many rocks as we could from their run, but they still walk & run on the rocks that are outside the run while free-ranging).

Click here to see a page that shows my pullets enjoying their free-range time both on & off the rocks and also has pics of the rocks close-up:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=19548-our-flock

This is the coop - I'm still removing rocks from it -- have been for the last several months. We've added sand to the dirt, but every 10 days or so, I go out and rake up the new rocks they've unearthed.

I just went out and measured their main roost. It's 38" high. In case that's part of the problem, we're going to lower it another 6" (I'm trying to keep it higher than their nestboxes). The area under their roost is linoleum over a wood floor with a couple inches of shavings (I'll add more shavings). The roost is 3" wide - maybe it's too narrow? It's painted and there are no splinters.

The roost and landing area:(there is a second roost 4" lower on the opposite wall as the nestboxes, not pictured)