Is This Bumble Foot? (Pictures)

[Sk8inChick(en)]

I was looking at my hen's feet last night, and noticed that she has a scab on each foot, and the area around the scab is pink. Does this mean that she has Bumble Foot? And if she does, should we just drain it, or is there anything else that needs to be done?

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Chickery Chick]

I would suspect it. Given time it will swell, meaning lodged splinter. If no swelling and reduction in redness, it may just be a puncture. I'd still soak it and clean it and wrap it a few days with cloth tack medical tape found int wal-mart bandage section. Here is treatment and photos.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/236649/bumblefoot-surgery-with-pics-and-how-to

 

[Sk8inChick(en)]

I would suspect it. Given time it will swell, meaning lodged splinter. If no swelling and reduction in redness, it may just be a puncture. I'd still soak it and clean it and wrap it a few days with cloth tack medical tape found int wal-mart bandage section. Here is treatment and photos.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/236649/bumblefoot-surgery-with-pics-and-how-to

Thanks for the info! Should I do the surgery?

 

[MelissaTXRn]

Yes on the surgery!

 

[Eggcessive]

I would do epsom salt soaks on it twice a day, and watch it. It is bumblefoot, a staph infection, and it may get worse, but it looks like the core hasn't built up enough to get anything out of it yet. I would watch it, and I would read as many posts on bumble foot as I could, plus read the one on surgery. It doesn't get that bad overnight, and I think you have some time to study up on it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/236649/bumblefoot-surgery-with-pics-and-how-to

 

[MarcoPollo]

Your first picture looks like my hen's foot, which has three scabs. I just started soaking/medicating/wrapping the foot twice a day. I'm gonna try that for about 7 days, and if there's no improvement, the surgery is obviously going to have to be done. I have 2 other hens with bumblefoot too. I soaked one's foot in water/iodine, picked the scab off with tweezers, and am medicating and wrapping it twice daily. The other hen is not as bad so I am just soaking and wrapping her foot. It is time consuming but worth a try if I can avoid having to go surgical. I just installed ladders to the roost to help my birds when they jump down in the morning, cause they were reluctant to leave the roost in the morning for the past few days. Now I know why - their feet were hurting. Where I live it has rained almost everyday for about a month. I am wondering if that contributes to staph infections.
Part of my coop/run area is concrete, so that may have also contributed to the foot problem. I have read though that even birds that free range are getting bumblefoot, so I think it is unavoidable sometimes no matter what. I used to inspect my birds at least a few days a week, and feet were checked too. I kind of got busy with life and stopped inspecting feet and I now regret it.
Keep soaking your hen's feet at least twice a day. Then apply something like neosporin or vetericyn before bandaging. Can you keep us updated? It would really help out to know how things go. I hope your hen's foot heals well.

 

[Sk8inChick(en)]

Update:

So, my mom got tweezers and we opened up the scabs on her feet. There was no infection to be found, however we did get what looked to be a splinter out. Other than that, we couldn't find anything but dead skin. She has developed a new infection on her right middle toe. It it pink and swollen, and we pulled a feather, but it didn't do anything. There is a scab, which it attached pretty darn well, but I could try to get it off tomorrow. I squeezed the swollen area on her toe and a small amount of blood oozed out of a feather follicle. No infection came out.

I'm going to try looking around in it myself tomorrow, provided I don't faint haha.


ETA: The redness on the bottom of her feet has gotten better, and there is no more swelling, if anything there's less.

 

[Sk8inChick(en)]

I tried taking the scab off her toe, but nothing other than blod came out, and it seemed like it really hurt. Should I just keep soaking?

 

[Nambroth]

I would keep soaking with epsom salt baths, at least 5-10 minutes per day if you can. Watch the foot, and gently clean it with a cloth or whatever you prefer as necessary so that you can look for redness, infection, swelling, etc. It can take a week or two for things to heal up nicely. You probably got it early which is great!

If the wound isn't scabbed over yet (I see you posted that yesterday) please consider putting a dab of antibiotic ointment (NOT one with a painkiller) such as neosporin on it and then wrapping it to help keep it clean. You'll want to change the bandage or remove it after a day so that your hen doesn't develop chafing, especially since it's a feather footed breed.

 

[Sk8inChick(en)]

I would keep soaking with epsom salt baths, at least 5-10 minutes per day if you can. Watch the foot, and gently clean it with a cloth or whatever you prefer as necessary so that you can look for redness, infection, swelling, etc. It can take a week or two for things to heal up nicely. You probably got it early which is great!

If the wound isn't scabbed over yet (I see you posted that yesterday) please consider putting a dab of antibiotic ointment (NOT one with a painkiller) such as neosporin on it and then wrapping it to help keep it clean. You'll want to change the bandage or remove it after a day so that your hen doesn't develop chafing, especially since it's a feather footed breed.

Thank you! Yes, this is what we have been doing. Soaking in Epsom and Neosporin (non pain relief). It doesn't appear to have gotten worse, so that is good. I'll just keep an eye on her in the next few weeks and keep soaking. Thanks for the advice!

By the way, Nambroth, my mom and I are big Derperella fans. We love the stories of your flock's antics, especially the ones about Derp. It was so sad to hear about Trousers. I do hope things are getting better for you.