EDIT: PHOTOS IN COMMENT #10
Hi BYC! I just want to say that I love this forum. I have been a visitor for over a year browsing all of your useful information but I just signed up today to get some advice I couldn't find anywhere else.
My husband and I started our flock "The Birds of Anarchy" last year. We free range and at night they get locked up at night. Throughout the past 12 months we have lost several to our own inexperience and to predators but about 2 weeks ago we overhauled their coop and heavily secured it for extra protection while they slumber. And every night we are set on doing a "beak count".
Our last loss was about 3 weeks ago when we lost 2 of our beloved feathered friends. Leaving us with only 4 birds (2 light brahmas, 1 dark cornish and a black cochin roo). I was devastated to say the least! We absolutely love our birds.
A few days passed and we wanted to recruit new faces into the bird gang. We went online and found some Red Stars for sale. They are 2 yrs old like our original flock.
They had a rough life before joining our flock. Beaks were clipped from a big game breeder and then they were raised in a wire cage with about 40 hens per cage. It was a pretty crappy set up. Thats the people we bought them from.
We chose 3 hens, (it's so hard to chose, I wanted to save them all!) and we also adopted the gimpy runt. She doesn't lay but my heart broke for her. She was pecked to hell, her arse was bare and red and she had a swollen foot and only 2 toes per foot. They said the toes froze this winter and got stuck to the cage! I almost died when I heard that! She immediately had my heart and we named her Tootsie.
So we wait a day and slowly introduced the new with the old. They get along fine and are all healthy. They now get to experience outdoor living and spend much of the day in the sun, digging for worms and dust bathing!
Except Tootsie.
We sectioned off part of the coop for her. Her left foot is in bad shape. I assumed it wasnt bumblefoot b/c there is no weird scab. It is soft and swollen, you could feel that it is liquidy under the skin, its warm to the touch, she limps and stands like a flamingo. For the past week I've been giving her warm epsom salt baths and she loves it! It has helped with the inflammation, I also dissolved some aspirin in her water and put neosporin on her foot and her red butt. She is making great improvements. She is eating/ drinking fine, poop is healthy, her butt is no longer red, her feathers are coming back, and she seems to have a lot more energy. I let her outside under my watchful supervision, to protect her from the other birds pecking. It's so sad because she wants so badly to hang with them out there but most of the day she is isolated. I visit her throughout the day but I know she wants to go do bird things.
This morning after the bath the swelling came to a peak sort of on the left back side of her foot. It looked like the skin was stretched and if it wanted to pop. So I got the first aid kit, sterilized a needle and popped it. Out came a stream of clear yellow fluid and a hint of blood. I pushed out as much as I could.Nothing chunky, it was very runny.
I then dipped her into the epsom bath again, then iodine then placed a cottonball soaked with neosporin onto the pin pricked spot and wrapped her little "tootsie" in vetwrap.
I wanted to get her antibiotics but my supply store ran out! So I put some minced garlic in her food bowl as an organic antibiotic.
I'm not sure what this is. I'm certain it's sure to her frozen foot injury but I don't know if it is it contagious, will it spread, is it staph is it a blister? Everything I read online says chicken pus solidifies, so was this yellowish clear fluid not pus? The size decreased dramatically but she is still limping and holding it up. I plan to unwrap it tomorrow for another epsom bath.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you. (Tootsie says thanks too)
Hi BYC! I just want to say that I love this forum. I have been a visitor for over a year browsing all of your useful information but I just signed up today to get some advice I couldn't find anywhere else.
My husband and I started our flock "The Birds of Anarchy" last year. We free range and at night they get locked up at night. Throughout the past 12 months we have lost several to our own inexperience and to predators but about 2 weeks ago we overhauled their coop and heavily secured it for extra protection while they slumber. And every night we are set on doing a "beak count".
Our last loss was about 3 weeks ago when we lost 2 of our beloved feathered friends. Leaving us with only 4 birds (2 light brahmas, 1 dark cornish and a black cochin roo). I was devastated to say the least! We absolutely love our birds.
A few days passed and we wanted to recruit new faces into the bird gang. We went online and found some Red Stars for sale. They are 2 yrs old like our original flock.
They had a rough life before joining our flock. Beaks were clipped from a big game breeder and then they were raised in a wire cage with about 40 hens per cage. It was a pretty crappy set up. Thats the people we bought them from.
We chose 3 hens, (it's so hard to chose, I wanted to save them all!) and we also adopted the gimpy runt. She doesn't lay but my heart broke for her. She was pecked to hell, her arse was bare and red and she had a swollen foot and only 2 toes per foot. They said the toes froze this winter and got stuck to the cage! I almost died when I heard that! She immediately had my heart and we named her Tootsie.
So we wait a day and slowly introduced the new with the old. They get along fine and are all healthy. They now get to experience outdoor living and spend much of the day in the sun, digging for worms and dust bathing!
Except Tootsie.
We sectioned off part of the coop for her. Her left foot is in bad shape. I assumed it wasnt bumblefoot b/c there is no weird scab. It is soft and swollen, you could feel that it is liquidy under the skin, its warm to the touch, she limps and stands like a flamingo. For the past week I've been giving her warm epsom salt baths and she loves it! It has helped with the inflammation, I also dissolved some aspirin in her water and put neosporin on her foot and her red butt. She is making great improvements. She is eating/ drinking fine, poop is healthy, her butt is no longer red, her feathers are coming back, and she seems to have a lot more energy. I let her outside under my watchful supervision, to protect her from the other birds pecking. It's so sad because she wants so badly to hang with them out there but most of the day she is isolated. I visit her throughout the day but I know she wants to go do bird things.This morning after the bath the swelling came to a peak sort of on the left back side of her foot. It looked like the skin was stretched and if it wanted to pop. So I got the first aid kit, sterilized a needle and popped it. Out came a stream of clear yellow fluid and a hint of blood. I pushed out as much as I could.Nothing chunky, it was very runny.
I then dipped her into the epsom bath again, then iodine then placed a cottonball soaked with neosporin onto the pin pricked spot and wrapped her little "tootsie" in vetwrap.
I wanted to get her antibiotics but my supply store ran out! So I put some minced garlic in her food bowl as an organic antibiotic.
I'm not sure what this is. I'm certain it's sure to her frozen foot injury but I don't know if it is it contagious, will it spread, is it staph is it a blister? Everything I read online says chicken pus solidifies, so was this yellowish clear fluid not pus? The size decreased dramatically but she is still limping and holding it up. I plan to unwrap it tomorrow for another epsom bath.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you. (Tootsie says thanks too)
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