Molting and bumblefoot

[PluckyJen]

Hi everybody. I have a double whammy. Our cochin Gertrude is in her pre winter molt. First time i have seen it and i have been quite traumatised. Never expected quite as much of a feather loss. A couple weeks ago i noticed her sitting alot so i inspected her feet. I found a sign of bumblefoot which i soaked a couple days in a row with epsom and tried to ply out the "plug" It looked flush in foot. It almost looks like a callous of sorts if that makes sense? She has been ok since but now i noticed yesterday she is sitting alot again. So my question is. Would a poultice or drawing ointment work? If i apply it and bandage it up i wonder if it would bring it up or soften it so i can try scrape it out? My other worry is she is VERY sensitive now in her molt and i dont even want to handle her at all. She gets so upset. I can imagine how sensitive all those feather stalks are. Ps. She is free ranging a bit in garden still daily with her sister as well as eating and drinking.

 

[Glenda Heywoodo]

Glenda Heywood
[URL='http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/hobby-farming/raising-chickens/how-to-treat-chicken-foot-sores/']http://www.dummies.com/…/r…/how-to-treat-chicken-foot-sores/
Glenda Heywood IT IS IMPORTANT you do not doctor or touch the chicken with out plastic gloves on, as if you have any kind of cur it will infect you also. If the bird is not important to your chicken group, I would say the kindness thing is to have some one put her out ofer misery. Safer for you also. BESURE AND WORSH WITH CLOROX WATER AND SOAP IN WASHER EVERY TIME YOU HANDLE HER YOUR CLOTHES. safety in healthy situations is a must in sickness situations also.

ARTICLE ON TREATING FOOT SORES
In early stages, administering antibiotics may be all that’s needed. Several registered antibiotics are available for chickens: lincomycin and amoxicillin are two common ones. Many can be purchased at farm stores, or you can ask a veterinarian where to get them. Read and follow the label directions to determine the correct dosage and find out how to administer the antibiotic to birds. You must give the antibiotics for the full time the label directs.

Soaking the foot also helps, especially if the injury has progressed to the hard stage. Put a cup of Epsom salts in a dish pan of hot water — water that feels hot but doesn’t burn your hand. Then hold the chicken’s foot in the pan until the water cools, about 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t let the bird drink any of the water.

The soaking should soften the abscess. Gently remove the scab, and try to open the wound by pulling it apart at the wound edges rather than squeezing it. Rinse the wound with hydrogen peroxide, and try to gently clean out any pus. Then apply an antibiotic ointment that’s safe for birds (ask a vet for a recommendation).

Pad the wound with a clean gauze pad, and wrap it with first-aid tape or vet wrap. The wound should be cleaned, flushed, and rewrapped once a day until it looks like it’s healing. All dressings and soaking fluids will be loaded with bacteria and should be disposed of carefully.

Leave the treatment of such an abscess to a vet if soaking and pulling apart the wound edges doesn’t open the wound so it can drain and be cleaned. Watch birds being treated with antibiotics for diarrhea, which is caused by good bacteria that’s also being destroyed, and add some “digestive health yogurt” to the chicken’s diet to help restore it.

BUMBLE FOOT PERSE:
A limping chicken is no minor issue in a backyard coop. Often, this is a sign of bumblefoot. Bumblefoot is a bacterial infection or abscess of the foot. Treating bumblefoot is simple, but crucial; foot sores can be contagious and an untreated case can cause death.

Bumblefoot generally occurs in heavy roosters, but it can affect other birds as well. It’s caused by a cut or even a small scrape to the bird’s foot that gets contaminated by bacteria, usually staph. Rough perches and wire cage floors are common causes of these cuts and scratches. Large, heavy birds that jump down from high perches also can injure the foot.

•A large swelling on the bottom of the foot or on a toe that may feel soft in early stages and hard later.

•The foot looks red and inflamed and may feel hot to the touch. A black scab usually forms over the sore.

•The bird may limp and refuse to do much walking.

Use gloves to examine or treat birds suspected of having bumblefoot, because the staph or other bacteria that cause the abscess can infect humans. Put the bird in a cage with clean, soft litter such as pine shavings. Isolate the bird from other chickens because the bacteria could infect them too
[/URL]

 

[sunflour]

Hi everybody. I have a double whammy. Our cochin Gertrude is in her pre winter molt. First time i have seen it and i have been quite traumatised. Never expected quite as much of a feather loss. A couple weeks ago i noticed her sitting alot so i inspected her feet. I found a sign of bumblefoot which i soaked a couple days in a row with epsom and tried to ply out the "plug" It looked flush in foot. It almost looks like a callous of sorts if that makes sense? She has been ok since but now i noticed yesterday she is sitting alot again. So my question is. Would a poultice or drawing ointment work? If i apply it and bandage it up i wonder if it would bring it up or soften it so i can try scrape it out? My other worry is she is VERY sensitive now in her molt and i dont even want to handle her at all. She gets so upset. I can imagine how sensitive all those feather stalks are. Ps. She is free ranging a bit in garden still daily with her sister as well as eating and drinking.

With severe molts, they do feel bad and do a lot of sitting. It's a good sign she is ranging and eating/drinking.

RE: bumble foot, would you post a pic of the foot.

 

[Glenda Heywoodo]

https://www.facebook.com/GlendaHeywoodPoultryNews/
National Poultry News
FEEDING WET MASH PROBIOTIC MASH TO CHICKENS MOULTING AND GETTING NEW FEATHERS IN
Glenda Heywood
May I suggest what I would do for the whole flock....
I have used my WET MASH PROBIOTIC RECIPE for this kind of chickens growing feathers.
For this problem I recommend my wet mash probiotic with yoguart be given.
I prefer to use the wet mash probiotic that includes chicken feed, yoguart and milk with applesauce
because chickens will eat the yoguart completely in the wet mash where as some chickens will not just eat yoguart and it gets on their beaks, of which then they throw it away when cleaning the beaks
as you will notice if standing too close to them eating the yoguart

So read on down where I give the recipe
some advice for helping the chicken get over molt and growing in new feathers.

today I would see if the chicken will eat a wet mash with the Vitamins E and B complex and selenium: I would fix it for all the chickens, as it will stop he hens picking on the one with less feathers also. The vitamins will help their bodies become adjusted to the wet mash probiotic mash.

(-B) THIS IS FOR ONE CHICKEN
natural probiotic wet mash
2 tbp of dry crumbles
1 tbsp flax seed meal (the kind people take)
3 tbp of milk sweet, sour or buttermilk
1 tbsp of non flavored yogurt
2 tbsp of apple sauce
put it on top so the chicken can smell and see it
mix good and put the
vit E liquid as directed in the wet mash
and crumble the Vit B complex tablet in a tabsp and add to the wet mash
Crush the selenium tablet alo add to t mash
**BESURE AND MIX VIT'S VERY GOOD IN WET MASH***

(C Do this once a day for 7 days to see if the chicken is better
then do this once a day for another week.
NOW TAKE OUT THE VITAMINS AND ONLY ADD VITAMINS ONCE EVERY TWO WEEKS.
Now feed the wet mash probiotic mash then twice a week for life of chickens
this should give the nervous system some stability and cure the bad E.coli in the gut
(D) they should clean it up in 20-30 minutes
this will help them get good gut flora
also put 2 tbsp of ACV in gallon of water and keep giving them this water for a week straight
then give it 3-5 times a week for life
(E) ALSO FEED WET MASH PROBIOIC RECIPE TO THE HEALTHY CHICKENS.
multiply the amount times the amount of chickens being fed the wet mash probiotic recipe without the vitamins As directed up above.

 

[PluckyJen]

 

[PluckyJen]

 

[sunflour]

That looks to be fairly superficial - there's no visible surrounding redness.
Make sure there doesn't feel like there's something deeper and if not,
then IMO do not start cutting operating on it.

Cleanse the are daily in diluted betadyne or hiblicleans if you have those. Or just a little liquid body wash or dish detergent. Bandage the foot pad - you can try just the vet wrap with or without a thin gauze pad. Check her roost/ramp to make sure there are no rough places and inspect the coop and frequented areas to make sure there's nothing to explain this.

I had a 3 BR's that had exactly the same superficial type - it cleared up quickly after I removed a treated very rounded top wood roost and replaced it with a regular 2x4 board. I don't know if it was a friction issue on the rounded shape or that they had worn thru the paint on the treated one. It was interesting that only the BR's had a problem, my 3 BO's never did.

 

[PluckyJen]

That looks to be fairly superficial - there's no visible surrounding redness.
Make sure there doesn't feel like there's something deeper and if not,
then IMO do not start cutting operating on it.

Cleanse the are daily in diluted betadyne or hiblicleans if you have those. Or just a little liquid body wash or dish detergent. Bandage the foot pad - you can try just the vet wrap with or without a thin gauze pad. Check her roost/ramp to make sure there are no rough places and inspect the coop and frequented areas to make sure there's nothing to explain this.

I had a 3 BR's that had exactly the same superficial type - it cleared up quickly after I removed a treated very rounded top wood roost and replaced it with a regular 2x4 board. I don't know if it was a friction issue on the rounded shape or that they had worn thru the paint on the treated one. It was interesting that only the BR's had a problem, my 3 BO's never did.

thanks Sun flour. Will try our vet store tomorrow for other things too and ask if i can get vet tape. Have betadyne tho. Otherwise i know she will bite other bandages off.ill feel the foot tomorrow morning for any hard areas. My girls sleep inside at night in a cage with soft pine shavings then have their day outside in their coop area and garden. Maybe their feet are too spoilt and now got bashed I suspect there might be an area on the entrance of their coop that caught her maybe initially. Ill look in morning and fix it up chop chop. Good idea about cleaning it up regularly.Shame my poor girl.

 

[2BsFamilyFarm]

Hi, I am new to raising chickens and I am looking for some definitions about molting. Is there a difference between normal molting and loss of feathers due to some other condition or disease? My Brahma hen Beulah has lost the feathers only on her neck and she is sitting in the nesting box a lot. I have to move her to the run so she will eat and drink, which she does, but then she goes back to the nest to set. We are not getting many eggs. It's a 3 hen coop, and the other hens are laying less as a result of Beulah's hogging all the space. They all tend to lay their eggs in the same place, and where we were normally getting eggs every day, now we are seeing one or two every 2-3 days. I'm not sure what to do.

 

[PluckyJen]

Hi, I am new to raising chickens and I am looking for some definitions about molting. Is there a difference between normal molting and loss of feathers due to some other condition or disease? My Brahma hen Beulah has lost the feathers only on her neck and she is sitting in the nesting box a lot. I have to move her to the run so she will eat and drink, which she does, but then she goes back to the nest to set. We are not getting many eggs. It's a 3 hen coop, and the other hens are laying less as a result of Beulah's hogging all the space. They all tend to lay their eggs in the same place, and where we were normally getting eggs every day, now we are seeing one or two every 2-3 days. I'm not sure what to do.

im sure somebody on here will help you out on that one. Gosh i guess it can happen. Be broody and molting. If theres no visible parasites on her then it must be molting. My Gertrude started molting on her neck! My one cochin is mid molt and started laying again yesterday. 3 eggs so far. Everybody is so different. Love em all