Mystery Rooster problem...

1CityChick

In the Brooder
5 Years
Sep 16, 2014
15
1
49
Our 5 month old rooster was limping one day, and I checked him over but couldn't figure out why. So I put him in the coop with fresh water and food to limit his activity. The next day, he wasn't walking at all. I checked him over again and discovered he had bumblefoot.
I looked it up online, and figured out that I am not the person to treat him. We took him in to the vet. The vet put him on antibiotics, and recommended we put a hot compress on it twice daily, and coat it with bag balm. We brought him back for a recheck after a week, the growth looked the same. So he did surgery to remove the spot, and said what he removed was dense connective tissue with little puss. We have a "guarded prognosis" because of the nature of the growth (it could be a metastatic lesion), and because our rooster is still lame.
Everything I have seen online about bumblefoot says to remove the spot immediately and give antibiotics. Nothing about bagbalm and hot compresses. I watched a video of a surgical removal, and what was taken looked like a firm ball that was connected to stuff. I ain't sayin I know more than this guy who has 25 + years experience. What I am asking is am I doing this right? Is there something I should know? I'm new to chickens, and I don't know if I can wash a rooster's butt for much longer without thinking about how he'd smell better in a pot with dumplings. ;-) Is there any advice, or tips you can add for me?

Thank you.
 
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I have personally never had to deal with bumble foot. That being said, there are many vets out there who know little about chickens. The colleges just do not teach much on them. My niece is going to vet school now, and my step daughter went for animal science. My niece has told me that she will call me with any questions on chickens and my step daughter does too! The colleges' perception is that people do not generally take their $10 chicken to the vet to pay a $200 vet bill.

Please don't think I am telling you that you did the wrong thing. I'm not saying this at all. Do a search on here for bumble foot. Sorry your roo is lame and suffering now. I have learned that chickens are very resilient and can bounce back from far worse that we would expect. Good luck
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Ha ha. I never updated this thread. So, after our rooster, Sunday Supper, was done with the surgery, we had a follow up visit with the vet. The poor guy was still completely lame. The vet said, maybe the problem wasn't the bumblefoot so much as our home care. You see, we had him in a small plastic bin with lots of bedding. The vet suggested that we take him out and watch him for a few hours each day. Either he would walk again, or he would figure out how to get around. Both of those sounded better than Chicken and Dumplings. So we tried it. Each day he would try getting around and on his feet many ways. All looked painful, and I would help him out by straightening him out, or removing him from whichever corner he had gotten in to. By day 4 he was limping around, and day 5 he was walking like a champ. Now he's in great shape. We were just restricting his movement too much.
 

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