Need help guys!

HazelandPearl

Songster
5 Years
Mar 16, 2018
178
178
162
Fernandina Beach FL
I have a approx. 1.5-2 year old Starlight Green Egger Tulip. She has bumble foot and we treated with removing the scabs and using PRID. That has been working well... Then she started with some swelling between the toes and a limp (on the less affected foot) The swelling is soft and localized to between 2 toes. Nothing to remove. Now though she is losing weight, lethargic and has diarrhea. Her poops are mucousy green or clear with white "slime" and very little. She will eat an egg yolk if encouraged and she is drinking. I can feel her breast bone and honestly she is very thin. She was last wormed in June. She will getup to walk around but is mainly laying in one spot and sleeping. She has had issues all summer (in FL) with thin shelled eggs or no shell eggs. I have her with 4 young pullets who are ready to lay any day. I find a rubber type egg in the coop almost every morning near her roosting spot. She has in the past gotten calcium with D3 tablets, oyster shells, her egg shells back as a way to harden her shells. Nothing has worked consistently. I stopped the calcium tablets because the inside and outside of the still thin shelled eggs were covered in calcium deposits. Like she was not absorbing it at all. I didn't want to enduce Gout or something worse. So I stopped. These rubber eggs could be hers or the other younger ones. She still lays an egg with a shell about 2-3 times a week. I am most worried about her lethargy and diarrhea. Comb is still red and vibrant. But she is quite thin. fatigued and limping some. I have Corrid, de wormer, electrolytes, probiotics, and an fish amox on hand. What should I do? I am so confused here. I see no blood in her stool. Her 4 younger sisters are completely fine. She could be molting but it's hard to tell, I have not see a lot of feathers around. She and her sisters eat Kalmbach Henhouse reserve. They are in a coup and run and sometimes they free range in a small part of our yard as we live in a neighborhood. She is our best girl and the sweetest chicken ever. I just want her healthy again. Also did not see worms in her diarrhea nor lice/mites. But I know they could be microscopic. All advice welcome!
 
How is her crop? Have you noticed if it's full at night and empty in the morning?

Due to the diarrhea, I would start probiotics. They should be getting enough calcium in their food, but I still always leave a dish of oyster shells available as they'll eat it if they need it. Worms normally would be affecting your other ones too so not sure deworming them would be necessary unless you are suspecting it.

It is the season for molting so that's always a possibility but doesn't explain a swollen foot, so you could be looking at some type of infection. I'd try soaking her foot for 10-15 minutes in warm Epsom salts to see if you can see what's going on there. That will allow you to check her butt closely for lice/mites or any other trouble too.

I hope you get to the bottom of this with her and she gets better!
 
How is her crop? Have you noticed if it's full at night and empty in the morning?

Due to the diarrhea, I would start probiotics. They should be getting enough calcium in their food, but I still always leave a dish of oyster shells available as they'll eat it if they need it. Worms normally would be affecting your other ones too so not sure deworming them would be necessary unless you are suspecting it.

It is the season for molting so that's always a possibility but doesn't explain a swollen foot, so you could be looking at some type of infection. I'd try soaking her foot for 10-15 minutes in warm Epsom salts to see if you can see what's going on there. That will allow you to check her butt closely for lice/mites or any other trouble too.

I hope you get to the bottom of this with her and she gets better!
Thank you for that! I will do the soak and the probiotics. She is eating today. She is moving around better but still limping on the foot that the bumble had almost healed from. There is the swelling between her toes but its soft and no kernel or anything.. Should I be doing something for that area? More prid and wrapping? It just red and swollen between two toes but nothing that screams bumble there...
 
Thank you for that! I will do the soak and the probiotics. She is eating today. She is moving around better but still limping on the foot that the bumble had almost healed from. There is the swelling between her toes but its soft and no kernel or anything.. Should I be doing something for that area? More prid and wrapping? It just red and swollen between two toes but nothing that screams bumble there...
Could there be something in your yard she stepped in that could have caused the bumblefoot in the first place? Bumblefoot is a bacterial and/or staph infection. I just wonder if that's also affecting her other foot, but just not on the bottom of it. It could be like a prickly bush she likes to forage around, an area with sharp rocks, a new perch, etc.

If you've inspected and found no other cause for the swelling, I would tend to assume that her toes are infected too. You could try the PRID and wrapping and see if in a couple of days that's drawing anything out.

If this keeps up, you might want to consider an antibiotic. If you don't have a vet, and don't have any antibiotics, there's one for aquarium fish called Aqua Mox (amoxicillin.) She'd need 250 mg daily in water for 3-5 days. If it cleared it up in 3-4 days you could stop.

If you do decide to go with an antibiotic, follow up with probiotics.
 
Can you post some pictures of the foot, bottom and top, so we can see the swelling?
Sometimes, if not all the infection was gotten out, it can tunnel through the foot and show up in another place. If the bottom closed up first, that may be what happened. Depending on how the bottom looks you may have to either open the bottom back up to get it all out, or lance the top and do it that way.
 
I would recommend Silvex, available at Walmart, on the wound. PRID is great for drawing stuff out, but Silvex will kill the infection and it’s far better than an ointment type topical. Then wrap with vet wrap.
 

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