New Chicken with Swollen Ankle & Leg. Bumblefoot or not?

rairose

In the Brooder
Jan 28, 2023
5
17
21
Hey BYC,

My husband and I adopted 3 hens today. They all look healthy, are eating, and are adjusting to our backyard (separate from our existing flock of 11) just fine.

The problem is that one of the girls we adopted seems to have a serious foot problem. The people we adopted her from said they hadn't noticed it and didn't know how long she's been like this.

Chicken Profile
She's a Speckled Sussex and is about 3 years old.
She's a healthy weight, has a bright red comb, and is eating and walking around normally.
She doesn't like to run – likely because of her foot problem – but she seems to walk fine.
She's not missing any feathers and we looked her over from head to vent to check for mites or other parasites. We found nothing.
She's been eating layer feed.
Her previous owners also gave her and the other 2 hens tortillas from time to time. She won't be getting tortillas at our house, though!


Symptoms
Her swollen foot is much warmer than her non-swollen foot.
The swelling starts in the ankle, very close to her pad, but not her actual pad, and ascends up her leg.
Her scales look like they're under pressure from underneath and are not laying flat against one another; there are some places where her scales are popped up off her foot. Her scales also look a bit dry, but not super scaly like in scaly leg.

Her poops are a little runny, but we think that might also be due to stress since we just adopted her this morning and she's in a new environment with new people.

There's no bleeding, although she is red in some places (see photos).

Unfortunately, we don't know how long the symptoms have persisted because the people we adopted her from didn't even notice she had an issue.


Possible Diagnoses
We've considered gout, but the swelling is only on one of her legs, so I don't think that's it. Also, we had a Rhode Island Red who died of gout and the Sussex's feet look quite different.

We also considered bumblefoot, but we've soaked, cleaned, and inspected her feet very thoroughly and can't find a scab, black mark, or puncture wound of any kind. In fact, the pads of her feet look pretty good. The problem seems to be in her ankle and leg.

Leg mites is the other one we considered. As I understand it, the mites are too small to see, and we certainly haven't seen anything crawling on her at all. Her scales are a bit strange, but they don't look like any pictures of scaly leg chickens that I've seen.

Lastly, we considered an injury. She doesn't seem to be in pain. She let me hold her while my husband touched, cleaned, rubbed, and otherwise manhandled her feet and she was perfectly fine. She didn't flinch or pull away at any time. She also seems to be walking fine and isn't favoring one foot over the other.


The Rest of the Flock
She hasn't been introduced to our original flock of 11 yet. The 2 other hens that we adopted along with her are completely fine and healthy. They aren't showing any of the same symptoms.


REQUEST
We really need help diagnosing her. I understand this isn't a veterinarian group, but you all are likely more experienced than I am. Perhaps these are the early stages of bumblefoot? Of scaly leg? I'm not sure.

We've only ever had one chicken get sick before. She was egg-bound once and then later died of gout. Those are really the only chicken conditions I'm familiar with in real life, outside of the extensive reading and research my husband and I have done.

What do you think this is?
 

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Thanks for the clear and thorough post👍

It doesn't look like bumblefoot or scaly leg mites. I'd look into mycoplasma synoviae which can cause joint swelling. If you've got an avian vet nearby they could probably test the fluid for MS. Tylosin is used to treat respiratory symptoms of mycoplasma so you could give that a try, but I'm not sure how effective it would be a treating an infection in the joints.

Let us how she gets on...
 
Thank you, Razzlefrazzle!

I went to the Merck Vet Manual website (https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/mycoplasmosis/mycoplasma-synoviae-infection-in-poultry) and it says: "The first signs of infectious synovitis include pale-bluish head parts and lameness in many birds with a tendency to sit."

My girl's comb and face looks perfectly healthy. And she's not sitting or struggling to walk.

Do you think it could still be mycoplasma synoviae? 🤔
I do, yes, though I'm not an expert by any stretch. Mycoplasma can produce subclinical infections (meaning you don't see any respiratory issues) or she could have shown other symptoms before you got her. It is a little strange (though good) that she is walking fine, but chickens have a tendency to hide illness as long as possible so my worry is that she is pretending she is fine but could become lame if the infection gets worse.

I also can't think of anything else that causes joint swelling like that... I've read that untreated bumblefoot infections can spread up the leg and into joints, but I think we'd still see the usual bumblefoot scab and swelling in the foot pad if that was the case. I suppose she could have twisted her leg somehow and hurt both her hock and ankle, but it doesn't really look like that to me for whatever reason.
 
Usually MS or gout will affect both legs, so I would think it is either an old injury, or she may have a developing problem. Is there any swelling at her hock or knee joint? Could you get a picture of her standing with the legs and feet clearly seen? Look her over for any type of string, leg band, or even a hair wrapped around where it can’t be seen.
 
Usually MS or gout will affect both legs, so I would think it is either an old injury, or she may have a developing problem. Is there any swelling at her hock or knee joint? Could you get a picture of her standing with the legs and feet clearly seen? Look her over for any type of string, leg band, or even a hair wrapped around where it can’t be seen.
Yes, she has swelling at her hock joint. You can see it pretty well in picture "20230128_124521.jpg" (attached). She's headed to bed now. I'll get a picture of her standing tomorrow.

We searched her pretty thoroughly earlier today and didn't find anything wrapped around her leg. That's a good idea, though; I hadn't thought of that.
 

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I'd re-check that indention in the leg. Also there's a "crease" along the back of the foot, but it's hard to tell if that's just from her folding up her foot, due to swelling, etc.
I'd investigate that a bit more too.
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