NY chicken lover!!!!

[Chicken girl 15]

Binghamton is about the biggest city you will ever see me come near, I've been to Syracuse, General Hospital, not a pleasant experience. I've been through some super big cities driving down south, not the same. We go to Binghamton a few times a yr, traffic not to bad if there isn't road construction, been many the past few yrs....As far as why we go, they have a Harbor Freight, cheap tools, Chinese junk, but have had some good luck with much from there, super cheap. Love Christmas Tree Shop, like a giant dollar store but better than ours. The Oakdale Mall, kids and spouse love it, I only like the Sears tools and rides on the escalator Lol!!
Most locals refer to the area as Binghamton even though we mean a few different areas, Vestal, Johnson City...
Many restaurants, great places to eat, another one of the reasons we go there.
Home of the 'Spiedie Fest and balloon rally', spiedies were invented there, love them, make them ourselves, always wanted to visit when that was going on though. We use our own recipe, IMHO though Salamida's marinades are far superior in comparison to Lupo's. Lupo's are super good, but everyone I know, and us, makes their marinades closer to the simplistic original Salamida's.

Salamida is all we buy. And yes avoiding Binghamton "area" at all costs is how we do it as well.

 

[Chicken girl 15]

I did the bumblefoot procedure on 2 of my chickens at the weekend, someone asked me to share the experience and pics here. WARNING, PICTURE HEAVY POST, FEATURING PICS OF CUTTING INTO THE FEET ETC - SKIP THIS POST IF THESE PICS MAY UPSET YOU First I got all my supplies laid out ready, and got Fern settled in her Epsom salt foot bath to soak, she was very flappy and struggled a lot at first, but settled down nicely. I was pretty horrified to see that Fern had bumblefoot on both feet, I tackled the biggest one first, I had a brand new scalpel blade, but was anxious about this bit, even when I didn't cut in very deeply it started bleeding a lot, and the scab was still firmly in place - took me multiple attempts to get a clear enough margin that I could lever the scab a little with my tweezers, and start to cut it out. Having seen so many threads on here and Youtube vids etc I knew I could expect anything from rubbery cheese strings, a corn kernel sized plug, or even liquid puss, in fact I only got the hard yellow circular build up that was attached to the scab, but didn't go very deep. I found the digging around part is what really got my heart racing and sweat pouring, there was pretty constant blood, and it made it so hard to see. I didn't throw up, but it certainly wasn't fun. I think I may not have done a very thorough job getting it all out, but was already getting worried about tackling the other foot, then the second chicken, so bandaged this one up and moved on. I got a pic of the scab that came off, but forgot to put anything next to it for scale. The one on the other foot wasn't as big, and soon we had her bandaged up, and in the coop, it was Honey's turn This poor girl also had pretty nasty bumblefoot on both her feet, her right foot was really swollen Again, not too much under the smaller scab, but the swollen foot was the most satisfying one to deal with. I was surprised again how hard it was to cut around the scab, once it was off, I got some really strange rings of skin, I would grab one bit with the tweezers, and a circle of skin from around the edge of the 'crater' would peel away. Then I got my first view of the 'kernel' type filler, it seemed to be hiding under the rim, but I found I could do the squishing and squeezing recommended on all the bumblefoot threads, as well as move her toes around, push on the top swollen edge, and from the top of her foot towards the base of her foot, to move it around and make it more accessible. I was able to pull out some quite big chunks of harder material. It was sort of addictive and really felt good as I could really tell when I had cleared out the obvious plug, there was also much less bleeding, so I wasn't getting frustrated with not being able to see what I was doing. Pleased to say that bandages have stayed on for 3 days now, and are still dry, the tips on wrapping between the toes worked out very well, as both girls seem to be limping less, although I am very glad I had surgical tape as well as vetwrap, because it really didn't stick to itself as well as I expected having used it on a dog before. Here are Fern & Honey modelling the latest in fancy footwear for chickens..... So now, I am left with a few questions - having cropped and looked at these pics in more detail, I'm noticing Fern seems to also have a mini black area on one of her toes, should I cut this one too? Any tips for when to remove / reapply bandages, have read everything from 3 days to 7 days, change if wet, leave on till fully healed.... Should I do another round of soaking / digging as I'm not certain I did a complete job the first time, or if things look like they are healing, leave them alone and just keep covered? If I do resoak them, would it be bad to use Epsom salts again - thinking this may sting, I have Vetericyn so could add this to the soak water Also, does anyone trim their chickens claws? When they are out and about free ranging pecking and scratching I didn't think they looked unusual, but in the photos I think they look really long. My Top Tips for anyone doing a bumblefoot surgery Lots of towels - both girls pooped multiple times during their 'procedure' obviously not hygienic when you are trying your best to keep things sterile, I had a pile of spare towels, and it was easy to lift them up, cover messes with a clean towel, and carry on. Don't assume vetwrap alone is enough, having medical tape to hold all those vetwrap ends in place worked very well Expect random thrashing about and leg flinching - I was fooled by how stunned and still they lay at first on their side under a towel, when they did get flappy, or randomly kick their legs it was alarming, and lead to some close calls with a scalpel blade getting jostled about in my hands going awfully close to the person helping me by lightly holding the chicken down under the towel. Finally 'everything in its place' initially I was very good at always using the yellow margarine tub lid to set down my scalpel and tweezers, but as I got more stressed out was popping them down in a different place each time, on piles of gauze etc. When I was tidying up I realized I couldn't find the scalpel, I shook out one of the dirty towels, only to see it fall out into the lawn, luckily I found it in the grass, but my mind was 10 steps ahead to it being lost where one of the chickens could tread on it, or peck at it and do themselves an injury., all because I'd been careless about where I put it down. Finally, thanks to all who offered support on this thread, (and for the ovation I received). Still have mixed feelings about whether it was a 'success' yes I made myself do it, did not vomit or pass out, and got some stuff out, but would it have been better to have someone who knew what they were doing get it over and done with more quickly, possibly more thoroughly - will never know. I'll end with a cute pic of these 2 girls when we got them as chicks in June of 2015

your post was a great help to me. I've not had bumblefoot in my flock yet but with the amount of birds I have its bound to happen. Thank you.

 

[rancher hicks]

I'm 20 minutes from Binghamton. However I'm off 88 not 81. You are welcome to join the fun, just like last year no excessive drinking and no acting unsavory.

I lived in Binghamton for a short time when I was younger. Couldn't find a job back then. 70's were tough. I was young then.

 

[Purple Iris]

Thanks to the group for positive responses, I'm glad the write up and pics were helpful - I will certainly be doing foot checks much more frequently from now on, as despite how bad all 4 of their feet were, they were still weight bearing, jumping up and down onto stuff, scratching and digging, running - I just noticed they seemed a little more 'waddly' than usual when running, and had an occasional limp, now I'm wondering how long their feet could have been bad for?

All bandages still on, and have stayed nice and clean on their straw bedding, so my plan is to leave them on until the weekend, when I have time to do repeat soaking, squeezing and redressing if necessary.

 

[Purple Iris]

Good Job ...I dont know about bumblefoot ..but I would say if the leg isnt red and it appears to be healing ..
I would leave the wrap on.. if is her toe is covered .up
You can look at it when you take everything off ..if is out in the open no reason why you cant do it now if you want to

I feel the same way, the bandages are still on, and have stayed dry on the straw, so will leave on until weekend, just seems to make sense to give those big craters a few more days protection for healing. I'll have time to resoak and do new bandages etc at the weekend if I need to.

Do you have any thoughts on those claws? Do they look extra long and I should trim the ends, or maybe its just because they are all washed clean they look so different. I had always assumed they wore them down on their own when they were digging around in the dirt.....

 

[Chicken girl 15]

 I feel the same way, the bandages are still on, and have stayed dry on the straw, so will leave on until weekend, just seems to make sense to give those big craters a few more days protection for healing. I'll have time to resoak and do new bandages etc at the weekend if I need to.

Do you have any thoughts on those claws? Do they look extra long and I should trim the ends, or maybe its just because they are all washed clean they look so different. I had always assumed they wore them down on their own when they were digging around in the dirt..... 

I leave them long for protection. That's the chickens only defense against predators.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:
depending on the size of my flock I have had 2 5 gallon pails sometimes.
Walmart gives away or sells heavy duty 5 gallon pails at the Deli ( they get them with frosting in them )
I also use them to store the food before ..as they still seal if you want them to

 

[boskelli1571]

Kudos to your surgery - it's not always easy to do, especially the 1st time.

I have found a couple of useful tips that I use - 1) think of the bumble as an upside down cone, aim your scalpel accordingly 2) I always put some Neosporin/triple A ointment on a 2x2 gauze pad, fill in the crater with the ointment then wrap. I am slow in taking dressings off - usually 5-7 days. Without exception each bumble crater has healed! Birds sure are tough aren't they?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi! I thought I'd check out the NY page and I skimmed some thread members and I actually recognize a few towns/cities. I'm up in Gouverneur, about 45 minutes(ish) from the Canadian border through Ogdensburg NY. About 45 minutes north of Watertown. Grew up here, was born in the Utica area-New Hartford. Spent 12 years after college in Baldwinsville, near Syracuse before coming back to my hometown to care for my aging father.

Nice to see all the New York peeps!

 

[tao chick]

Hi there AmyLynn! I've chatted with you about incubating before. I didn't know you were in NY. I lived in New Hartford for a couple years. I live about 25 minutes east of there in Ilion. I too help out my aging father. I hope all is well up north.