Poop Plugs & Bumble Foot...(Pics...lots of Pics!)

[dkosh]

I have a lot of chickens (300+/-) So unfourtunately I missed this poor hens bumblefoot until this afternoon. Upon exam, I noticed that she had what looks like bumble foot from the top, but is actuallly a poop plug (for lack of a better term) in the web space between her toes and unfortunately a toe with bumble foot. I took pics of both. Incase anyone is interested.

1) Right foot, left side of middle toe is a poop plug. Left foot, right side of the middle toe is a poop plug. Left foot, far right toe is the Bumble foot.


2)Bottom of Left foot. I highlighted the bottom of the poop plug. it is tough to see.


3)Bottom of left foot the red circle is the poop plug. The green cirlce is the scab of the bumble foot.


4)This is the right foot's poop plug from the bottom. I pushed the bump on the top of the foot and the plug starts to come out really easy.


5)I'm still pushing it out from the top. There is a lot of poop in here!


6)That is the size of a small marble.


7)Top of right foot after the poop plug is out. You can see the indent where the poop once filled.


8)Back to the left foot. The red circle is the poop plug and the green circle is the bumble foot.


9)The bottoom of the left foot the red cirlce you can see the web is more of a pocket where the poop gets stuck. The green cirlcle you can see the bumble foot scab.


10)This poop plug popped right out.


11)Here is the bumble foot scab. I cleaned it and softened it a bit with betadine.


12)This is after I removed a good piece of core. I don't think I got it all but she started squirmming too much. I'll poke around some more tomorrow.


13)She is all bandaged up. No worse for wear. She is up moving around fine.

 

[klmclain1]

Great pictures! I haven't dealt with poop plugs yet!

 

[BeautyBuffs]

Being new to chickens I am going to ask, what causes these conditions and once cleaned as you did, is there any medacine you put on it?

 

[Farmin Momma]

I am also wondering the same things.....

 

[Lacy Blues]

That was very informative, thank you! I will definitely have to remember this and keep tabs on my birds' feet.

You have 300+ ? Do you raise them for a specific purpose or are you just addicted to them like most of us? I raise Blue Andalusians and I currently have 9 roosters and about 2 dozen hens. But I have many others besides. My daughter raises Golden Campines, she has about 30 of those and we also have an assortment of yard birds... buckeyes, marans, marans crosses, sex links plus an assortment of bantams.

I don't know how I ever lived life without chickens!

 

[dkosh]

Quote:

Being new to chickens I am going to ask, what causes these conditions and once cleaned as you did, is there any medacine you put on it?

I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent what I call poop plugs. It seems to be caused by not having enough space between their toes and the manure gets stuck. It doesn't seem to bother them. The bumble foot however is caused by mites. Once you have it you have to get the core out. After that I just pack it with betadine vaseline and keep it clean. I've had sucess treating it that way.

 

[dkosh]

That was very informative, thank you! I will definitely have to remember this and keep tabs on my birds' feet.

You have 300+ ? Do you raise them for a specific purpose or are you just addicted to them like most of us? I raise Blue Andalusians and I currently have 9 roosters and about 2 dozen hens. But I have many others besides. My daughter raises Golden Campines, she has about 30 of those and we also have an assortment of yard birds... buckeyes, marans, marans crosses, sex links plus an assortment of bantams.

I don't know how I ever lived life without chickens!

I live on a farm. We raise the chickens for the eggs, we raise the sheep for freezer meat. We have a farm stand where we sell both. Over all we are an apple orchard that has been in my husbands family since the early 1900's. However I am the chicken lady of the family and they are my ladies. t is an addiction though, lol. I can spend the whole day out there with them and never be board. With that many there is always something to do.

 

[Chickwhit]

Wonderful pictures!! I too am new to raising chickens. I'm going out to check my girls feet later this afternoon. How do you get the core out of the bumble foot?

 

[klmclain1]

Bumblefoot is a staph infection. There is staph in dirt - so if the bird gets some sort of injury to the foot - a sticker, splinter, sharp rock, etc. - that leaves a small wound, the staph can get in and take hold. There are people who have had some success getting rid of it without surgery - you'll have to research on this forum to find it. Something about soaks in a fish antibiotic?? My two best resources that I learned from are:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bumblefoot-how-to-treat-your-chickens-with-surgery-graphic-pics
http://successwithpoultry.blogspot.com/2009/09/bumblefoot-chicken.html
If you do not get every staph "kernel" and/or the infection spreads and becomes systemic, you have to use penicillin injections to cure it. It definitely will kill them if it becomes systemic so it's nothing to mess with. Be sure to wear gloves when dealing with it - staph is bad stuff! The surgery is not fun, but you do what you have to do.

 

[Lacy Blues]

That was awesome! Very good video. I will definitely add it to my library in case I ever need to operate on bumblefoot! Thanks for sharing!