possible bumblefoot recovery

[Rowanh16]

one of my hens had a small pimple looking bump between her toes and so i gave her an epsom salt bath, cleaned her up, separated her into a cage i used for chicks before with food, water, straw and no roost since i heard no jumping. i disinfected the wound with hydrogen peroxide after her bath and then wrapped it in gauze. today i took off the old gauze and put some vetericyn on the bump. it was barely noticeable today so definitely recovering quickly and i’m not even sure if it was bumblefoot but if it was i caught it quickly and there was no scabbing. when can she go back to the coop? when is it safe for her to jump again? they just moved to a new chicken coop that’s much nicer and we tore down the old rat infested one so i’m not sure if she could’ve gotten injured in the old coop possibly. we have a staircase up to the roost for our older hen so she can also use that while she’s recovering. she has a slight limp on her other leg but i don’t see any injuries so i’m thinking she maybe just tripped or something.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

If your hen is still having issues walking, you could continue soaking her leg in the warm Epsom salt water a couple of times a day. That would ease the pain, and you'd get a better look at it that way too. You may want to keep her off of it until she's not limping anymore in case it's sprained or strained.

Do you have something softer for them to land on in this newer coop? We use horse bedding pellets which wouldn't be soft but do have some give. We've never had issues with it, but our silkies wouldn't jump more than a foot anyway.

 

[Rowanh16]

Hi,

If your hen is still having issues walking, you could continue soaking her leg in the warm Epsom salt water a couple of times a day. That would ease the pain, and you'd get a better look at it that way too. You may want to keep her off of it until she's not limping anymore in case it's sprained or strained.

Do you have something softer for them to land on in this newer coop? We use horse bedding pellets which wouldn't be soft but do have some give. We've never had issues with it, but our silkies wouldn't jump more than a foot anyway.

unfortunately an animal got her a few nights ago but i’ll keep softer landing in mind for the coop. our coop is off the ground to help with rats and they have a metal ramp that they like to roost on but they prefer to just fly out of the coop every morning. i’m planning on building a ramp for the roost anyways since my oldest hen can’t jump up onto it anymore.