Possible bumblefoot?

[azygous]

Not all of our patients are cooperative, let alone grateful. Then again, as with humans, perhaps not all chickens experience pain equally.

I check the foot every other day, and when the scab has formed solidly and appears flat without any swelling around the edges, I then leave the bandage off.

Your decision to use the drawing salve on the lesser bumblefoot was a good one.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ok well to put it nicely...that sucked! She was really calm with the towel over her and her head till I pulled on the scab. All heck broke loose lol. I felt like the biggest monster ever. Finally got it all done and wrapped. So now she has a small scab on the other foot also. Tiny but there. I pulled that a bit too since softened from soaking too...nothing hard inside I could feel and nothing I could squeeze out. I put drawing salve on that one and wrapped it. Is that what I should do for one like that? Also, when do you stop bandaging their feet? Like all the way healed and new skin or after a week or two or? I tried to tell her it was to help her but boy did I feel like a huge jerk!

I wrap the chickens up pretty well in an old towel or t-shirt because yes, they do struggle. Though once you get the wound cleared out that really is the worst of it... the soaks and re-treatment for the next few days should get progressively easier and less stressful.

Good idea to treat the other foot since you saw a small scab. Sometimes small ones will heal fine on their own but others can persist or get worse, so might as well treat it as well since you're already doing the soaks.

I stop bandaging once there's a fairly clean new scab replacing the old, and checking under scabs no longer reveal any more infected matter, and swelling has gone down. In mild cases (like the smaller 2nd scab) that could be maybe 3 days. More severe cases like your original scab in the photo could be a week maybe, or more. Each case varies so I decide by what I see during treatment.

Once you're past the vetwrap stage, assuming everything went well, you should start seeing the scab slowly grow smaller over time until it eventually goes away completely. As long as it doesn't swell up or get worse, then it's improving. It can take weeks, even months, if the wound was big enough or infected enough, so don't panic if it seems like you're not seeing results during follow up checks.

Have you had to do a lot of these before? I feel awful like it is my fault. Ugh.

I don't do it "a lot" but my heavier birds get it once in a while, probably from flying down off the roost onto wood chip litter, plus I have one bird with deformed feet and neurological issues so she's prone to bumblefoot due to her anatomy and unusual gait. At one point I was treating 3 bumbles on her.

 

[bmetz]

I just have to say you guys are awesome! Thank you all so much for the help and advice so far! I was feeling pretty overwhelmed as I have several animals with health issues/medications/special diets/insulin shots etc and I had never done this before. You guys are so kind and I am grateful for the help!