Red Boils on our Jersey Giant

[OneAndTwoOfFour]

Hello. I just introduced us, but have a question. We have a Black Jersey Giant rooster that is quite the buddy to us all. He has developed some big red bumps at the top of his ankle. It seems one of our hens has just gotten one as well. I searched, and couldn't find anything that matches this. Can y'all assist?

 

[Table4Six]

I've never seen this on a chicken before. Does your chicken have a limp? When did you first notice these symptoms?

 

[OneAndTwoOfFour]

I've never seen this on a chicken before. Does your chicken have a limp? When did you first notice these symptoms?

Nope. He runs to me like a fool when he sees me come out. No limping...These started maybe a week ago?

 

[Table4Six]

At least he's acting normally. Typically, any chicken with a lump or bump on its feet or legs acting normally is usually an indicator of it having contracted a noncontagious disease, but if your other chickens seem to be developing the same strange bumps that could be cause for concern. Have any of your birds had previous legs injuries? Are the bumps only appearing on the chickens upper leg joints or all over their feet and legs?

If your chickens have had previous leg injuries, their bodies may be sending fluids to the injured area if there is infection, which can happen even if your bird has had no prior leg injury. If some of your other chickens appear to be developing bumps your flock may be infected with a contagious disease. Have the lumps gotten bigger in the past week?

I'm off to do some more research, but finding these symptoms hard to match. Keep me posted on the state of your flock. I'll do all I can do to help and hopefully someone with more experience will come along in the meantime.

 

[OneAndTwoOfFour]

At least he's acting normally. Typically, any chicken with a lump or bump on its feet or legs acting normally is usually an indicator of it having contracted a noncontagious disease, but if your other chickens seem to be developing the same strange bumps that could be cause for concern. Have any of your birds had previous legs injuries? Are the bumps only appearing on the chickens upper leg joints or all over their feet and legs?

If your chickens have had previous leg injuries, their bodies may be sending fluids to the injured area if there is infection, which can happen even if your bird has had no prior leg injury. If some of your other chickens appear to be developing bumps your flock may be infected with a contagious disease. Have the lumps gotten bigger in the past week?

I'm off to do some more research, but finding these symptoms hard to match. Keep me posted on the state of your flock. I'll do all I can do to help and hopefully someone with more experience will come along in the meantime.

Well, we don't really know much about the flock's history. The flock came with our farmstead, and the previous owner didn't seem to know a lot about his birds. He didn't even know that a couple of them roosted in trees, have an accurate count of birds, or realize that one of his hens was, in fact, a small RIR rooster. He kept them for tick control. We're a lot more observant, and hands on. The bumps seem to have just appeared, and are not growing. I originally thought it was something like an impacted folical or something like that.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

Look up gout. I saw a post here about a chicken with gout blisters.

I’m wondering if you changed their feed, even if for the better, it caused a flare up because it’s not what they are used to.

I could be totally wrong though

 

[Eggcessive]

I would wonder if @azygous, @dawg53, or @casportpony and others will look in and recognize this. Mareks disease can cause skin tumors. Peck wound abscess, ingrown feather cyst, or another tumor causing disease called leukosis are some other suggestions.

 

[azygous]

It appears that those red lesions are on his scales, not feathered skin. Would it be possible to take another photo and show more of the leg by wetting the feathers and mat them away from the lesions so we can see what they're actually erupting from?

From the little I can make out, the lesions appear to be erupting from leg scales. If that indeed is the case, something may have worked under several of the scales, a bacteria such as staph or E.coli. I would give him regular soaks in Oxine or Betadine infused warm water a couple times a day and see if that does anything.

 

[azygous]

On closer inspection of the photo, it appears the scales on the other leg are lifted up, indicating possible leg mites. It makes me suspect the mite infestation has caused scales on the other leg to fester into those red lesions. It would be interesting to find out if they are full of pus or fluid.

 

[OneAndTwoOfFour]

It appears that those red lesions are on his scales, not feathered skin. Would it be possible to take another photo and show more of the leg by wetting the feathers and mat them away from the lesions so we can see what they're actually erupting from?

From the little I can make out, the lesions appear to be erupting from leg scales. If that indeed is the case, something may have worked under several of the scales, a bacteria such as staph or E.coli. I would give him regular soaks in Oxine or Betadine infused warm water a couple times a day and see if that does anything.

Thank you for your response. He's a very friendly rooster, but he won't let us handle him at all unless he is on the roost. We'll try some anti bacterial treatments on him. He does, in fact, have leg mites. We'll deal with that at the same time. Perhaps some silver/copper infused petroleum jelly would take care of bacterial infection and mites at the same time?