I have a two year old salmon faverolle hen with a swollen foot. It's right where the webbing is between her two toes (not the extra one her breed has but the ones in the front) and it's very large, pink, warm to the touch, and is painful to touch as well. It's starting to happen to the other side of her two and on her other foot too. She has a black scab on both of her feet, but it's not swollen there. We just got over a bumble foot epidemic in our coop, so is there a chance that this could be it again? If not, what is it and how should I treat it? We are trying to avoid taking her to the vet because of some recent pricey vet bills with another chicken.
May we see the picture? Sometimes seeing it helps diagnosing it. If you had bumblefoot it's most likely that. Symptoms according to the Chicken Health Handbook are: in maturing birds especially males of heavy breeds: lameness, reluctance to walk, inflamed foot (one or both) hot, hard, swollen, or pis filled abscess or dark black scab on bottom of foot, resting on hocks, sometimes sores appear on the hocks and bottom of toes Does that sound anything like it? Your biggest problem is going to be that the condition is caused by the Staphylococcus Bacteria which is present wherever chickens are at. So what are you going to do to get rid of that? It says to prevent this is to not breed the birds that are highly susceptible to it because it might come back in future generations. Also avoid high perches. What kind of bedding do you supply? The best prevention would be dry litter that doesn't pack. Treatment can be extremely difficult to cure. inject the swollen are with 1/2 cc penicillin/streptomycin (combiotic); if abscess is large, wash foot, cut out abscess, squeeze out cheesy core, rinse well with hydrogen peroxide, pack with Neosporin, wrap foot with gauze bandage or strip of clean cloth, and tape. Confine bird on deep litter and dress foot every 2 to 3 days When you try to cure this wear gloves in risk of you getting a skin infection. Since you've already gone through this I didn't know if you knew this because it's more difficult to get rid of since the bacteria is almost always present.
Yeah I think this sounds a lot like the dreaded bumble foot. We use sand as litter and recently lowered our perches. Ill treat it like bumble foot and hopefully that helps! Thanks so much!
