Swollen Feet on Hen

[Joycats]

I have a golden comet who has had swollen feet for a couple of weeks now. They don't seem to be getting any better or worse. I don't know what has caused this or what to do for her. She's in my layer flock with 100+ other birds and she's the only one with this problem. She seems to be in pain as she hardly moves around. She is eating and drinking and otherwise healthy. Any ideas?

 

[Nicole01]

It's most likely bumblefoot. They get cuts in their feet and the feet get infected with a staff infection. Usually there's a scab on the bottom of the foot. 1/2 my flock has this due to the thorny trees and bushes they walk on and then walking through the swamp free ranging.

You need to wear gloves as they can pass on the staff infection to you. Soak her feet for 10 minutes minimum, remove the scab and the nasty cheesy infection inside called the plug. Rinse out the foot under water, pack it with antibiotic ointment, put a gauze over the open area with more ointment and wrap the feet. Repeat daily! Usually when it's this bad, they need antibiotics too.

I first wrapped mine in medical tape and gauze until I got some vet wrap. The vet wrap is awesome stuff and easy to use.

This is extremely painful for the hen to walk around like this and its catchy to humans.

Here is on of my hens feet on the bottom.

I caught mine in time before the swelling. I have a smaller flock and do a weekly check on every hen.

 

[Judy P-E]

Hello all,
i have a barred rock that suddenly started walking gingerly. then sitting a lot instead of walking around. i isolated her from the rest of the group. below is a picture of her feet. i am still new to posting so i didn't get it turned right. sorry. i see it looks similar to the bumble foot listing. but, i don't see any cuts anywhere.
any thoughts? and what to do for treatments.
i have 12 hens, 1 rooster (all around a year old) and 6 little pullets (hopefully) around 8 weeks old. the pullets are separate from the hens and rooster.
thanx in advance.

 

[Fox]

Hello all,
i have a barred rock that suddenly started walking gingerly. then sitting a lot instead of walking around. i isolated her from the rest of the group. below is a picture of her feet. i am still new to posting so i didn't get it turned right. sorry. i see it looks similar to the bumble foot listing. but, i don't see any cuts anywhere.
any thoughts? and what to do for treatments.
i have 12 hens, 1 rooster (all around a year old) and 6 little pullets (hopefully) around 8 weeks old. the pullets are separate from the hens and rooster.
thanx in advance.

Both yours and the original poster look like Bumblefoot. I have been treating it myself for the first time. I followed the thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/236649/bumblefoot-surgery-with-pics-and-how-to but you might also want to read this: http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/content/view/18/43/ Make sure you inject your antibiotics into the tissue and not under the skin for the best results. The chickens also look like they have scaley leg mites. You might wish to worm your chickens if you haven't already and dust them with something like Seven dust. It seems that mite can lower resistance and it causes them to be more susceptible to things like this. Good luck!

 

[nurse_turtle]

I think they both look more like gout, but check the bottoms of their feet for a black scab-like area that would indicate bumble foot.

 

[dawg53]

Joycats, your bird appears to have gout with a long shot guess at mycoplasma synoviae.
Judy P-E, your bird appears to have scaly leg mites.

 

[Judy P-E]

thanks for the advice, it is very helpful. she seems to be improving. we will treat her for the leg mites also and hopefully will return her to the flock. We cleaned and limed the coop and run. should we treat the flock with anything in general. none of the other chickens have any noticeable problem. thanks, Judy p-e

 

[Joycats]

Joycats, your bird appears to have gout with a long shot guess at mycoplasma synoviae.
Judy P-E, your bird appears to have scaly leg mites.

Thanks, that makes more sense to me. It just doesn't look like any bumblefoot that I've ever seen. Any idea how I should treat her? I have Tylan on hand, will antibiotics help gout? I will do some research on this.

 

[Joycats]

I think they both look more like gout, but check the bottoms of their feet for a black scab-like area that would indicate bumble foot.

Thanks, I'm thinking gout too. No scabs on my bird. Just swelling.

 

[Nicole01]

Good luck! I hope you can easily fix this.