Topic of the Week - Bumblefoot - Prevention and Treatment

[TXKukupantsKoop]

I brought a hen that had bumblefoot to the vet. I told her I was uncomfortable cutting bumblefoot open (1: because anything with the bottom of feet is my kryptonite and also 1: I don't want to hurt my bird not knowing what I'm doing) she told me unless anyone has the proper pain meds they have no right cutting open anything on any animal. With proper cleaning and wrapping it will heal. She told me to soak it in Epsom salt to draw out and dry up infection and to also use iodine and change the wrap every 2 or 3 days. I listened and it did in fact heal on its own. Now I'm not sure if hers was in a situation where I caught it in time maybe surgery is needed in a worse case.

I've never had to cut one open because I've caught them super early. Just a soak then peel off the small scab to put on Neosporin and bandage for a couple days. I'm with you though.. If it were really bad I'd go to the vet. Even if the bird tolerates pain pretty well, I couldn't!

 

[KitKat187]

I brought a hen that had bumblefoot to the vet. I told her I was uncomfortable cutting bumblefoot open (1: because anything with the bottom of feet is my kryptonite and also 1: I don't want to hurt my bird not knowing what I'm doing) she told me unless anyone has the proper pain meds they have no right cutting open anything on any animal. With proper cleaning and wrapping it will heal. She told me to soak it in Epsom salt to draw out and dry up infection and to also use iodine and change the wrap every 2 or 3 days. I listened and it did in fact heal on its own. Now I'm not sure if hers was in a situation where I caught it in time maybe surgery is needed in a worse case.

I know your post is a couple years old, but did the scab just start to disappear?And how long did you do the soak and wrap for? I'm dealing with this now and don't know what to do. I really don't want to do any "surgery".

 

[Sylvester017]

I know your post is a couple years old, but did the scab just start to disappear?And how long did you do the soak and wrap for? I'm dealing with this now and don't know what to do. I really don't want to do any "surgery".

My first case of bumblefoot was with a Dominique hen and I went to the vet the first time. He did surgery the first time I went to him. But the second time a year later when she got bumblefoot again, the vet explained I could do treatment at home. We put triple antibiotic ointment over the bumblefoot scab with a round cotton cosmetic pad and then vet wrapped the foot making sure the wrap went between the toes so she could walk uninhibited. Every day, we unwrapped the foot and gave her a 30 minute warm Epsom foot soak (she liked the warm water and actually sat/leaned on the rim of the soak pan.)

After the warm soak we worked the edges of the scab loose but gently because once we peeled too much scab away and caused some bleeding. So we dried her foot, applied ointment again applying a cotton pad and wrapped her foot with the stretchy vet wrap (purchased thru Amazon). Because there was some bleeding we let her foot alone for a couple days. Then we repeated the process of soaking her foot again and peeling away more of the edges of the scab.. Each day the scab would lift up around the edges more and more each day as we repeated the treatment -- triple antibiotic ointment covered with a cotton cosmetic pad and vet wrapped. Because the scab turned out deeper then we thought it took 2-3 weeks of constant daily treatment before the scab finally came easily away from the foot -- Whew!

But I like the suggestion of the owner who said they used Clear Away wart remover to do his treatment and we may try that next time to see if it speeds up the treatment at all.

Such a little bumblefoot scab but it was deep enough to cause our Dominique to favor her left foot and not stand on it.

Underside of the bumblefoot scab

Removal of the bumblefoot scab caused a tender raw crater in the bottom of her foot so we continued to apply ointment, cotton pad, and vet wrapped daily for another week. Another healing scab formed which came off after the raw skin healed (carefully peeled off).

Crater:

We kept our Dominique inhouse the whole time we treated her so her treatments didn't get muddy or dirty outdoors. She was a "house" pet for a month. We go through this every year with her. Some birds are more prone to repeat bumblefoot incidences while others never do.

Our vet suggested we pad the perch with soft fabric like an ace bandage roll or similar to prevent her getting bumblefoot. But it doesn't prevent bumblefoot. She sits on the narrow edges of garden beds to rest during the day so I think that pressure on her foot causes her injuries. It's just strange that it's always her left foot that develops the bumblefoot every year. She's a lap chicken, loves to jump onto DH's lap, so he looks at her feet often now to see if any new crusts develop each year to catch them early.

The sweetie "Dana" is 6-yrs-old now.

 

[KitKat187]

She’s beautiful. I nursed a broken leg on my buff for months last year. Now bumble with another. These chickens are so NEEDY!!! I want to help her but at times I just have to say I’m doing the best I can. She’s not limping at all but one foot looks a bit reddish in between the toe and a little swollen. The other has a scab too but no swelling. She’s a buff Orpington (I have 4) but she’s a bigger heavier girl. Her foot pads are large. It’s hard to catch her too cause she’s into me. Lol. She’s not loving me soaking and poking her.

 

[Sylvester017]

@KitKat187 We get our chickens as baby chicks and handle them a LOT to tame them -- so that they are easier to "catch" and pickup when we need to inspect them. Of course, hand-feeding them treats brings them close enough to pick them up. AND some hens are just naturally people-persons while others just never seem to warm up. We have one Silkie that is relaxed to be picked up while another is very skittish and we handled them a lot together while chicks, but goes to show how different each bird personality is, eh?

How's your bumble girl doing now?

 

[Stephine]

I found a great way to soak the foot when I had to deal with a hen that was just not having it (I had to burrito wrap her and hold her and the wrap got wet and my back hurt, and 2 15 min soaks still weren’t enough…). Just soak a cotton ball in warm water with epsom salt, or just with soap, then tie the sopping wet cotton ball to the bumble plug with vet wrap (always wrap between each of the toes and around the leg, and watch chicken for a few minutes after wrapping: if they pull up their foot or walk funny or keep fussing with it, it’s too tight. Redo the wrap.) Release the chicken and go back about an hour or so later. The site should have softened nicely, if not repeat. Made all the difference for us - before we always both got soaked in dirty water (she always pooped in it, so we had to also change the water once or twice per foot soak session).

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I've only had one case of this in my flock, and it was a bad one! My Salmon Faverolles had one bumble on each foot, with one of the bumbles being somehow on the top of her foot with no plug on it or underneath that I could see - just a very large bump. The other foot had a normal looking bumble on the pad of the foot.

I ended up doing the epsom salt and PRID method (soak in epsom salt daily, apply PRID, wrap with gauze and vet wrap). While it was time consuming, I think I would use this method again because it's all-natural and I didn't really have to do any cutting or digging. One of the plugs just popped out one day when I pushed on it. The other kind of did the same, but then I used tweezers to remove a few stray pieces in the hole that were left. Each time a plug came out, I would pack the hole with Neosporin and keep it wrapped until it closed up.

I can't remember exactly, but I think it took about 3 weeks between the time I started treatment and when the bumbles were healed enough to take the wraps off.

 

[Sylvester017]

I'd like to discuss prevention and whether those using sand in their coop or wood chips (not shavings, chips) as part of their dlm are seeing more of a prevalence of bumblefoot in their hens.
Also, if anyone is covering their roosts what are you using? My girls will get into/eat anything.

When I first read about Bumblefoot in 2011 we hadn't experienced it with any of our different breeds -- not til we got 3 Dominiques in 2017. For some reason these girls were prone to Bumblefoot. We took them to our vet who grew up with chickens and one time he did surgery on a foot, another time he sent us home to treat the issue on our own with specific instructions, and now we just treat our one remaining Dom ourselves without going to the vet since she's prone to Bumblefoot once a year.

Obviously, keeping an eye out for thorns, sharp objects, etc, in the yard is good prevention against injury to chicken feet. But our one current Dom (6-1/2 yrs old) likes to sit on hard narrow surfaces -- edges of the cedar sandbox used for dustbathing, or she sits on the upright narrow edge of our raised garden beds, etc., which all seem to contribute to irritating her foot pads.

The vet recommended we wrap her wooden perch in some sort of soft material like burlap which didn't sound soft enough so we used 3" wide stretchy Ace bandages (3 of them to wrap around a 4' perch) and safety-pinned the ends down at each end of the perch where the chicken doesn't roost. As great as the Ace bandage is for cushioning the perch, we can't wrap bandages over a 4'x4' cedar sandbox edges or wrap it over our raised garden beds. So she continues to sit on narrow hard edges which we can't prevent.

Our Silkies never had Bumblefoot so far and we've had 6 Silkies in 13 years and we've had Marans, Leghorns, Bredas, and Ameraucana that never had Bumblefoot issues. Only our Dominiques. Why? We can't figure?

Our treatment for our one surviving Dominique is to weekly check her for toughening or crusting foot pads. If she looks like her pads are developing a crust or forming a scab we soak her in warm Epsom salts water for 20-30 minutes to soften her foot skin. Then we use a round cotton makeup pad to squirt some triple antibiotic ointment on the pad and press it against the bottom of her foot and use stretchy vet wrap (from Amazon) to wrap her foot up and use tape to secure the end of the vet wrap to her leg. Then we keep her indoors -- otherwise the wrap either comes apart or she'll chew it off outside without our knowledge and the effort to heal her is wasted. She stays indoors during the days/weeks of treatment.

Daily we do the same treatment process again with a warm Epsom foot soak, apply an ointment pad, and wrap her foot. Eventually the crust/scab falls off on the pad or we gently peel it off if it's not deep and we continue the foot soaks and ointment pad/vet wraps till the healed scab skin is clear -- maybe for another 2-5 days depending on how much of a crater the Bumblefoot scab left. The crater needs to heal with new skin growth.

The Dom loves to jump into DH's lap and he checks her feet each time.

Vet wrapped feet in 2022 -- the vet wrap is wrapped between toes so the chicken has mobility walking,

Since our method of treatment takes longer than a fast surgery (which the vet does not recommend surgery except in extreme cases maybe) our Dom took a month of indoor isolation so we let the other birds visit with her inside every day.

Last year's nasty little scab finally peeled away -- she only got it on one foot in 2023.

The ugly crater (a hollow hole) in the foot pad when the final Epsom salt soak manages to peel off the Bumblefoot scab -- this crater needs to form another healing scab so we apply the ointment on a round cotton makeup pad and vet wrap the foot again daily for as long as it takes to heal and wait for the healing scab to dislodge too -- maybe another 2-5 days.

This photo is a day after the Bumblefoot scab came off. Leaves a crater that needs a few more days to heal using foot soaks, ointment, and wrapping to keep it clean.

What amazed us is that the foot soaks and ointment softened her leg spur scales so that the leg spur got shorter and shorter with each warm foot soak. Now she has one spur way shorter than the other. Her first 5 years she had no spurs until we noticed them in 2023! We thought only Roosters grew spurs!

Our Dom came to love the warm foot soaks

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I have treated for bumblefoot several times on three hens. Two of the three girls are full figured frequent flyers () in my chick-U bumblefoot clinic, and both required surgery. I wash their feet (and fluff), rinse then refill sink with epsom /water solution and soak for 30 min. Once softened I use toothed forceps to lift the scab edges then remove scab and core if there is one. Flush, fill with neosporin, nonstick pad, and vet wrap. Repeat dressing daily to every other day. I also swipe on a little vaseline to legs and toes just because these two ladies have 2 inch legs and 12 lb bodies- they get messy.
Daisy now has chronic calluses that create folds between the pad and the webbing of toes which can hide 1-2 pea gravel or a nice chunk of wood chip!! I now keep her wrapped to prevent impaction of those spaces but she still needs callus care.
For nearly a year Daisy and Big Momma received weekly spa treatment for feet and fluff—oh, because they poo themselves something awful, too.
They are sweet but I will never raise this breed, lemon cuckoo Niederrheiner, again because they are so prone to issues, and bumblefoot is inevitable even with good coop design (I have planks or handicapped ramps for them) What’do ya do?

 

[Sylvester017]

@NorthwoodsChick -- yep, very heavy breeds do have their issues. We LOVED our mid-size friendly Dominiques but for some reason (?) all 3 adult hens had Bumblefoot issues whereas none of our other breeds had leg/foot issues -- Silkies, Cuckoo Marans, White Leghorns, Buff Leghorns, Blue Wheaten Ameraucana, Blue Bredas, Cuckoo Breda, were all foot-care easy. We didn't mind treating the usual chicken illnesses or injuries that can happen and we even committed to care for a special-needs bird but DH and I decided early on not to keep any bullying birds in the flock. We're zoned for only 5 hens/no roos so having just one bullying hen to injure others was never an option. For some reason there are some really nasty bullying temperaments in some birds?!

Keeping chickens and experimenting with different breeds and melding them into one flock is a learning experience and presents a host of both joys and regrets. We loved our experimental journey of cycling through 26 backyard birds in 13 years. We started with two Silkie pets and now we're back to just Silkies again. We found Silkie eggs were about the same size as some of our Breda and Dominique eggs so we attritioned down to all Silkies.

We still keep the one old Dominique hen since she's been nice to the littles but we know we'll have to treat her for Bumblefoot every year.