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[rebrascora]

I would probably poultice her for a few days to see if it will draw anything before despatching her.
Many people say that bumblefoot has a hard core, more like a corn than puss, so perhaps your expectation of what you would find, or achieve with surgery, was amiss. I'm sure I've seen at least one good video of bumblefoot surgery here on BYC. Unless she is bleeding very badly, I don't think the blood is a problem. I usually consider bleeding at the site of a wound to be a reasonably healthy thing, as long as it isn't excessive. Of course I'm more used to treating horses with injuries and obviously they have a lot more blood to spare than a chicken.

I would use animal lintex to poultice it because I have it my horse's first aid kit but you may find a good recipe for a "bread poultice" online (which is what my parents would have used in their day.)

Either way, good luck. I know I find it particularly difficult to despatch hens and even more so when they are sick, so you have my sympathy.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

@GroningerGeens

I'm sorry to hear about your hen I would have done exactly the same thing with seeing a scab at the bottom of the foot. Having taken a closer look at the foot and rereading the above article I see what you mean about the Mycoplasma synoviae As Barbara says give it some more time with her and see how she gets on. I too find it so difficult to dispatch much loved birds, especially the favourite ones.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi Barbara

Hope your all well? Have you been riding? I've been bad and not been this weekend, I've been on bandaging and nursing duties for my friend while she had a couple of days away. I'm afraid to say pickle's leg is not getting better very fast at all from the electric fence incident She has some very fancy vet wrap, I've been taking pics and sending them to her so her mind is at rest ~

Other than that all quiet here, thank goodness!! How's Rebel doing? All ok still I hope

 

[rebrascora]

@Yorkshire Coop

Hi Kim

No, not ridden recently but done more ground work in the arena and my sister came over on Friday and we took MeMe up to the farm and she worked MeMe whilst I worked Zak. It was the first time that they had really met and they were quite distracted by each other but we were both happy with what we achieved and both of them jumped a pole at about 18 inches without any anxiety from a couple of strides of trot so I feel like I am making progress. Yesterday we went up to the Border Union Show at Kelso, which has become a bit of an annual event for us... pretty much the only day I take away from home. The weather was relatively kind with just a couple of showers and not too hot or too cold. The main attraction for Ian is to watch the British Driving Society events and I go to stock up on my favourite haggis from a butcher in Hoick who has a stall in the food hall at the show. The main act was a Cossack style horse demo, which was impressive, vaulting on and off the horses, riding backwards and doing hand stands all at the gallop. Jousting, sword work and pistol shooting also at the gallop and of course, jumping over fire. With modern day media coverage of worldwide events and displays, I think we get so used to seeing such amazing feats that we forget how difficult (and dangerous) these stunts really are.

Anyway, back to the grind today. Ragwort, ragword, mucking out hens and horses and more ragwort!

Yes, Rebel is still fine thanks although I am still strip grazing, but of course the grass (and weeds) are now hay length and seeding, so most of the goodness is gone. Interestingly the blacksmith commented on how much better Rascal's feet are this summer and I genuinely think it is down to him getting less good grass. The current thinking is that a high fibre, low sugar diet is better for their hooves.
That is a really neat job you have done bandaging your friend's horse. It was a nasty injury and it's in a bad place, so it's not surprising it is taking a long time to heal. The important thing is that it's heading in the right direction. I love the winter camouflage Vetwrap. When Rascal's leg was bad a couple of years ago, he had Zebra stripes which was quite contentious in this area as the vet who put them on covers both Sunderland and Newcastle areas and putting black and white stripes in the wrong place can cause some people a lot of upset!

Anyway, it's good to hear that your toothache or whatever it was has eased. How are your chicks doing? I'm delighted to say that the two broodies up at the yard are behaving impeccably as regards taking their chicks back into the sideboard at bed time and their co brooding is really working out well too. Portia has started laying again and I've had 7 eggs in 7 days from her and she's still laying before lunchtime so no sign of missing a day yet. Not bad for a pekin eh! Daisy looks after her chicks whilst she is laying and seems to have pretty much adopted them on a night now too. I would like to put Portia in with the adults as that little coop is pretty crowded now with two broodies and 11 rapidly growing chicks, but I'm not sure I can face the prospect of adding a single chicken to the flock twice, rather than wait and add them both together. I probably need to move the broody coop round next to the adult pen, so that they can se each other for a few days before I move them. At the moment they are at opposite sides of the house.

Must head out again with trowel and bag! Have you got your Yellow Peril finished yet?

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[jemini212]

I in general just use the basic things that are in our own first aid box and anything that may come in useful from the horse. I don't keep a chicken first aid box so to speak. I have the usual stuff like syringes for giving them wormer/vitamins, mite louse powder and spray. Other than that nothing else.
As for the antibiotics I'm afraid there is no alternative other than going to the vets. For me personally I draw the line at taking birds to the vets. If I can't sort things myself with what I have or can purchase they get a quick ending.

Thanks for the info. Yeah I would want to avoid the vets, but that's purely because I have a lot of mistrust at the way they dealt with one of my dogs. I didn't know about wormer for chickens. I'll have to have a look for some of that.

 

[GroningerGeens]

@GroningerGeens

I'm sorry to hear about your hen

I would have done exactly the same thing with seeing a scab at the bottom of the foot. Having taken a closer look at the foot and rereading the above article I see what you mean about the Mycoplasma synoviae

As Barbara says give it some more time with her and see how she gets on. I too find it so difficult to dispatch much loved birds, especially the favourite ones.

Thanks Yorkshire coop!

Well - update.
she hasnt moved about her pen today and cant walk at all on her left leg.
I am going to take the dispatch choice unfortunately. I think I would rather end her misery.
typically she laid an egg today but I think as she is ill it has to be binned and she will be better off with this ended. If I can manage, I might do a little autopsy on her foot to find out if there was a syst inside.

I appreciated all the responses regarding this.
I will update again soon

Geoff

 

[GroningerGeens]

Hi again.
I dispatched her.
I took a view and decided it was the right choice for her.
However I did learn from this and I opened her foot to see - lo and behold there was a core in there.
Next time I'll be braver in the surgery.

I take this as good experience - I have learned lots through reading and the advice from yourselves.

Thank you

 

[rebrascora]

Hi. Thanks for updating us and well done for putting her out of her pain and also using the situation to improve your knowledge and in fact, ours too. It is easy to look at photos and think it must be this or perhaps it is that, but it is really useful to have it confirmed what the problem actually was. It looked like the infection may have started to spread with that discolouration in her "ankle", so she probably would have needed antibiotics after surgery anyway, which would have meant a trip to the vets of course and like Yorkshire Coop I draw the line at that, so your decision to cull her was most likely the right one regardless.
Sorry for your family's loss though. They may be farm animals, but they easily find their way into your heart and become pets too.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[Gge23]

Hi everyone!
It's been a while since I updated on my little ones. Unfortunately one has had a big relapse in the last 2 days can't keep its little head up and practically falls out of the coop on a morning. So I've brought him inside (I've called him Dave) and I keep giving him his vitamins and water. Managed to find some Vitamin E capsules at work so I give him one of those as well. Any other suggestions? He seems much worse than last time...hoping he comes round soon

 

[rebrascora]

@Gge23

Have you tried treating him for coccidiosis? I believe that not all strains cause blood in droppings, so it's easy to overlook as a cause of weakness.