Urgent - extreme foot swelling & no local vets available

[Paigee423]

Hey there ! This is my first post thoigh I’ve been scouring the site for about 3 years and also for this current issue

My hen is having what I think to be a life threatening infection/ swelling and there are no vets local to me that are taking chickens right now. My feed store does not sell any sort of antibiotics anymore because CA laws changed apparently. I am at a loss and feel helpless for my poor June.

She had what I assumed to be bumblefoot (some nodules between toes with black “plugs” underside her feet. My husband and I soaked her feet, we’re able to easily remove the “plugs” (solid black cores came out , skin looked good after it was out. Zero bleeding , very clean )

I packed with neosporin and bandaged up both her feet with some cotton pads and adhesive wrap.

She seemed to be doing fine for two days aside from annoyed with her bandages.

Today i took them off , cleaned them, they looked great ! No bleeding , swelling or anything

Now to backtrack a bit - she does seem to have scaly leg mite and my coop also has a cause of mites in general right now even though I clean it often and layer with DE and my girls free range from about 1pm-sunset

After I checked her bandages , applied some more neosporin etc , I went back outside a few hours later to find her struggling to walk up my hill, and her one foot was HUGE swollen. I mean scary. Her poor face has also had swelling. She had this last year (her face ) I think she is reallt sensitive to bug bites (mosquitoes are bad right now) and mites. I have 6 girls total and no one else is showing any of these signs and never have.

She is currently in a bathroom shower isolated and I keep doing epsom salt baths , neosporin , and gently wrapping the foot. It’s huge , hot, oozing.

Again , I’m at a loss because no one will see her and the Mobil vet has no appointments until October. I have found a website today lwhere I was able to order antibiotics - but they won’t Get here for 3-5 days.

Any suggestions or tips would be very appreciated. I am in San Diego county

 

[Eggcessive]

I doubt that is mycoplasma synovitis, but I do think there are signs of tissue dying. It may not include the whole foot, but there may be parts. I would soak the foot once a day in warm water with some chlorhexidene or Betadine for disinfecting, and to promote healing. Apply plain antibiotic ointment to the foot after drying. Just as with frostbite, sometimes a chicken may lose part of a foot, toes, or all of the foot. It will self amputate in time. It may take weeks or a month to see where it happens. But I would try to prevent infection.

 

[Eggcessive]

Could the foot have bruising from the bumblefoot treatment? Bruising can be green or reddish-bluish in chickens. A too tight dressing around the foot could also cause bluish skin. Vet wrap can slip and cut off circulation if wrapped too tight. If neither of those is the problem, I would worry about a spider bite or tick bite. The swollen eyelid looks like it could be from mycoplasma gallisepticum which certain antibiotics will treat. What antibiotics are coming? Enrofloxacin (Baytril) 10% liquid is good for a lot of different infections.

 

[Paigee423]

I doubt that is mycoplasma synovitis, but I do think there are signs of tissue dying. It may not include the whole foot, but there may be parts. I would soak the foot once a day in warm water with some chlorhexidene or Betadine for disinfecting, and to promote healing. Apply plain antibiotic ointment to the foot after drying. Just as with frostbite, sometimes a chicken may lose part of a foot, toes, or all of the foot. It will self amputate in time. It may take weeks or a month to see where it happens. But I would try to prevent infection.

I stopped soaking because the foot was staying far too wet because she is oozing so much fluid from it constantly it was making all of the skin peel off of her feet and causing open sores so I laid off of it.

I have been treating it with some sprays and ointment and the antibiotics that I mix with water. I will keep doing this and see if it starts to help

Thank you for all the insight and info !

 

[Paigee423]

I haven’t logged on here in some time and had given up all hope on June BUT I am happy to report she is still alive ! She ended up losing all of her toes and part of her foot , but she is still happy and alive! Her one eye still swells up every so often (same side as her bad foot ) but other than than she seems to be healthy ! She went through a full molt and has beautiful feathers, she gained all her weight back, and the girls stopped picking on her her new life consists of hobbling around the yard with lots of breaks and she lays down a lot (she is a big girl) she sleeps on the floor because she can’t roost. But other than that she seems happy and not in any pain , just learning to navigate on her new foot her bestie Aurora has been by her side and never leaves her and stands by her all day it’s been a sweet relationship to watch

Just wanted to share ! Still have no idea what causes this or what happened- but I am glad she made it through the best she can !

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry about you hen.

Do you have photos of what the legs looked like before today?

Any changes to the products you have been using on her?

Even in CA you likely can mail order meds. Baytril may be a good choice to use for this, but let's get the input of @Eggcessive and @coach723 on this.

In the meantime, you need to get rid of the bugs. As you have found, DE is not an effective treatment.
Go to your local feed store and get a Permethrin based poultry spray or dust for your chickens and their housing. Treat them.

Could she have been stung by bees?

 

[Paigee423]

How is she doing?

She’s the same - she did finally poop so that’s a good sign maybe First was super watery , second was more normal but still little watery but it didn’t smell nearly as bad. I just soaked her foot again and I put some iodine And colloidal silver all over the foot after I cleaned and dried it off.

She is eating and drinking when I hold the bowls up for her , and she is still chatty with me so that’s good I guess

I did give her some low dose aspirin jsir now for the first time to see if it helps her with pain and swelling

 

[Saaniya]

Hey there ! This is my first post thoigh I’ve been scouring the site for about 3 years and also for this current issue

My hen is having what I think to be a life threatening infection/ swelling and there are no vets local to me that are taking chickens right now. My feed store does not sell any sort of antibiotics anymore because CA laws changed apparently. I am at a loss and feel helpless for my poor June.

She had what I assumed to be bumblefoot (some nodules between toes with black “plugs” underside her feet. My husband and I soaked her feet, we’re able to easily remove the “plugs” (solid black cores came out , skin looked good after it was out. Zero bleeding , very clean )

I packed with neosporin and bandaged up both her feet with some cotton pads and adhesive wrap.

She seemed to be doing fine for two days aside from annoyed with her bandages.

Today i took them off , cleaned them, they looked great ! No bleeding , swelling or anything

Now to backtrack a bit - she does seem to have scaly leg mite and my coop also has a cause of mites in general right now even though I clean it often and layer with DE and my girls free range from about 1pm-sunset

After I checked her bandages , applied some more neosporin etc , I went back outside a few hours later to find her struggling to walk up my hill, and her one foot was HUGE swollen. I mean scary. Her poor face has also had swelling. She had this last year (her face ) I think she is reallt sensitive to bug bites (mosquitoes are bad right now) and mites. I have 6 girls total and no one else is showing any of these signs and never have.

She is currently in a bathroom shower isolated and I keep doing epsom salt baths , neosporin , and gently wrapping the foot. It’s huge , hot, oozing.

Again , I’m at a loss because no one will see her and the Mobil vet has no appointments until October. I have found a website today lwhere I was able to order antibiotics - but they won’t Get here for 3-5 days.

Any suggestions or tips would be very appreciated. I am in San Diego county

It's really looks like Mycoplasma she will heal give her time don't put her down

 

[coach723]

If it's stings or bites then within a couple of days I would think you would see the spots where it happened, blistering or scabbing. How old is she? The only thing I can think of that covers both foot swelling and facial swelling is MS (mycoplasma sinoviae). I don't know if that's the case here, the only way to find out is testing.
Info on MS:
https://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/animal-disease-faq/mycoplasma-synoviae
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/mycoplasmosis/mycoplasma-synoviae-infection-in-poultry
Found this old thread, pictures don't work anymore:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-face-and-feet-what-is-wrong-with-her.693626/

 

[Paigee423]

Could the foot have bruising from the bumblefoot treatment? Bruising can be green or reddish-bluish in chickens. A too tight dressing around the foot could also cause bluish skin. Vet wrap can slip and cut off circulation if wrapped too tight. If neither of those is the problem, I would worry about a spider bite or tick bite. The swollen eyelid looks like it could be from mycoplasma gallisepticum which certain antibiotics will treat. What antibiotics are coming? Enrofloxacin (Baytril) 10% liquid is good for a lot of different infections.

It’s hard to say - the bumble foot treatment was done on Monday afternoon. The dressing I have made sure to lightly wrap and it’s more just holding on all the gauze right now so she has cushion on her foot. Her whole face is swollen including earlobes I ordered AMTYL for the moment