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

 

[Poultry man123]

Well bathing the feet in salty water would help, so keep doing that until you can get some antibiotics.

 

[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?

 

[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]

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?

No changes to products at all- and I have started treating the coop and flock with the permethrin dust for a few days and also sprayed some Spinosad in the coop as well

I did order some antibiotics online. Hopefully they come sooner than later I’ve called every vet no one will see her.

It’s possible , I was curious of the same thing with a bee, or wasp/yellow jacket there is always a lot of those by the coop. Maybe spider ?? She was laying on the floor day before last sun bathing next to the fence where there could be spiders

Thanks for your reply

 

[Paigee423]

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/

She’s a little over 2 years old. I will keep my eye out for any signs of bites or stings if the swelling ever goes down Thank you

 

[Paigee423]

Here’s current pics of June after a foot soak and changing her dressings. Foot is now turning purple :/ she is eating and drinking like normal - she won’t lay down , she just stands and tries to sleep standing unfortunately. Her other foot/leg seems to be doing okay aside from some irritation from the mites

 

[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.

 

[AGeese]

I don't have experience with this, but if the foot is turning purple it would seem there is a circulation issue and I wonder if there would be any way to treat inflamation. But if it's due to an infection not sure that would make a difference. I see the open wound there so I wonder if that might have been the entry point for all this.

The mites sure won't help and so try to stay up on treating them. I wonder if she could be allergic to mites as well?

 

[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