What the heck is this?

[Kbergs4]

One of our 3 year old hens has a huge mass growing on the top of her foot. Searching online is coming up with nothing but bumblefoot. We're pretty certain that's not it as the bottom of her foot looks good (no scabs). This thing is disgusting and we can't believe we didn't see it sooner in our flock of 30. We are not sure what to do about this and we have no vet near us that will work on chickens.

 

[BantyChooks]

I’m honestly at a loss. Maybe some sort of tumor? I’ve never seen this before. However, I also notice her scales look completely destroyed, which typically indicates an infestation of scaly leg mites. That can cause growth-like build ups, but this is extreme. How does her other foot look?

Either way, it’s unfortunate you don’t have a vet nearby, as this is one of the few instances I would strongly recommend seeing one.

 

[orelsi]

Never seen it before either. First thought is tumor. It somehow also looks like foreign material that piled on.

Did you touch it? Use gloves if that bothers you. How does it feel? Hard or squishy? Try to wiggle it a bit and see if it causes her discomfort. Does it feel like it can dislodged or does it stay firm?

 

[LaFleche]

Looks like a tumor to me. You can try treating with antibiotics in case it is caused by something like an embedded thorn that got infected, but I rather think it to be squamous cell tumor (cancer).

 

[Altairsky]

From the pics it looks like a bone tumor.

 

[Eggcessive]

It may be a skin cancer. Those are common in chickens. Squamous cell cancer is most common. In this link you can see a similar tumor in the right upper part of the page:
https://poultrydvm.com/condition/squamous-cell-carcinoma

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Poor thing. Does it bother her? @Eggcessive, @coach723 , @azygous, any treatment for this without vet care?

 

[coach723]

Without a vet, we can only guess. I would guess it is most likely to be tumor/cancer as well. Without vet care and imaging, it's impossible to know for sure. Tumors usually have a good blood supply and will bleed if messed with, which is why a vet would be the best option, to determine if it's removable or not, benign or not, or something else. If it came up quickly, it could also be a very aggressive one as well.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have read some posts by @azygous who has dealt with similar tumors, where she has said that she has had chickens with similar skin cancers who lived a number of years. She usually doesn’t bother removing the tumors. The way this one is on the foot, it might be removed or tied off with a band. If a vet is available, I would read up on squamous cell carcinomas and ask if they could possibly help. Let us know what happens.

 

[Kbergs4]

I’m honestly at a loss. Maybe some sort of tumor? I’ve never seen this before. However, I also notice her scales look completely destroyed, which typically indicates an infestation of scaly leg mites. That can cause growth-like build ups, but this is extreme. How does her other foot look?

Either way, it’s unfortunate you don’t have a vet nearby, as this is one of the few instances I would strongly recommend seeing one.

Her other foot looks good. Her legs seem fine and only the toes seem to look like scaly mites. I thought that was weird.