Bumblefoot in chickens

[Millymollymandy]

Anyone experienced this and what if anything did you do?

I've been reading all about it on the net but it seems either antibiotics in the early stages and/or lancing is the way to go. I'm not going to cut my hen's feet open and as she's had 3 laying seasons already it seems a bit daft (even if a French vet didn't laugh me out of the surgery) to pay a fortune for a consultation plus ABs for a hen - how do you even administer ABs to a bird? so I'm just going to wait and see and if she starts to suffer then we will be brave and do the deed. I did wash her feet to examine them and dunk them in water plus iodine but it's pointless really as she was straight out into the mud afterwards!

Just wondering what others have done, if anything. The strange thing is that she has it on both feet.

[Milims]

I'm not surewhat bumblefoot is - but ours suffered from scaley leg so we washed their legs with surgical spirit and the vet gave us some powder to put in with their food so I guess that's what you could do with the antibiotocs

Just looked up what bumblefoot is. Found it here:
http://urbanchickens.org/blog/bumblefoot

It says that it can be treated with wraps - I assume this means some kind of drawing poltice.
I now have visions of chickens in Welly boots!

Hope she's better soon

[Millymollymandy]

Yes I saw some photos of little hennies with their feet in daft bandages - but really how can I do that short of keeping her somewhere inside on a clean surface! I don't have anywhere to isolate a bird and she wouldn't be happy apart from the others and she'd get cold without the others to snuggle up to. And it's not like my hens like to be caught, let alone touched or treated or anything. She doesn't trust me anymore and is very wary after I twice had to wash her daggy bum!

Just read your link and the thought of massaging the hens feet, laying her on my lap, soaking her feet in water for 15 mins makes me laugh. They must have very tame birds.

[indy]

May not work for you but as I'm on a budget, the farmer next door to me suggested germolene and savlon spray when I had 2 cases of bumblefoot in my little flock, worked for me

[Millymollymandy]

I probably can't get either of them in France and don't even know what Germolene is, but how did you administer them? Wrap chicken's foot up in a bandage and keep it isolated on clean bedding, or what?

[indy]

Both of them are just antiseptic cream and spray, am sure anything like that would work, I changed their bedding to clean and dry, I didn't bandage their feet also tried my best to keep them out of the mud. Not sure my girls would have put up with bandages I rubbed the cream on 3 times a day but if your chicks are flighty maybe twice a day would do when they go in and out. I did seperate them for 2 days, took about 10 days for it to go.

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Indy - we have been puzzling/brainstorming over quite what to do and whether we could keep her in some sort of cage in with the others (but then they'd probably jump in with her plus the dusty beaten earth floor isn't very sanitary) or put her alone in the barn which has a concrete floor - I don't think she'd be very happy alone. And working out how to do little bandages with iodine and sugar poultices which seem to be popular on the Poultry Site.... I do have savlon cream and betadine (iodine) and hydrogen peroxide, all of which have been mentioned on various sites/threads. Arrrggghh.

[Millymollymandy]

OK Snowy is now in her new clean posh pen under the work bench in the barn, with nice funky silver wellies on!

I can't believe we did all that, hubby spent about 2 hours making her pen and we then spent an hour trying to wash her feet then get poultices on and wrapped up in bandages and duct tape!!! It was not easy especially with a big bird like Snowy - but I have learned that plonking her on my side on my lap does work as it seemed to calm her and she finally unclenched her foot so we could redo the first bandage! We were both covered in sticky sugar mix, mud, feathers and god knows what!

Oh well it should be easier (ha ha ) tonight when we do it all again!

I shall also be spending a lot of time sitting in the barn (knitting? ) trying to keep her company, cos she won't be a happy bunny (last seen trying to peck her bandages off!).

As the swollen pads are soft then according to a vet site I have caught it early and it should respond OK to ABs, so we are going to phone the vet today, as now that she's isolated I can put ABs in her water.

Photos will be taken today.

[Millymollymandy]

I have some antibiotics now which cost almost the price of buying two more of her.

[Millymollymandy]

Jeez....... for anyone reading this with hens or looking back at this in the future I have to tell you that this is an absolute bloody nightmare.

The poultices (if they don't slip or get pecked to pieces by the chicken) don't soften the scabs. So you do have to try to soften the scabs with water - well unless you have a docile bantam you can't hold a big hen's feet under a running tap (come on! ) or even hold a chicken over a bucket of water with its feet dangling in it for very long (even if it is docile that will do your back in).

So. We resorted to using a paintbrush to keep wetting the scabs. In the meantime I had a better look at what looked like two smaller scabs (had my reading glasses on this time), which turned out to be embedded grit and dirt which had worked its way in, and somehow the skin had hardened around them making little pockets and I literally had to scrape away at this dirt and grit for ages with my fingernails until I could get my nails in and pick out the hard bits of grit/dirt. Finally got it done (take tweezers with you, it would have been easier!) and she now has two holes in her feet behind her toes. Never flinched as there was no actual broken skin. I don't know if this is the cause of the bumblefoot in that foot or not as I imagine the first bits of stone got embedded in the skin, then it hardened around it.

So that's another thing I'll have to keep watching out for/cleaning out if she ever gets better from the bumblefoot. Today it's back to soaking those scabs and trying to get a bit off otherwise we will never be able to drain the pus and she won't get better. In the meantime she is not happy and not getting any exercise obviously so I don't know how good it is for her to be stuck inside not moving very much.

And one final thing - wearing disposable rubber gloves is completely pointless as you cannot do most of what you need to do (scraping scabs or wrapping bandages) with stupid gloves on! So wash hands thoroughly afterwards!

Aaarrrgggh.

[indy]

That sound awful poor you, some people might wonder why we bother but I would do exactly the same for droopy, bluebell, darlene.....and so it goes on, you get the picture lol

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Indy - by contrast this morning I just picked up my tiny little red hen, flipped her over on her back, totally docile (I think she was enjoying it!) and looked at her healthy little feet. Then caught my old girl who is a bit bigger, now she clenched her toes up like Snowy but again, feet look fine (what I can see through the mud that is!). Makes me realise what a mess poor Snowy's feet are in. But the others being so much smaller are miles easier to deal with!

Now I feel bad for not having looked out for this - I often cast an eye on their leg scales for mites but hadn't really looked regularly at their feet. I think I'd have noticed a difference in Snowy's behaviour (not running around as much as the others) but she'd just gone through a moult and was a bit slow/sad/dejected anyway because of that.

Chickens, who'd have 'em and WHO said they were easy?!

[Millymollymandy]

Well another update - it is impossible to remove the 'scabs' as they are not like scabs from wounds or grazes, they are rather like warts in appearance and texture.

ABs and antiseptic poultices not working so tomorrow she is going to the vet in the hope they can lance her feet to get the pus out. I don't want to give up after all the hassle (to both her and us) this last week or so. She still hates being handled so it is a big fight every evening to try to treat her and I've been scratched and covered in poo.

[indy]

I hope that it all goes well for snowy and you, I now have four who have been attacked by an ex racing greyhound while they were in the garden, this greyhound has just been rehomed and the rescue centre told my neighbours not to let her out off the lead........... have spent the day nursing and patching, luckily all surface wounds but thats not the point. By the way before anyone gets cross with me I am not cross with the dog, she's lovely, just the owners who didn't take responsibility

[Millymollymandy]

Oh that's awful, your poor hens I'm afraid I'd be cross with the dog too though I realise it's not its fault. Things like that make me realise how important it is to have a first aid kit for animals/birds so when I do get to the vet I'm going to see if they have an antiseptic spray that I can get that's suitable for my birds.

However, we won't be going to vet today as we've woken up to snow but the good thing is that I can put Snowy back with the others in their large shed, because they never ever go outside when there is snow on the ground! Just need to clip her claws first as they've got a bit long with her not scratching for a while. Apart from scratching me of course!