I finally did it: I created an article on how to wrap chicken feet. I consider myself a little bit of an expert because I’ve been dealing with an ungodly amount of bumblefoot in the flock lately. *sigh*
Wrapping feet is necessary after any sort of foot pad surgery (most commonly to treat bumblefoot) or even just a foot wound. This article will be specifically about how to wrap feet after bumblefoot surgery.
Bumblefoot is a very common problem in chickens. It occurs when a chicken injures their foot - even just stepping on a thorn or having a raw spot - and contracts a staph infection. It becomes an abscess, with a ‘cheesy’ core and a big scab. To be treated, it needs to be soaked, opened, cleaned, disinfected, and then wrapped up. The wrapping is to prevent the wound from getting dirty.
Here's the thing: the wrapping is the most important part. Because if it is done wrong or the hen pulls it off, all your hard work of treating the foot goes straight down the drain.
Also, if you botch the wrapping, you can wind up with a seriously injured hen. Too tight can mean the foot falls off, which is WAY worse than bumblefoot!
Too loose, it can snag on stuff or just come off.
Incorrectly wrapped feet can mean broken toes or an immobilized hen.
So you have to do it right.
And I’m gonna show you how.
*****************
Supplies!
You will need Vetwrap or something similar. It must be small enough in width to fit between chicken toes.
You need strong tape to secure the wrapping. Hockey tape works - but whatever it is, it must not be too sticky to remove from a hen’s foot with ease.
You need antibiotic ointment of some sort. Plain. No painkiller.
You need good scissors.
And small pieces of gauze.
And you need an angry hen.
*****************
How to handle your hen while wrapping her feet!
Your girl (or maybe boy) will likely be spitting mad and NOT OK with your intent.
So you need to do one of three things:
A.) Choose some other unlucky soul to hold the bird while you wrap their foot.
B.) You have to hold your hen on her back in your lap to wrap her feet. This is what I do if no family members are available at the moment.
C.) Whatever the heck works for you so long as you get the wrapping properly done.
I’ll explain option B.
What I do is gently hold down the hen’s wings and flip her over to rest in my lap. I keep a hand on her (or an elbow…) at all times.
You do not need to hold a hen like this to properly wrap her foot. However, this is what works best for me. It does not harm the hens. They don’t enjoy being flipped on their backs like turtles, but guess what? I don’t enjoy cleaning and wrapping their stinky feet every day. So I don’t really care if they don’t like it.
And they get used to it. My Dominique girl had some pesky bumblefoot I’ve been healing for a while now and she’s totally used to the turtle-flip.
*A WORD OF CAUTION! If your hen has a very fluid-filled or full crop, and/or a crop problem, DO NOT DO OPTION B! It will put her in danger. If your hen has a FULL crop but it is still necessary to put her in a position like this make sure she is tilted with her front half raised higher.*!
^ June Bug eyeing me unhappily, surely plotting my imminent demise.
Hens like to make a dramatic exit. They will do this by exploding away in a flurry of kicking feet and thrashing wings.
This will inevitably happen sometime.
You will find yourself suddenly sitting alone, surrounded by softly falling feathers, with stinging scratches and broken pride.
To attempt to prevent this:
Watch her behavior. If she repeatedly glances at the floor behind her and flexes her toes, that does not mean good things for you.
Hens are unpredictable creatures. They don’t like being manhandled and will unexpectedly try to flee your firm grasp.
They consider you very, very stupid at this moment.
See, what has not likely occurred to you but has occurred to them is this:
You have a hen on her back, talons up, and wings ready. She’s a ticking time bomb bound to go off, and the result is you, bleeding. I know from experience.
So there are a few things you can do.
You can put a towel over her front half. Swaddle her, even.
You can figure out another way to hold her.
You can be very, very careful.
You can wear a getup similar to a hockey goalie’s. (I usually go with this one.)
Or you can get some idiot you know to help hold her down. Scratches for all!
*********************
Next step!
You must take your gauze and squeeze out a bit of ointment onto it. Toothpaste-amount. Pea-sized, for you fools who don’t brush their teeth.
Take it and press it to her foot pad, right over the bumble.
Make sure it is secure enough to stay there while you begin to wrap.
**************************
The wrapping!
Start with the Vetwrap. Begin at the center of the foot pad. Loop it around the back of the foot. Above the tiny back toe but below the webbing of the front toes.
( Keep it flat to the foot! No bunching or scrunching allowed. )
Once you’ve done that, cross over the foot pad again to the space between the right and middle toe.
Travel down the back again and this time take it around the heel of the foot, above the itty-bitty back toe..
Travel up in between the left and center toes.
Now wrap it once or twice more around the ankle/heel, above the tiny toe. Snip off the wrap, preferably in a straight line, after wrapping around the ankle at least once.
Voila! Your wrap should look almost exactly like this.
Now, this is not my best wrapping job. It bunched and folded a little. But it works just fine!
If your wrap is secure and snug (but not too tight!!!) you are ready for the final step.
***********************
The tape!
Now you have to tape the top to make sure there are no loose ends a hen could pull apart. Hens are great at untying stuff.
Get a piece of your tape, about this long. (2-4 inches.)
Now just tape it straight around the ankle. Make sure some of it is secured to the skin and some to the Vetwrap.
Not too tight! Too tight is the worst thing you can do here.
Okay! So if you’re pretty sure you got it all done correctly, you’re probably done. Release your hen from her torture and dust yourself off. Clean those scratches and puncture wounds. Have a sip of wine.
Then…spend about 10 minutes watching her behavior.
Before you roll your eyes - yes, this is 100% necessary. The wrap may look picture-perfect to you, but it’s her foot. She knows best.
After a few minutes, she should barely notice the wrapping. She’s going to spend a few minutes pulling at it and shaking her foot, but she’ll get bored and go back to scratching.
But if she keeps tugging at it relentlessly and/or is walking strangely (i.e. tripping, falling, sitting down way too much, OR acting like she's in pain) you need to redo it. It can’t affect how she walks, and it can’t be hurting her.
I usually am flawless at wrapping (because I do it so much..) so recently I’ve been rolling my eyes at my own wait-ten-minutes rule. But it proved useful.
I was wrapping June Bug’s left foot (she’s the brown Easter Egger used in the photo shoot) and it seemed fine. Wrapping was even. It looked perfect, and as far as I could tell was snug, but not tight.
I released her, grabbed a glass of water, and watched her.
She stood around pulling at it. They often do. I didn’t think anything was wrong. But as I went to grab a mushy tomato from the garden for the flock and she trotted after me, I immediately knew I had wrapped her foot wrong. She was stumbling and kept yanking violently at the wrapping with her beak. I immediately picked her up and checked it again. Yup - I had botched it. It looped around her left toe WAY too tightly and was actually inhibiting her walking. I immediately fixed it.
*********************
The Big No-No’s
There are some things you definitely don’t want to do when wrapping.
Not separating the toes correctly.
You have to make sure you do not wrap the toes together. They must be separate.
Here’s a drastic (and purposeful, don’t worry, it wasn’t on her for more than a minute) example of a terrible wrapping. It is both too tight and does not separate the toes. Had I set her down she would not have been able to walk in this.
Too loose
If you do the wrapping too loose OR don’t add some form of tape at the top the wrapping will probably come off.
Too tight.
It’s better to have a wrapping that’s too loose rather than too tight, though both are bad.
Too tight will hurt and frustrate the hen, and inhibit her walking, in mild cases. It will cut off circulation and kill the foot in extreme cases. You should not be able to fit a finger under the wrapping unless you really try. But palpate the wrapped foot a bit. Does it feel like it’s too squeezy and tight? If you’re not sure, just watch the hen extra closely during your ten minutes of observation.
Too many layers
You don’t want too many layers of wrapping. It will make the hen uncomfortable and hard to walk. It should look like she’s wearing fingerless autumn gloves, not like she’s got ski boots on.
******************************
For wrapping a toe, I recommend wrapping it fully, stopping just before the webbing and just before the claw. Secure ends with tape.
For lightly feathered feet: just wrap over feathers. For heavily feathered feet, clip feathers or part them to wrap.
*********************
That’s it! PM me with any extra questions. If you need help performing bumblefoot surgery I recommend doing some research on the forum or making a thread.
Thanks to anyone who read this! Hope it helps you!
Wrapping feet is necessary after any sort of foot pad surgery (most commonly to treat bumblefoot) or even just a foot wound. This article will be specifically about how to wrap feet after bumblefoot surgery.
Bumblefoot is a very common problem in chickens. It occurs when a chicken injures their foot - even just stepping on a thorn or having a raw spot - and contracts a staph infection. It becomes an abscess, with a ‘cheesy’ core and a big scab. To be treated, it needs to be soaked, opened, cleaned, disinfected, and then wrapped up. The wrapping is to prevent the wound from getting dirty.
Also, if you botch the wrapping, you can wind up with a seriously injured hen. Too tight can mean the foot falls off, which is WAY worse than bumblefoot!
Too loose, it can snag on stuff or just come off.
Incorrectly wrapped feet can mean broken toes or an immobilized hen.
So you have to do it right.
And I’m gonna show you how.
*****************
Supplies!
You will need Vetwrap or something similar. It must be small enough in width to fit between chicken toes.
You need strong tape to secure the wrapping. Hockey tape works - but whatever it is, it must not be too sticky to remove from a hen’s foot with ease.
You need antibiotic ointment of some sort. Plain. No painkiller.
You need good scissors.
And small pieces of gauze.
And you need an angry hen.
*****************
How to handle your hen while wrapping her feet!
Your girl (or maybe boy) will likely be spitting mad and NOT OK with your intent.
So you need to do one of three things:
A.) Choose some other unlucky soul to hold the bird while you wrap their foot.
B.) You have to hold your hen on her back in your lap to wrap her feet. This is what I do if no family members are available at the moment.
C.) Whatever the heck works for you so long as you get the wrapping properly done.
I’ll explain option B.
What I do is gently hold down the hen’s wings and flip her over to rest in my lap. I keep a hand on her (or an elbow…) at all times.
You do not need to hold a hen like this to properly wrap her foot. However, this is what works best for me. It does not harm the hens. They don’t enjoy being flipped on their backs like turtles, but guess what? I don’t enjoy cleaning and wrapping their stinky feet every day. So I don’t really care if they don’t like it.
And they get used to it. My Dominique girl had some pesky bumblefoot I’ve been healing for a while now and she’s totally used to the turtle-flip.
*A WORD OF CAUTION! If your hen has a very fluid-filled or full crop, and/or a crop problem, DO NOT DO OPTION B! It will put her in danger. If your hen has a FULL crop but it is still necessary to put her in a position like this make sure she is tilted with her front half raised higher.*!
^ June Bug eyeing me unhappily, surely plotting my imminent demise.
Hens like to make a dramatic exit. They will do this by exploding away in a flurry of kicking feet and thrashing wings.
This will inevitably happen sometime.
You will find yourself suddenly sitting alone, surrounded by softly falling feathers, with stinging scratches and broken pride.
To attempt to prevent this:
Watch her behavior. If she repeatedly glances at the floor behind her and flexes her toes, that does not mean good things for you.
Hens are unpredictable creatures. They don’t like being manhandled and will unexpectedly try to flee your firm grasp.
They consider you very, very stupid at this moment.
See, what has not likely occurred to you but has occurred to them is this:
You have a hen on her back, talons up, and wings ready. She’s a ticking time bomb bound to go off, and the result is you, bleeding. I know from experience.
So there are a few things you can do.
You can put a towel over her front half. Swaddle her, even.
You can figure out another way to hold her.
You can be very, very careful.
You can wear a getup similar to a hockey goalie’s. (I usually go with this one.)
Or you can get some idiot you know to help hold her down. Scratches for all!
*********************
Next step!
You must take your gauze and squeeze out a bit of ointment onto it. Toothpaste-amount. Pea-sized, for you fools who don’t brush their teeth.
Take it and press it to her foot pad, right over the bumble.
Make sure it is secure enough to stay there while you begin to wrap.
**************************
The wrapping!
Start with the Vetwrap. Begin at the center of the foot pad. Loop it around the back of the foot. Above the tiny back toe but below the webbing of the front toes.
( Keep it flat to the foot! No bunching or scrunching allowed. )
Once you’ve done that, cross over the foot pad again to the space between the right and middle toe.
Travel down the back again and this time take it around the heel of the foot, above the itty-bitty back toe..
Travel up in between the left and center toes.
Now wrap it once or twice more around the ankle/heel, above the tiny toe. Snip off the wrap, preferably in a straight line, after wrapping around the ankle at least once.
Voila! Your wrap should look almost exactly like this.
Now, this is not my best wrapping job. It bunched and folded a little. But it works just fine!
If your wrap is secure and snug (but not too tight!!!) you are ready for the final step.
***********************
The tape!
Now you have to tape the top to make sure there are no loose ends a hen could pull apart. Hens are great at untying stuff.
Get a piece of your tape, about this long. (2-4 inches.)
Now just tape it straight around the ankle. Make sure some of it is secured to the skin and some to the Vetwrap.
Not too tight! Too tight is the worst thing you can do here.
Okay! So if you’re pretty sure you got it all done correctly, you’re probably done. Release your hen from her torture and dust yourself off. Clean those scratches and puncture wounds. Have a sip of wine.
Then…spend about 10 minutes watching her behavior.
Before you roll your eyes - yes, this is 100% necessary. The wrap may look picture-perfect to you, but it’s her foot. She knows best.
After a few minutes, she should barely notice the wrapping. She’s going to spend a few minutes pulling at it and shaking her foot, but she’ll get bored and go back to scratching.
But if she keeps tugging at it relentlessly and/or is walking strangely (i.e. tripping, falling, sitting down way too much, OR acting like she's in pain) you need to redo it. It can’t affect how she walks, and it can’t be hurting her.
I usually am flawless at wrapping (because I do it so much..) so recently I’ve been rolling my eyes at my own wait-ten-minutes rule. But it proved useful.
I was wrapping June Bug’s left foot (she’s the brown Easter Egger used in the photo shoot) and it seemed fine. Wrapping was even. It looked perfect, and as far as I could tell was snug, but not tight.
I released her, grabbed a glass of water, and watched her.
She stood around pulling at it. They often do. I didn’t think anything was wrong. But as I went to grab a mushy tomato from the garden for the flock and she trotted after me, I immediately knew I had wrapped her foot wrong. She was stumbling and kept yanking violently at the wrapping with her beak. I immediately picked her up and checked it again. Yup - I had botched it. It looped around her left toe WAY too tightly and was actually inhibiting her walking. I immediately fixed it.
*********************
The Big No-No’s
There are some things you definitely don’t want to do when wrapping.
Not separating the toes correctly.
You have to make sure you do not wrap the toes together. They must be separate.
Here’s a drastic (and purposeful, don’t worry, it wasn’t on her for more than a minute) example of a terrible wrapping. It is both too tight and does not separate the toes. Had I set her down she would not have been able to walk in this.
Too loose
If you do the wrapping too loose OR don’t add some form of tape at the top the wrapping will probably come off.
Too tight.
It’s better to have a wrapping that’s too loose rather than too tight, though both are bad.
Too tight will hurt and frustrate the hen, and inhibit her walking, in mild cases. It will cut off circulation and kill the foot in extreme cases. You should not be able to fit a finger under the wrapping unless you really try. But palpate the wrapped foot a bit. Does it feel like it’s too squeezy and tight? If you’re not sure, just watch the hen extra closely during your ten minutes of observation.
Too many layers
You don’t want too many layers of wrapping. It will make the hen uncomfortable and hard to walk. It should look like she’s wearing fingerless autumn gloves, not like she’s got ski boots on.
******************************
For wrapping a toe, I recommend wrapping it fully, stopping just before the webbing and just before the claw. Secure ends with tape.
For lightly feathered feet: just wrap over feathers. For heavily feathered feet, clip feathers or part them to wrap.
*********************
That’s it! PM me with any extra questions. If you need help performing bumblefoot surgery I recommend doing some research on the forum or making a thread.
Thanks to anyone who read this! Hope it helps you!
