Bumblefoot? Foot injury?

[Kailcar]

Hello! I'm hoping to get some confirmation in my thoughts and guidance. I got home for my lunch break and found one of my girls was limping pretty badly. She's about 6 months old and a barred rock (currently laying). My husband and I grabbed her to inspect her foot and found she has a fleshy swollen spot on the bottom of her foot. It looks to me like possible the start of bumble foot, or localized swelling due to a possible injury or poke from sticks/debris around the yard.

My plan is to soak her foot in Epsom salt water tonight, put some Neosporin on it (non pain relief kind) and wrap it to see if I can get some of the swelling drawn out of it.

I don't see any clear head on it that seems to be present with bumblefoot, it's just a fleshy, squishy growth on the bottom of her foot. Does anyone have any other suggestions or anything else I can do to help give her a speedy recovery?

Thanks

 

[DonyaQuick]

If not early bumblefoot (which would be my first guess too), then it could also be either soft tissue or bone bruise-type injury from a bad landing that's producing swelling. Does she have to jump down from very high in the mornings?

 

[Kailcar]

The roost is only about 2 ft high from the ground from where they sleep at night. They have some perch spots out in the run, too, which is about the same height. However, we do have some roots that stick up from the ground that we have been trying to eliminate after clearing a bunch of undergrowth in our yard, so it is very possible that she jumped from an outside perch and landed roughly on a root. I've been trying to cut them as close to the ground as I can every time I find them but I tend to trip on them, too .

Here's a picture of the roost area. I clean it every morning and it's a sand floor, so there's no debris other than some shavings that gets kicked out of the nesting boxes.

Edit to add: she was completely fine this morning, no limping. Whatever happened escalated within the last 4 hours to the point of swelling/limping.

 

[DonyaQuick]

How's the swelling today?

Having such a quick onset yesterday sounds to me more like a foot injury. Bumbleboot is usually a slower developing thing.

2ft high is enough for heavy breed birds to make less than smart choices. Not saying the roosts should be lower at all; 2ft is the recommended height I always read for that and it's works great most of the time. But, chickens can find ways...as an example: I have a 3-year-old hen who thought it would be great to do a grand flapping jump from about 2ft way up in the air to about 6ft or so. She came down rather uncontrolled onto shavings that were 4-6" deep, but she banged up one of her knees from the landing anyway. That was a very long recovery, and a year later she is still weird about the leg but otherwise normal. So in this case I think it could've easily been maybe something like a just hidden rock in the sandy substrate or just being silly outside and either got a thorn to the foot or landed weird. Birds will limp from things like that right away, whereas with bumblefoot it has to really be set in pretty badly for and for a while before movement is affected.

 

[Kailcar]

How's the swelling today?

Having such a quick onset yesterday sounds to me more like a foot injury. Bumbleboot is usually a slower developing thing.

2ft high is enough for heavy breed birds to make less than smart choices. Not saying the roosts should be lower at all; 2ft is the recommended height I always read for that and it's works great most of the time. But, chickens can find ways...as an example: I have a 3-year-old hen who thought it would be great to do a grand flapping jump from about 2ft way up in the air to about 6ft or so. She came down rather uncontrolled onto shavings that were 4-6" deep, but she banged up one of her knees from the landing anyway. That was a very long recovery, and a year later she is still weird about the leg but otherwise normal. So in this case I think it could've easily been maybe something like a just hidden rock in the sandy substrate or just being silly outside and either got a thorn to the foot or landed weird. Birds will limp from things like that right away, whereas with bumblefoot it has to really be set in pretty badly for and for a while before movement is affected.

Honestly I looked over her today and I see nothing that looks out of the ordinary. The spot under her foot smoothed out a little and looks pretty similar to her other foot save for a slightly discolored spot on the pad near the middle toe (which can actually be seen in the photo I posted). I can't tell if that's bruising or just a colored spot on her foot. When she eats and drinks she stands with both feet flat-footed, but only toe touches on the left foot when she hobbles around.

She's still limping this morning no worse or better than yesterday. She got up on the roost with everyone last night but I got out there before the door opened to help her down. I've seen her eat and drink so she's still alert and active. I'm pretty sure she's still going to try and lay an egg today because she's been standing in the doorway screaming at the hen in her favorite nesting box. Lol.

I'm thinking it's a strain of some sort.. I'll keep doing the Epsom salt soaks to see if it helps, but right now it's all just a guess.