Bumblefoot HELP PLS

[Kyn Garcia]

Hey guys, I have 3 of my hens that have very mild Bumblefoot and 1 that is worse than the other 3. They either are reddish or have a little scab with no swelling that I can tell.. I’ve been treating with vet. spray, blu-kote, and neosporin twice a day and epsom salt soakings once a day before I put them in for the night.. Pep, she’s the one that have a worse case than the others, both feet have sores, one is pretty swollen so I’ve been wrapping both of her feet and soaking her twice a day… the swelling has gone down a lot, today is day 3 of treating it… so my question is since her swelling is going down so I continue to just treat it or do I need to remove it and am I doing right by not wrapping my girls that aren’t showing any swelling?

 

[DotToDot]

Can you post pictures?

 

[Kyn Garcia]

Can you post pictures?

 

[Kyn Garcia]

This is her bad foot… the rest of my girls feet look way better so I think they are going to be fine but this is the one I’m probably going to have to get it out?

 

[PiGE0N]

Watching and bumping this thread because I currently have a few chickens with what seems like a start of bumblefoot too. I just took a chicken into the vet today as her's was the worst looking one, this picture is what it looked like at first a month ago (and there were no available appointments until today!), unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of what it looks like now, I hope the vet remembered to take a photo.

I definitely need to learn how to treat this on my own because I cannot afford to pay over 700$ per chicken, that's ridiculous!!
I suspect there's a bunch of thorns and foreign debris that could be hurting my birds' feet, it's a large, dry backyard.

EDIT: The vets said they were backed up and busy today, so they didn't get to treat my hen, I picked her up to avoid anymore costs added onto the bill and we have to take her again tomorrow morning. Here's a picture of what it looks like now:

I'm soaking her feet in an Epsom tub and will do the steps that the poster did for my other chickens, though theirs don't look as bad as this

 

[The Chick Addict]

Bumblefoot is a bacterial infection that can happen to chickens, rabbits, rodents, and other animals. Here is the guide on how to treat it:

Items needed to treat bumblefoot:​

• Epsom salt (you can also use Lavender infused Epsom Salt to calm and soothe the chicken's feet)
• Warm water
• Bath (bowl, tub with a hole in the lid, actual bathtub, or bin)
• Towels
• Tweezers
• Isopropyl (rubbing alcohol-70% is best)
• Prid (drawing salve commonly used for splinters in humans)
• Vetericyn Plus (or some other antibacterial spray)
• Neosporin (optional)
• Sterile gauze pads
• Self-adhesive vet wrap
• Gloves

Here are the steps on how to treat Bumblefoot:
Step 1: Wash your hands.
Step 2: Soak chicken feet Epsom salt bath for 15-30 minutes.
Step 3: Sterilize instruments and work area.
Step 4: Dry off chicken and clean foot by spraying with isopropyl or Vetericyn Plus.
Step 5: Gently try to remove bumble corn using the tweezers.
Step 6: Spray with Vetericyn Plus and add a glob of Prid
Step 7: Place gauze pad over wound and wrap with self-adhesive vet wrap.
Step 8: Wash your hands again!
Step 9: Monitor and change bandage daily, repeating steps 1-6 daily until you can remove the entire bumble corn.
Step 10: Keep wound clean (or as clean as a chicken’s foot can be) by changing bandage daily and spraying with Vetericyn Plus until foot is completely healed.

Healing bumblefoot is not always a quick process. It can take anywhere from a couple days to months to treat. Stick with it and your chickens will heal using this method!

 

[PiGE0N]

Bumblefoot is a bacterial infection that can happen to chickens, rabbits, rodents, and other animals. Here is the guide on how to treat it:

Items needed to treat bumblefoot:​

• Epsom salt (you can also use Lavender infused Epsom Salt to calm and soothe the chicken's feet)
• Warm water
• Bath (bowl, tub with a hole in the lid, actual bathtub, or bin)
• Towels
• Tweezers
• Isopropyl (rubbing alcohol-70% is best)
• Prid (drawing salve commonly used for splinters in humans)
• Vetericyn Plus (or some other antibacterial spray)
• Neosporin (optional)
• Sterile gauze pads
• Self-adhesive vet wrap
• Gloves

Here are the steps on how to treat Bumblefoot:
Step 1: Wash your hands.
Step 2: Soak chicken feet Epsom salt bath for 15-30 minutes.
Step 3: Sterilize instruments and work area.
Step 4: Dry off chicken and clean foot by spraying with isopropyl or Vetericyn Plus.
Step 5: Gently try to remove bumble corn using the tweezers.
Step 6: Spray with Vetericyn Plus and add a glob of Prid
Step 7: Place gauze pad over wound and wrap with self-adhesive vet wrap.
Step 8: Wash your hands again!
Step 9: Monitor and change bandage daily, repeating steps 1-6 daily until you can remove the entire bumble corn.
Step 10: Keep wound clean (or as clean as a chicken’s foot can be) by changing bandage daily and spraying with Vetericyn Plus until foot is completely healed.

Healing bumblefoot is not always a quick process. It can take anywhere from a couple days to months to treat. Stick with it and your chickens will heal using this method!

Thank you for this! I'm going to see if I can buy this Vetericyn online, I saw one specifically for chickens. Any advice for bumblefoot that's just starting? I notice just a tiny little spot on a few of my chickens foot pads, just try to scrape off the little scab after epsom soak? or would prid or other drawing salve do the trick?

Also here's some pictures the vet took!

Spoiler: surgery pics

 

[The Chick Addict]

Thank you for this! I'm going to see if I can buy this Vetericyn online, I saw one specifically for chickens. Any advice for bumblefoot that's just starting? I notice just a tiny little spot on a few of my chickens foot pads, just try to scrape off the little scab after epsom soak? or would prid or other drawing salve do the trick?

Also here's some pictures the vet took!

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I would do the same procedure for the developing Bumblefoot on your other chickens so that it will not continue growing. If you only remove the scab, the Bumblefoot corn would remain inside the foot and continue growing and leave the infection inside.

I am so glad your chicken is doing well! She is absolutely adorable!!!

 

[PiGE0N]

Took her back this Monday to the vet for them to check up on her foot, unfortunately I didn't get to see how her wound was healing, but they said it's healing beautifully and they changed her wrap with her toes more free. My only concerns now is that she's become an EXTREMELY picky eater to the point where she's loosing weight, I suspect that she's become depressed having to stay inside the house all day long without flock members as well.

After the surgery she was fine with eating her regular food for the first day or two, then no longer wanted to eat it. She has to take her meds with food so I offered her raw eggs and this worked for a few more days, but again she's grown bored of it and rarely eats it now. Then I started offering her sprouted/pigeon food and cantaloupe, worked for a day or so. Yesterday she was eager to eat watermelon while I had her in the front yard with the other chickens, now she doesn't care too much for it.

The only thing she seems to have continuous interest in over the course of all these days is picking grass, weeds, bugs, etc. outside in the front yard where we actually have a lawn. So for a couple times a day I'd put her foot into a plastic bag so it wouldn't get soiled, wet, or tore up so easily, but with a chicken doing their chicken things like scratching around and taking dirt baths this protection doesn't last very long and I take her back inside (another issue of her sitting in diaper bags all day, this definitely must not be comfortable either).

I've just give up and let her out for now, she lied on the dirt to sun bathe and foraged around in leaves out with the other chickens. I'm going to have to look for gauze, wraps and antibacterial spray at the stores and just change her every so often since our backyard is so dead, dry, and rough!

I guess this is just something I should've done on my own after she came back from surgery, but I was just so worried of it getting infected again from being outside.

 

[The Chick Addict]

Took her back this Monday to the vet for them to check up on her foot, unfortunately I didn't get to see how her wound was healing, but they said it's healing beautifully and they changed her wrap with her toes more free. My only concerns now is that she's become an EXTREMELY picky eater to the point where she's loosing weight, I suspect that she's become depressed having to stay inside the house all day long without flock members as well.

After the surgery she was fine with eating her regular food for the first day or two, then no longer wanted to eat it. She has to take her meds with food so I offered her raw eggs and this worked for a few more days, but again she's grown bored of it and rarely eats it now. Then I started offering her sprouted/pigeon food and cantaloupe, worked for a day or so. Yesterday she was eager to eat watermelon while I had her in the front yard with the other chickens, now she doesn't care too much for it.

The only thing she seems to have continuous interest in over the course of all these days is picking grass, weeds, bugs, etc. outside in the front yard where we actually have a lawn. So for a couple times a day I'd put her foot into a plastic bag so it wouldn't get soiled, wet, or tore up so easily, but with a chicken doing their chicken things like scratching around and taking dirt baths this protection doesn't last very long and I take her back inside (another issue of her sitting in diaper bags all day, this definitely must not be comfortable either).

I've just give up and let her out for now, she lied on the dirt to sun bathe and foraged around in leaves out with the other chickens. I'm going to have to look for gauze, wraps and antibacterial spray at the stores and just change her every so often since our backyard is so dead, dry, and rough!

I guess this is just something I should've done on my own after she came back from surgery, but I was just so worried of it getting infected again from being outside.

Is it all right for her to go back out with the other chickens, or did the vet say otherwise? You can continue keeping her inside but I would advise only at night, and keep her with the other chickens during the day. You can continue bandaging her foot and putting a plastic bag so it will not get infected or dirty, unless of course the vet said that is not good for her right now. Hope she continues to progress!