Rooster very sick, bumblefoot complications

[alinas2010]

Hang in there Goose, you’re doing great little buddy!

Sorry to hear about the breakage, but I’m still confident he will heal okay. Is he still getting to see his ladies? I bet that’s good for his moral.

 

[Worm94]

Hang in there Goose, you’re doing great little buddy!

Sorry to hear about the breakage, but I’m still confident he will heal okay. Is he still getting to see his ladies? I bet that’s good for his moral.

He is, yes! We took him outside today for a little outing actually. He hopped around a good bit, got mad at another rooster he could see, crowed a bunch and all. We bring him a new lady just about every time too, so he gets a variety.
And yeah as scary as it was, I think he's still on the road to recovery, fingers crossed.

 

[Kmom1]

Current update: Have continued with soaks, he gets some egg sometimes and cooked ground beef+turkey or whatever meat scraps we have + the allflock feed.
The exposed bone ended up breaking sometime between bandage changes (which was a horrifying discovery; we took it out/cleaned the area so it wouldn't cause more issues). However all tissue around it remains healthy and in one of those silver lining situations, there's less for it to have to grow over now for a stump to form. Granted this also means a different kind of prosthetic will be needed now, but it's still doable.
He's crowing every morning though, he hates bath time very much, and he always goes to bed with a full stomach.
One other bird has a mild case of bumblefoot at the moment but we've been doing more soaking than anything else at this point + there is drawing salve on the way because after all of this, we're very worried to try more drastic measures.
Anyway here's a pic of Goose just hanging out, he's a real trooper.

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Strong boy! Hope he fully recovers soon! I’m sure he’ll quickly adapt to his prosthetic.

 

[ManueB]

Thanks for the update ! The bone breaking must have been very scary. I hope things go more smoothly from now on!
He really has shown a good and strong spirit throughout all of this.

Would you mind if I shared what happened to him occasionally with people who post about bumblefoot, without citing you explicitly? It's an important lesson about not taking surgery lightly even when you've done it before.

I'm also struggling with renewed bumblefoot with two of my hens. I'm beginning to think one in particular will have it on and off all her life. I'm going to look into possibilities to use a tanning / drying onguent on chickens feet once she is healed for prevention.

 

[Worm94]

Thanks for the update ! The bone breaking must have been very scary. I hope things go more smoothly from now on!
He really has shown a good and strong spirit throughout all of this.

Would you mind if I shared what happened to him occasionally with people who post about bumblefoot, without citing you explicitly? It's an important lesson about not taking surgery lightly even when you've done it before.

I'm also struggling with renewed bumblefoot with two of my hens. I'm beginning to think one in particular will have it on and off all her life. I'm going to look into possibilities to use a tanning / drying onguent on chickens feet once she is healed for prevention.

I would not mind, no. Surgery's pretty scary in all honesty. I'll be a lot more cautious going forward, though I guess this was a kind of worst case scenario too.
Is she a bigger hen? I've noticed my larger birds struggle more, have not found any bumbles yet on the smaller ones to date. My roosts were never high to begin with but I did lower them more in the past year out of worry. I hope the drying stuff helps keep the infection away, keeping fingers crossed for her!

gave him a little chunk of tomato the other day as a treat, thought it'd help morale. He's quite loud in the mornings, but I wake up around when they start crowing anyway these days so I don't mind. It's nice, hearing him get his spark back.

 

[ManueB]

I would not mind, no. Surgery's pretty scary in all honesty. I'll be a lot more cautious going forward, though I guess this was a kind of worst case scenario too.
Is she a bigger hen? I've noticed my larger birds struggle more, have not found any bumbles yet on the smaller ones to date. My roosts were never high to begin with but I did lower them more in the past year out of worry. I hope the drying stuff helps keep the infection away, keeping fingers crossed for her!

gave him a little chunk of tomato the other day as a treat, thought it'd help morale. He's quite loud in the mornings, but I wake up around when they start crowing anyway these days so I don't mind. It's nice, hearing him get his spark back.
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I'm 100% convinced morale is absolutely essential to heal. It's even more true in the case of a rooster, because psychological confidence is so important for them to play their role, and especially Goose, since he will have to adapt to not having a foot anymore.
And Lycopene has possible wound healing and anti inflammatory properties. I don't like to think of most real foods as treats, except maybe things like corn . And even corn can be interesting in some circumstances for a sick chicken !

My hen is large, she is a marans and harko hybrid cross, so a dual type bird. Statistically, weight is indeed a risk factor for bumblefoot ! But my experience is atypical. In my flock the four hens that keep getting bumblefoot are those I bought as point of lay pullets, that unfortunately turned out to have a poor overall health from bad genetics and living conditions. Two of those are lighter leghorns and they have recurring bumblefoot as well. But the chickens that hatched here or grew up here, either never got bumblefoot or healed very quickly, even the heavier ones.

I lowered the roosts like you a bit, have added ramps to come up and down, and sanded all the roosts, and that did not solve the issue. I think it comes from our rocky harsh soil and the fact that our chickens range on old farm land and keep digging up tiny pieces of trash and rusty metal. I also believe it's possible that the chickens who grew up here as chicks had their feet's cushioning become more adapted to rough conditions. That's why I'm thinking of trying to reproduce that ; but I will wait until the dermatitis are healed.
I've used drying products for my feet when I ran a lot ; people do it for dogs who hike or race in the mountains, and I've read that it is also done to roosters kept for cock fighting, without being able to find more specific info. I would love to find a way to prevent bumblefoot. My vet does surgery under total anesthesia and it's not without risk for a bird.

 

[Worm94]

Statistically, weight is indeed a risk factor for bumblefoot ! But my experience is atypical.

That's an interesting experience, I definitely have some birds who seem more prone to bumblefoot and because they're on the bigger side I guess I assumed that was the reason; correlation =/= causation I guess. Don't know how most of mine were bred, some are hatchery(Hoover's, I won't be buying from them again for a few reasons), some i got from other backyard people.
I am hoping I can breed away from the ones prone to it, though, with time. Pointy stuff in the soil definitely sounds like a culprit for at least some cuts n scratches.
Our soil is more clay-based here, of course that means it is mud season now and I am fighting a losing battle in the chicken area over that, but less pointy stuff I guess.

I lowered the roosts like you a bit, have added ramps to come up and down, and sanded all the roosts, and that did not solve the issue. I think it comes from our rocky harsh soil and the fact that our chickens range on old farm land and keep digging up tiny pieces of trash and rusty metal. I also believe it's possible that the chickens who grew up here as chicks had their feet's cushioning become more adapted to rough conditions. That's why I'm thinking of trying to reproduce that ; but I will wait until the dermatitis are healed.

I do have one other bird with some mild bumbles right now, and I've been doing semi-regular baths for him when I've got the time and babying the heck out of him. He's on the bigger side, but his parents both had issues too (One is Goose
). I really won't ever shake the fear of hurting them via trying to help, I don't think.
I've heard anesthesia can be hard on birds for sure, that and pain meds. It's got its risks for people too, but worse with birds. We don't have any kind of vet around here that could help with chickens, hence having to make do with what we've got at home.
Anyway on Goose updates:
He is hopping around more these days, seems to have his energy back and with a live-in girlfriend (One of our hatchery brahmas) he's quite happy, I think. I'm going to have to get him/make him a chicken wheelchair or something ASAP while we wait on his leg to finish healing for the prosthetic stuff.
But wound is looking good re last bandage change and his energy is pretty much back to normal. I'll have to see if I can get a picture next time I do the changes but there's new flesh and it seems to be closing up fairly quick overall. I wonder what the rough timeline will look like once it does close, that is, I imagine there's still a lot of healing the internal parts need to do.

 

[Worm94]

An update, probably the last major one (Aside from wheelchair/prosthetic stuff. I want to record what I can of that too, in case anyone ends up in a similar situation ). Goose is doing just fine now, he's made as good of a recovery as he can, I think. There was a hen who was going through molt and had her sisters pulling out her tail feathers, so we brought her inside so she could keep him company and recover. They are stinky but adorable together and her tail is now coming in again nicely.
Here are some pictures of Goose and the leg stump! We are in process of figuring out the best way to make him a wheelchair. He's up and about as much as he can be, though, standing around on his one foot and crowing a lot (presumably to show off to his girlfriend).

Somewhat unrelated, but I kind of wonder if his feather coloring is more a 'lemon' color than a gold. He was a mystery chick in a bin at a hardware store, so who knows what sort he is but he's the sweetest boy and I'm beyond grateful that y'all helped me save him.

 

[alinas2010]

An update, probably the last major one (Aside from wheelchair/prosthetic stuff. I want to record what I can of that too, in case anyone ends up in a similar situation ). Goose is doing just fine now, he's made as good of a recovery as he can, I think. There was a hen who was going through molt and had her sisters pulling out her tail feathers, so we brought her inside so she could keep him company and recover. They are stinky but adorable together and her tail is now coming in again nicely.
Here are some pictures of Goose and the leg stump! We are in process of figuring out the best way to make him a wheelchair. He's up and about as much as he can be, though, standing around on his one foot and crowing a lot (presumably to show off to his girlfriend).
View attachment 4009573View attachment 4009576
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Somewhat unrelated, but I kind of wonder if his feather coloring is more a 'lemon' color than a gold. He was a mystery chick in a bin at a hardware store, so who knows what sort he is but he's the sweetest boy and I'm beyond grateful that y'all helped me save him.

Wow that looks so good! He is such a handsome fellow. Will the goal be to get him back outside eventually?

 

[ChickoryHatchery17]

what i do is separate the bird and then do Epsom salt soaks and make sure they have plenty of food and water and a heat source, so that they can just focus on healing their foot