Swollen leg with blisters

[bone_daddy]

I noticed one of my girls having an issue with one of her legs so I separated her from the others thinking it was a potential sprain. I looked at and felt her entire leg and both didn’t see any wounds and didn’t feel anything broken. She didn’t react at all to me inspecting it. One day into isolating her I gave her a lukewarm epsom salt soak. Later that day I looked at her leg again and it was swollen and her toes no longer moved as much. She has blisters in between her toes and a few at the very top of her leg where her feathers start as well as redness. The pad of her food is bulbous as well but I’m unsure if it’s from the swelling or something like bumblefoot as there is still no wound or scab anywhere. She is about 3 months old. Any advice would be super helpful I’m still unsure what it is or if she could have somehow had a reaction to the epsom salts? The other leg is completely fine.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I noticed one of my girls having an issue with one of her legs so I separated her from the others thinking it was a potential sprain. I looked at and felt her entire leg and both didn’t see any wounds and didn’t feel anything broken. She didn’t react at all to me inspecting it. One day into isolating her I gave her a lukewarm epsom salt soak. Later that day I looked at her leg again and it was swollen and her toes no longer moved as much. She has blisters in between her toes and a few at the very top of her leg where her feathers start as well as redness. The pad of her food is bulbous as well but I’m unsure if it’s from the swelling or something like bumblefoot as there is still no wound or scab anywhere. She is about 3 months old. Any advice would be super helpful I’m still unsure what it is or if she could have somehow had a reaction to the epsom salts? The other leg is completely fine.

Welcome To BYC

Can you please post photos of her, her legs/feet and bottom of the feet too?

What do you feed, including treats?

How is she housed? Photos of your coop/run setup may also be helpful.

 

[bone_daddy]

Welcome To BYC

Can you please post photos of her, her legs/feet and bottom of the feet too?

What do you feed, including treats?

How is she housed? Photos of your coop/run setup may also be helpful.

Hi, I will for sure post pictures of her feet in the morning sorry I didn’t think to take any. I don’t want to wake her up and startle her.

This is what the living situation looks like for both groups of my chickens they are identical set ups. 6 chickens per area as I didn’t want to mix such different breeds that weren’t raised together. If it is important the one with the leg issue is a black austrolorp. The run area is scooped regularly and doesn’t get wet and the inside has pine shavings that are also replaced regularly.

So far her the swelling in her leg as gone down today. She still has a couple blisters on her foot and some at the very top of her leg where her feathers start. Her toes have more mobility though the swelling hasn’t completely gone away. Still no sign of any would that would have caused her leg to have issues though the joint at the top of her leg seems swollen so I’m still wondering if it is a sprain and I just did not bandage it well. I’ve put some neosporin on the blisters that did drain so they don’t get infected and have very loosely covered them.
She still is eating, drinking, and enough spunk to try to take the bandage from me.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you have any fire ants in your run?

 

[bone_daddy]

Do you have any fire ants in your run?

That day I had noticed some ants that I took care of but I could not tell if they were fire ants or not.

 

[Eggcessive]

Those may cause blisters. It would be good to see pictures. Permethrin can treat mist insects inside the coop, but don’t use it if you keep bees. They sell Martins or Gordons Permethrin 10 concentrate that has to be diluted with water 1 tsp to each quart of water in a spray bottle or gallon garden sprayer. It lasts 30 days. A pint diluted with water makes many gallons. Never use it undiluted. Here is where to find it:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/control-solutions-permethrin-10-1-pt

 

[bone_daddy]

That day I had noticed some ants that I took care of but I could not tell if they were fire ants or not.

Those may cause blisters. It would be good to see pictures. Permethrin can treat mist insects inside the coop, but don’t use it if you keep bees. They sell Martins or Gordons Permethrin 10 concentrate that has to be diluted with water 1 tsp to each quart of water in a spray bottle or gallon garden sprayer. It lasts 30 days. A pint diluted with water makes many gallons. Never use it undiluted. Here is where to find it:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/control-solutions-permethrin-10-1-pt

Thank you I don’t think I’d thought of what if she had been bit because I didn’t see any ants on her. That could make sense since all the blisters seem to be in soft tissue areas and not on her scales. Here are some pictures of her leg and foot today after I just took the bandage off her foot. I’ve been trying to make sure nothing gets in any of the popped blisters. Swelling hasn’t completely gone gone down since a couple days ago when it started swelling.

 

[bone_daddy]

Those may cause blisters. It would be good to see pictures. Permethrin can treat mist insects inside the coop, but don’t use it if you keep bees. They sell Martins or Gordons Permethrin 10 concentrate that has to be diluted with water 1 tsp to each quart of water in a spray bottle or gallon garden sprayer. It lasts 30 days. A pint diluted with water makes many gallons. Never use it undiluted. Here is where to find it:
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/control-solutions-permethrin-10-1-pt

As the day as gone on I want to add that the blisters on the bottom of her foot have gone down more and the ones on the top have drained as well. I put her in a separate kennel inside the run as she was starting to get depressed being away from the others and she’s perked up even more and tried to move more although she still cannot put weight on that leg. (This group of chickens is very close with one another) I still think it’s likely it might be sprained and am hoping that is all it is. The group is very active and runs and jumps around pretty excessively.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I noticed one of my girls having an issue with one of her legs so I separated her from the others thinking it was a potential sprain. I looked at and felt her entire leg and both didn’t see any wounds and didn’t feel anything broken. She didn’t react at all to me inspecting it. One day into isolating her I gave her a lukewarm epsom salt soak. Later that day I looked at her leg again and it was swollen and her toes no longer moved as much. She has blisters in between her toes and a few at the very top of her leg where her feathers start as well as redness. The pad of her food is bulbous as well

If it is important the one with the leg issue is a black austrolorp.

So far her the swelling in her leg as gone down today. She still has a couple blisters on her foot and some at the very top of her leg where her feathers start. Her toes have more mobility though the swelling hasn’t completely gone away. Still no sign of any would that would have caused her leg to have issues though the joint at the top of her leg seems swollen

I’ve put some neosporin on the blisters that did drain

Here are some pictures of her leg and foot today after I just took the bandage off her foot. I’ve been trying to make sure nothing gets in any of the popped blisters. Swelling hasn’t completely gone gone down since a couple days ago when it started swelling.

Did the blisters appear after wrapping the foot, was the foot wrapped?

Was it plain (unscented epsom salts) or do they have essential oils?
How much salts to water?

What's your temperatures been like within the last month?

The blisters are interesting. Let them go down on their own like you have been doing.
Her being near the others is a good idea.

 

[bone_daddy]

Did the blisters appear after wrapping the foot, was the foot wrapped?

Was it plain (unscented epsom salts) or do they have essential oils?
How much salts to water?

What's your temperatures been like within the last month?

The blisters are interesting. Let them go down on their own like you have been doing.
Her being near the others is a good idea.

The blisters seemed to appear after the leg was wrapped. Originally I wrapped it to try to add stability and then decided to bring her in for the night as the others were accidentally walking on her. However I unwrapped it right before the bath, which was the next morning, so I’m unsure if it was due to the bandages, the epsom salts, or potential ant bites that just did not blister right away. I used a couple tablespoons of epsom salts for the tub of water. To be honest I can’t say how much water I used because I had been freaking out so much the whole time. That being said I could have also grabbed the jar of scented salts on accident as well. If that were the case then it would have been lavender as I have two identical jars one scented and one not. Once I realized I could have made a mistake I started using very diluted iodine and neosporin without pain relief.

As for the temperatures it is starting to warm up and has been getting to around 90 at the highest so far.