CathyA
4-21-11, 4:47pm
Anyone here with chickens ever get one with bumblefoot? I guess its a staph infection of the foot. Well, I had my first experience with it the other day.
I prepared my bathroom like I was going to do open heart surgery and brought Weenie in (she's an 8 year old buff orp). She had a big scab on the bottom of her foot and a hard knot between her toes. Her ankle was swollen too. She wasn't limping though.
Anyhow....I soaked her foot in epsom salts for about 5 minutes and then wrapped her tightly in a towel and laid her on her side. I pulled on the scab with tweezers and the whole thing came out in one hard black lump. Wow. I thought I'd have to do surgery, but it just popped out so easily. I had heard that sometimes it does come out like this.
And the inside hole where this thing had been looked like normal skin. I'm thinking her body had walled it all off. But it was probably a real pain for her to walk on this hard little rock-like thing all the time.
Just to be safe, I stuffed betadine and sugar into the wound and wrapped it up. (this supposedly works well).
I checked it 2 days later and it looked great, but had some redness, so I wrapped it up again for another 2 days. I took it off today, and it looks great.
I'll put her back with the others in a day or 2. I'll have to watch closely, because anytime they are reintroduced to the flock, they usually get attacked by the others for awhile.
Just thought I'd mention this for those of you who have chickens. It can happen if they cut their foot on something, or if they jump off a high roost onto a hard surface alot.
Some chickens can die from it, if it gets systemic.
Okay.....chicken disease lecture over. cow-hi
I prepared my bathroom like I was going to do open heart surgery and brought Weenie in (she's an 8 year old buff orp). She had a big scab on the bottom of her foot and a hard knot between her toes. Her ankle was swollen too. She wasn't limping though.
Anyhow....I soaked her foot in epsom salts for about 5 minutes and then wrapped her tightly in a towel and laid her on her side. I pulled on the scab with tweezers and the whole thing came out in one hard black lump. Wow. I thought I'd have to do surgery, but it just popped out so easily. I had heard that sometimes it does come out like this.
And the inside hole where this thing had been looked like normal skin. I'm thinking her body had walled it all off. But it was probably a real pain for her to walk on this hard little rock-like thing all the time.
Just to be safe, I stuffed betadine and sugar into the wound and wrapped it up. (this supposedly works well).
I checked it 2 days later and it looked great, but had some redness, so I wrapped it up again for another 2 days. I took it off today, and it looks great.
I'll put her back with the others in a day or 2. I'll have to watch closely, because anytime they are reintroduced to the flock, they usually get attacked by the others for awhile.
Just thought I'd mention this for those of you who have chickens. It can happen if they cut their foot on something, or if they jump off a high roost onto a hard surface alot.
Some chickens can die from it, if it gets systemic.
Okay.....chicken disease lecture over. cow-hi