# Boil on feathered Leg/Foot



## bozville (Oct 6, 2013)

Hello, I have a white Langshan chicken. It started limping a few weeks ago and I originally thought it may have injured itself when jumping off one of the roosting bars. Upon further inspection however, I discovered it's currently in the process of molting and a large boil has developed near its foot. I suspect this may be due to a blocked feather (similar to an ingrown hair on humans). How should I treat this?


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Could you post a pic? Traditionally, a boil would be lanced, expressed of all the pus and if it has a core, the core removed. Then it would receive antibiotic ointment after being flushed and either wrapped to protect it from contamination of the fresh wound, or left open to air to drain and heal.


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## bozville (Oct 6, 2013)

Not the greatest picture, but hopefully it'll suffice.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

That one should be relatively easy to excise and drain and wouldn't even need to have a wrap to keep out debris being as it's up on the shank a good bit. You could wrap it the first day but after that I'd just apply a good coat of antibiotic ointment and let it get air, particularly if you live where it is humid. 

Check it every couple of days for signs of infection but otherwise, if the bird is healthy and you have healthy coop/run conditions, it should heal nicely.


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## bozville (Oct 6, 2013)

Ok, thanks Bee. I appreciate the quick response! I'll give that a try.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The quality of this photo is really poor. I would like you to keep us updated. Why? Your pic makes it look very much like a cancerous tumor one of my birds had on his leg. I can't see a hot spot in that photo. I see unblemished pink skin.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

I was thinking tumor as well, just by looking at the shape and shine to it, but one never knows until they open it. If no pus, no core, just bloody, meaty tissue, I'd just clip the whole thing off and dress it as per recommended and see if it grows back. If it does, this is a bird I'd cull.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Not quite that simple, Bee. My vet did remove the growth on my boy's leg. He nearly bled out. I had to keep a compression bandage on his leg until the day I had him put down because the bleeding was tremendous.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Yep, that could happen. But not everyone takes a bird to the vet and there is only one way to do things when vetting at home....open it up and see. If it bleeds, it will bleed and compression is a natural reaction. If it won't stop bleeding, the bird is a cull. If it does stop bleeding, that's great. 

I'd never recommend taking a chicken to the vet, so my recommendation stands.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That is for you and your set up. There are those of us that raise birds that have considerable value beyond the eggs or meat they produce. To lose one of them because a vet didn't intervene is costly to the breeder and the breeder program.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

True. But the OP didn't ask should they take it to the vet, they asked what they should do about it if it's a boil. If they had asked, should I take it to the vet, my answer would have been the same...I wouldn't. I can only give advice based on my own set up because that is the limit of my experience. 

You gave advice based on the limits of your experience and that is right and proper. I cannot give advice based on your setup as I do not have experience with your setup. 

Anyone asking advice on a public forum should have reasonable expectations of receiving advice based on the other people's perspective and that must be the desired response or they wouldn't ask for advice on a public forum that is not being run by and peopled by veterinarians. 

You took your chicken to the vet and you still lost the cost of the bird and also the cost of the vet's fee. Not everyone has enough money to invest that much cost into a mere chicken, so it's only natural that the OP get advice from all aspects of chicken care...from a breeder willing to invest a lot of money in a chicken and also from us run of the mill flock owners who are not. Each to his own.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I agree with you on most of what you said. 

I did not lose having spent the money. He came home for another two months and during that time he felt good enough to breed and produced for me more of what I was looking for. The chicks he produced far out paced the price of the vet.

A mere chicken could bring 100$ and up. Just one. A dozen eggs can yield 100$ in a sale. For the kinds of birds many of us raised, mere does not enter in to the equation.

I still have one, she'll be 8 in the Spring. She suffered a head injury which produced another vet visit. That girl produced for me for years and helped me build my breeding program.

And I do get your setup is totally different from what mine was. Mine was not based on meat or egg value but on the individual birds.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

That's a lot of money for a bird. If I had that much invested, I might do a vet visit too. 

I've never had more than $10 invested in a chicken, so it makes no earthly sense to me to drive 20 mi., pay $60-$120 for a visit and treatment and then possibly have to cull the bird anyway. 

Being a nurse, I generally do home vetting when any is needed unless a dog has an injury that needs suturing, pins or plates.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Then you have a gigantic advantage over most that keep animals. I also have a medical background, I've found it to be very useful when assessing different situations with the critters. 

I make pets of whatever happens to live here. I refused to have cattle on our old place because no way could I cook it for dinner. Plus the husband working away from home meant it was on me to take care of them. 

I have no clue how I ended up choosing the path I did with the birds. It was rewarding, tiring, fascinating and in the end too much for me alone. 

Most of what I have now is five years or older and no longer producing. They are the ones I kept when I sold out.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Most of my old flock are aging out as well and I am finally starting to face the facts that they will have to be killed and used for food before they die of age related issues. Just culled my favorite hen of all time last week and another one not so old, but both good birds. 

Slowly but surely, the old ones will have to go to make room for younger birds but I'm keeping numbers low so as to travel light.


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## bozville (Oct 6, 2013)

Ok, so I ended up squeezing out a bunch of thick ricotta cheese looking puss. Boy was it some smelly stuff! There didn't appear to be anything hard in there so I went ahead and wrapped it up with some Neosporin (without caine) and gauze like in the bumble video. We'll see what happens. The chicken did great through it all.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Sounds like a sebaceous cyst...I've helped remove quite a few of those. Ick on the smell...hard to get it out of your nose!  Good job! I'm glad it wasn't a tumor and it should heal up well...let us know how it goes?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Yes, good outcome. Thanks for the update.


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