# One of my ladies has an ouchie foot.



## pblanton

So this morning I noticed that one of my auraucanas was limping a bit and favoring her right foot. I picked her up to examine her, and she has an ugly, bulbous chingadera on her toe. What do you suppose it is? 

There is no broken skin and its not oozing or anything. It's just yucky.


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## Nm156

Looks like an abscess of some sort .Not sure if bumble foot affects the toes or not.
That chicken is an Easter Egger as Araucanas do not have a tail.


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## robin416

Yep, it's bumble. You can see the spot on the bottom of the toes. Time to soak, get that scab off and get as much out as you can. Pack it with antibiotic ointment, wrap with vet wrap and keep her on clean shavings.


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## casportpony

Nm156 said:


> Looks like an abscess of some sort .Not sure if bumble foot affects the toes or not.
> That chicken is an Easter Egger as Araucanas do not have a tail.


I agree, looks like an abcess.


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## casportpony

Read this: http://hari.ca/avian-care/health-monitoring/symptoms-treatment-bumblefoot-parrots/










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## pblanton

Nm156 said:


> Looks like an abscess of some sort .Not sure if bumble foot affects the toes or not.
> That chicken is an Easter Egger as Araucanas do not have a tail.


I thought Auracanas, Amauracanas and Easter Eggers were pretty much all the same thing. Heh.


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## Nm156

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/09/ameraucana-easter-egger-or-araucana.html


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## seminole wind

robin416 said:


> Yep, it's bumble. You can see the spot on the bottom of the toes. Time to soak, get that scab off and get as much out as you can. Pack it with antibiotic ointment, wrap with vet wrap and keep her on clean shavings.


Good idea. Some people soak their feet several days prior to trying to remove it. I find the best thing is to wrap with a rag soaked in Epsom salts , wrap plastic wrap and leave on overnight for a few nights in a row. Then wash hands and foot and wear gloves. You can remove the scab but sometimes it's best to get a sharp blade and cut the scab all around and pull it out like a core. Then squeeze around looking for a "nugget" or puss pocket. Pack with antibiotic and wrap until healed. This is what I do, others may do things differently.


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## pblanton

Nm156 said:


> http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/09/ameraucana-easter-egger-or-araucana.html


Thanks for the clarification. I have bought "Easter Egger" chicks two years in a row from a seller that advertised them as Auraucanas, Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers, so I thought they were the same thing.

I don't know why there was a need to deceive me, since I wanted chickens that laid a rainbow of different colors, and don't really care what they're called. All I can surmise is that the sellers are either unscrupulous, or don't know themselves. I presume they don't know.

Either way, they are beautiful, docile, friendly and curious chickens that lay a nice large egg that comes in an array of interesting colors. I hope we can save her and get her foot healed. I hate losing a chicken. They give me so much joy as they follow me around the place, ever in the hope that cracked corn will suddenly spring forth from my hands, as it is wont to do.


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## robin416

Chances are they didn't know either. The three breeds are so often misidentified that unless they are breeding the breed specifically chances are the birds are EEs.


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## seminole wind

robin416 said:


> Chances are they didn't know either. The three breeds are so often misidentified that unless they are breeding the breed specifically chances are the birds are EEs.


-Which means you are one step smarter than most people now!


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## robin416

seminolewind said:


> -Which means you are one step smarter than most people now!


LOL

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.


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## pblanton

Thanks!

Over the pas few days we have isolated her in the garage in a large water trough and kept her on clean shavings.

Once a day we unwrap her foot, lance it if necessary and apply antibiotic ointment before we wrap it back up.

The first day we got only liquid puss and some clotted blood.

Yesterday we squeezed out a nugget of yellowish puss about the size of a large kernel of corn, and a bunch of dark, clotted blood.

Today the swelling has gone down and she is walking on it a little, but still favoring it quite a bit. We unwrapped and cleaned it, then applied more ointment and clean bandaging. She's doing much better.

In addition to the antibiotic ointment, we are also adding liquid Corid to her water just in case she has an infection that may kill her.

But, I think we've turned the corner.

The first time we treated her foot, I was holding her in my arms on her back and holding her foot up for my wife to treat it. The chicken laid her head back and began breathing heavily. I thought she had fallen asleep, but after about 30 seconds, "poit" an egg dropped into my lap and she turned to look at me as if saying, "I can't believe you made me do that in your lap. How embarrassing."


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## casportpony

pblanton said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Over the pas few days we have isolated her in the garage in a large water trough and kept her on clean shavings.
> 
> Once a day we unwrap her foot, lance it if necessary and apply antibiotic ointment before we wrap it back up.
> 
> The first day we got only liquid puss and some clotted blood.
> 
> Yesterday we squeezed out a nugget of yellowish puss about the size of a large kernel of corn, and a bunch of dark, clotted blood.
> 
> Today the swelling has gone down and she is walking on it a little, but still favoring it quite a bit. We unwrapped and cleaned it, then applied more ointment and clean bandaging. She's doing much better.
> 
> In addition to the antibiotic ointment, we are also adding liquid Corid to her water just in case she has an infection that may kill her.
> 
> But, I think we've turned the corner.
> 
> The first time we treated her foot, I was holding her in my arms on her back and holding her foot up for my wife to treat it. The chicken laid her head back and began breathing heavily. I thought she had fallen asleep, but after about 30 seconds, "poit" an egg dropped into my lap and she turned to look at me as if saying, "I can't believe you made me do that in your lap. How embarrassing."


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Glad you were able to get the pus out, but FYI, Corid is not an antibiotic, so it won't help with infection.

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## seminole wind

CONGRATULATIONS ON finding the kernel!!!!!! So she will most likely be fine and you don't have to give her Corid. It's not going to do anything to anything but cocci. Most times antibiotic ointment and cleaning are enough. 

It's really funny that she laid an egg in your lap. She must really like you!


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## WeeLittleChicken

I can't say how much I love this forum and the people here. We had a really bad infestation of fleas recently that went after our two house bunnies- killed one and I rushed the other to the ER to have Sub Q fluids etc because I just didn't have it on hand (it never used to be prescription only?!) Just a little back story this rabbit is not a nice animal... I had not handled her at all (as she bites like a rabid badger) so of course they found out she had bumbles.... kept her for FOUR DAYS, charged me nearly 3 grand, and then wanted me to go back to change DRY BANDAGES for $167 every three days until she healed!! (She was out of those bandages before we even got her out of the car on the way home...) They told me if her bandages got wet or off to bring her back to the ER immediately. They wanted her feet dry dry dry. Well as soon as I saw those wounds I'm like, "That's NEVER going to heal with dry bandages *expletive*" 

So she's home.... in wet (antibiotic gel and iodine) bandages I change daily, getting an hour warm salt foot soaking a day. I managed to get her to keep her bandages on by making them out of Viva paper towels and electrical tape which is just stretchy enough to be tight without cutting off blood circulation while still being really difficult for her to chew off. Dirt cheap and working better than what was supposed to be the best vets in New England... I am so done with vets. If you have anything that's not a dog, cat, or horse and you have a vet that knows anything about your animal then you are a lucky lucky lucky thing. 

Sorry for taking this off-topic! I am happy you got her bumble sorted. They are nasty things... Here's to a quick recovery!


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## seminole wind

Fleas can be deadly. My dog a few years back got an infestation-she always stayed by my husband. They sucked so much blood out of her I could just push her over. How sad. I found them one day I decided to shave her down Her hair was so thick you could not see skin even if you parted it. We gave her iron supplements for weeks.


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## WeeLittleChicken

Yeah I knew the fleas could be deadly - They were here when we moved in, left by the last owner's dogs. Well we only had two house bunnies so guess what they went for? I had been bathing them daily in dish detergent whenever there'd be a flare up but this last wave wasn't a flare up it was a frickin' monsoon of fleas. Hares are probably one of the most sensitive breeds to everything and topical treatments like Frontline tend to kill rabbits... FINALLY after MONTHS of searching I found someone in Canada to tell me that Advantage was OK but it was too late for our beloved free range bunny Max. I'm still heart broken. I've had rabbits for many years but he was something really special. Now I am left with his intensely grumpy wife who I spent two years trying to find and had shipped here just for him! SIGH. In the meanwhile we ripped up every inch of carpet, put Advantage on the two Angoras (who normally live outside) and let them loose to go gather and kill more and I went berserk spraying every surface I could find with a mix of water, tea tree oil, dish detergent, and Borax.... after about three weeks of this there was a sudden lack of fleas. I am happy to have conquered them but I think it's fair to say I've been a wee bit stressed out lately.


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## pblanton

seminolewind said:


> CONGRATULATIONS ON finding the kernel!!!!!! So she will most likely be fine and you don't have to give her Corid. It's not going to do anything to anything but cocci. Most times antibiotic ointment and cleaning are enough.


Ok... No more Corid. My wife said it is an antibiotic. Now we both know.


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## robin416

Which probably means someone at the feed store told her that. I usually warn people to be careful of what the feed store tells you because too often they have no clue about chickens.


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## pblanton

So... this bumblefoot thing sucks. We have treated and wrapped and treated and wrapped and treated and wrapped and finally her toes are fine, but her ankle has started to show signs of the infection. Another round of lancing, cleaning, irrigating, ointment, wrapping...

Now here she is with what looks like a leg warmer on her ouchie leg. She's a maniac, maniac on the floor; and she hobbles like she's never hobbled before... oh oh oh...

http://www.screencast.com/users/pblanton/folders/Default/media/9dc62b3b-be1f-413d-837a-4ad2cc00d368


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## robin416

I have concerns that the infection has spread. Can you post a few good pics of the leg and what you're seeing?

Is the foot still draining when you open it? Did you get a solid plug out when you initially treated her?


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## pblanton

Thanks!

Yes. We got golden nuggets out twice. They were about the size of a kernel of corn and about the same color.

We treated her leg two days ago and the nugget was close to the surface and small. I'll take some pictures when we remove the bandage tomorrow.


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## robin416

I'm wondering if she should be on an antibiotic that specifically addresses a staph infection. Problem is most of them are injection only that we can get.

Any chance you have a vet that will look at her? It's just so odd that you're finding more in a different location.


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## dawg53

You're going to need the big guns to treat this infection and will need to treat aggressively:
http://www.revivalanimal.com/product/fish-mox?sku=22150-475
http://www.revivalanimal.com/product/bird-biotic?sku=22168-205
If the Amoxicillin & Doxicycline doesnt work, use SMZ-TMP Bird sulfa:
http://www.revivalanimal.com/product/bird-sulfa?sku=22141-698
Staph infections are becoming resistant to antibiotics, MRSA for example. (Consider the infection similar to MRSA.) This is why I provided different treatments to treat it. Good luck.

Personally, if in fact I knew the staph had made it to the leg bone, I would cull the bird.


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## seminole wind

Great list, Dawg.

pblanton, is there any chance that all the doctoring has irritated the area? I would still do antibiotics. But I think I would soak the foot/ankle in very warm Epsom salts once or twice a day and not do anything else in the meantime.


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## pblanton

Update:

Her foot has healed fine and she's a happy, productive member of society again. She still favors it a bit from time to time, but it may just be habit. When she's scratching she uses either foot without any thought.


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## robin416

That's great news, thanks for the update.


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## pblanton

robin416 said:


> That's great news, thanks for the update.


I know. We're happy. We like our chickens and don't want to "cull" them without any direct need to. It has to be a situation where ending the bird's life is more desirable than letting her suffer.

My wife has grand plans about converting them to food once they stop laying, but she is such a softie when it comes to them, that I don't think she can. To me, they are pets that make food... not food themselves, but we'll see. I had no problem graduating our jerk-head rooster to the freezer, but he had attacked me on multiple occasions. Now we have a good tempered roo and I can't imagine converting him to a protein source.


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## robin416

And that's how you end up with birds over ten years old. There's a bunch of us on here that have geriatric girls.

Let her get to know each bird's personality and she'll be finished. Can you imagine putting that girl on the table that always ran up to greet you? Not likely. 

Don't blame you a bit for dispatching that roo. There are enough challenges without having to deal with a roo that doesn't know his boundaries.


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## seminole wind

If you want pets, name them. Especially with meaningful names.


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## kgb6days

I just treated one of my chicks for bumble foot. I got a punch biopsy tool from Amazon and cut out the core, squeezed out the rest of the purulent matter and packed the hole with antibiotic ointment and wrapped with vet wrap. I've changed the dressing daily and it's looking really good right now. Hoping I've solved it completely but I understand that you can struggle with this for months

Kristy


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## seminole wind

I think those punch biopsy tools are a great idea. I did a bumble-ectomy a few months ago and she's grown another.


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## dawg53

kgb6days said:


> I just treated one of my chicks for bumble foot. I got a punch biopsy tool from Amazon and cut out the core, squeezed out the rest of the purulent matter and packed the hole with antibiotic ointment and wrapped with vet wrap. I've changed the dressing daily and it's looking really good right now. Hoping I've solved it completely but I understand that you can struggle with this for months
> 
> Kristy


Not months...it'll be completely healed in about 5 days IF you've completely removed the infection.


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## seminole wind

Dawg, I've had them heal in less than a week. I think this one was leftover carp that wouldn't come out.


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## pblanton

I started the thread and my chicken is healed now. We ended up having to operate on her three times before we finally got it all. She limped around for a couple of weeks, but she's fine now.

For a little while she wouldn't go up with the rest of the chickens at night. She'd come up to the house and wait by the door for us to put her back in her, "private apartment" in the garage. But now, she's just another chicken again.


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## seminole wind

Poor thing, I would have thought she would want to get away from you since surgeries are no fun.


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## pblanton

seminolewind said:


> Poor thing, I would have thought she would want to get away from you since surgeries are no fun.


I think they are worse for me than they were for her. She'd lay back in my arms and I'd hold her owie foot up for my wife, who'd perform the cuttery. She really didn't seem to mind. I think she hated the wrap more than the surgery itself.


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## karl_b

Hi all. New to the forum and a new to chicken keeping! We have 4 young hens that we've had almost 6 months now. The last week we noticed some swelling on one of the girl's feet and on close inspection we think she has bumblefoot. One foot has a hard lump with a black scab and her other foot shows a small wound with some redness and swelling. Having done some reading this afternoon we've brought her in for a foot soak in Epsom salts and then treated both feet with an antibacterial spray before wrapping in gauze and taping. 

I'd be grateful if anyone could offer advice on what we do next? Do we give this a week or two to see if it improves or do we need to remove the scab and kernel? 

We've inspected the rest of the gang and there's no sign of it on the others.

Thanks in anticipation.


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## nannypattyrn

Hey Karl! Welcome! Go back and read the previous entries. If it's bumble foot, it's my understanding that it has to be opened and the infection cleaned out, before it will heal properly. I've never had to deal with it but others here have and can give you more advice.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Chicken Forum mobile app


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## pblanton

As nannypattyrn says, you gotta open up the wound and remove the puss nugget. Then keep it cleaned and bandaged until it heals. Hydrogen peroxide is very helpful in cleaning out the wound.

As a preventative make sure your perches aren't too high, because a cause of bumblefoot is injuring their feet when they jump off of the roost. Reducing the height of the roosts will reduce these injuries.


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## robin416

Reading this topic will be the answer to questions about how to treat bumble. Just the soaking and bandaging is not enough. The unpleasant business of soaking, opening and removing the pus is an absolute necessity to fix the problem.


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## karl_b

robin416 said:


> Reading this topic will be the answer to questions about how to treat bumble. Just the soaking and bandaging is not enough. The unpleasant business of soaking, opening and removing the pus is an absolute necessity to fix the problem.


Thanks guys. Everything I've read here says we need to open it, I had some advice from a friend that it may not come to that.

Where will we get hold of an antibiotic ointment? Do we need to see a vet?


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## nannypattyrn

You can get antibiotic oint at Wal Mart or any pharmacy if you are in the US. If you can't open it or get the infection out then, yes a vet is needed .

Sent from my SM-T580 using Chicken Forum mobile app


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## pblanton

We just used the neosporin knockoff antibiotic ointment from wal-mart. It looks like vaseline in a tube.


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## nannypattyrn

That should be fine, but the wound still needs to be opened or it will not heal. I'm a nurse for what it's worth. I have dealt with many wounds in humans. Same principle, the wound must be open to let the bacteria and infection out and cleaning agent and antibiotic in.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Chicken Forum mobile app


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## robin416

I do have concerns about what the friend suggested. If they don't have a medical background or don't know about staph infections in chickens they could make things much worse.

BTW, karl, do you see a black spot on the bottom of the foot or toes? That is a classic sign of bumble.


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## casportpony

karl_b said:


> Hi all. New to the forum and a new to chicken keeping! We have 4 young hens that we've had almost 6 months now. The last week we noticed some swelling on one of the girl's feet and on close inspection we think she has bumblefoot. One foot has a hard lump with a black scab and her other foot shows a small wound with some redness and swelling. Having done some reading this afternoon we've brought her in for a foot soak in Epsom salts and then treated both feet with an antibacterial spray before wrapping in gauze and taping.
> 
> I'd be grateful if anyone could offer advice on what we do next? Do we give this a week or two to see if it improves or do we need to remove the scab and kernel?
> 
> We've inspected the rest of the gang and there's no sign of it on the others.
> 
> Thanks in anticipation.


Welcom! Can you post some pictures of her foot?


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