What is Bumblefoot?

[minskey]

Or really what does it look like............

I have a young maran who has been limping on an off for a couple of days. She was quite bad yesterday, standing on one foot. We caught her after dark and took her inside to have a good look. Her foot was swollen around the sole/pad. had a look underneath and noticed what looked like a black hard spec. Soaked the foot and removed the black spec with tweezers. it was actually very hard, like a piece of sharp flint and about 3mm. covered her foot in a well know pink ointment [all I had] & popped her back on her perch. Walking much better today. Noticed an ex bat with a swollen foot tonight [she wasn't limping] investigated and found another hard black spec which we removed from a slightly swollen foot.

what are they, why are they there, is it normal & what do I do?

from a worried chook keeper

[julesapple]

Minskey, don't know what your black spots are - maybe very sharp bits like thorns or shards of flint as you say - but they could cause bumblefoot, anything that makes a wound to let in bacteria, however tiny, can be a cause. Sounds like you did the right thing with the ointment though. Maybe you should investigate the area where your chooks are, see if you can find similar bits on the ground.


Wikipedia says "Bumblefoot is a common infection for domesticated poultry and waterfowl such as chickens and ducks. Due to constant walking on hard, rough, or sharp surfaces birds can develop small wounds on bottom of their feet. These wounds are very susceptible to infection by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria which can cause bumblefoot in poultry and waterfowl. Treatment often requires opening the wound to drain the pus and antibiotic treatment."

Jules

[minskey]

Hi julesapple Nothing actually came out of the wounds on either hens. Little maran is obviosly getting better as she is not limping mch and had the ability to streak accross the paddock to give a maran twice her size a thumping this morning, little horror

[julesapple]

Hi julesapple Nothing actually came out of the wounds on either hens. Little maran is obviosly getting better as she is not limping mch and had the ability to streak accross the paddock to give a maran twice her size a thumping this morning, little horror

Glad she's ok, obviously you did the right thing and it's relieved her foot pain.


I think it would only be bumblefoot once an infection got in and was so bad it disfigured the foot. I do know that if it gets to the bone, then nothing can be done. The DD used to work for a falconer who was a twit and most of his birds had bumblefoot to one degree or another. We had a Snowy owl in our house for a few days R&R after she had surgery on both feet for severe bumblefoot. You can see the blue bandages on her foot, she was watching a movie with my BH in this pic.

[RichmondHens]

What a fab pic Jules! I wasn't aware raptors could get bumblefoot. Just goes to show you can learn something new every day.

[julesapple]

What a fab pic Jules! I wasn't aware raptors could get bumblefoot. Just goes to show you can learn something new every day.

They can, BOPs can get it very quickly and very badly. So if the falconer's a prat, a prize prat at that, then it's rife. This one was reported to the RSPCA and police after my DD and her friend worked there.

Jules