Chickens are on their feet all day. Even when they roost, perch or relax, they are still on their feet! Consequently, foot and toes injuries can occur no matter how many preventatives you implement. Bumblefoot is one such ailment that is caused when an infection develops in the foot pad and creates an abscess. While not immediately fatal, bumblefoot is extremely uncomfortable (and even painful) for a chicken and can become fatal if the infection enters the bloodstream. Learning how to treat bumblefoot naturally, as well as diagnose and treat bumblefoot, is an essential poultry first aid skill to acquire when caring for your homestead flock!

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What is Bumblefoot?

Bumblefoot is a staph infection of the foot pad on a chicken’s foot. It is caused by the Staphyloccus aureus bacteria, which commonly lives on a chicken’s skin or mucus membranes. When a scrape or wound happens, the staph infection can enter the body and cause an infection. The staph infection thrives in the low-oxygen environment of the wound.

A staph infection can become fatal if it becomes serious enough to enter a chicken’s bloodstream. Once an infection affects the bloodstream, it will cause sudden death. Generally, a staph infection will only become fatal if a chicken’s immune system is already suppressed either by another chronic or viral disease or by stress.

Causes of Bumblefoot:

• splinters from sharp objects like branches, boards, or wood shavings
• heavy birds jumping down from high perches onto a packed or hard surface
• foraging in rocky, rough areas
• living on concrete or wire flooring
• any bruises or cuts on the foot or footpad
• chicks: perching at too young of an age (you can give chicks objects to perch on after they are 4 weeks old)

Occasional cases of bumblefoot in individual birds is often the result of a random injury or accident. If you notice that multiple birds in your flock have bumblefoot or that bumblefoot is a repeated issue in your flock, then you may have to change some management practices.

How to Identify Bumblefoot

Bumblefoot is a pretty easy infection to identify. The sooner you diagnose and identify bumblefoot, the less invasive of a treatment you will have to perform. Staph infections that are just beginning won’t have created a hard core of infection, often called the ‘bumble’ or ‘kernel’. If an infection is allowed to proceed unchecked, then a serious case of bumblefoot will occur in which case surgery will be necessary for treating the bumblefoot.

Signs & Symptoms of Bumblefoot

• limping– often a sign of injury to the foot or the presence of an infection
• reluctant to walk– the hard kernel of an advanced staph infection can make it painful for a chicken to walk
• swollen foot pad– an infected wound will cause swelling and a staph infection will also look swollen and pink or red in color
• hotness– a swollen foot pad that is also hot is a sure sign of infection
• callus and/or black scab– a small light-colored callus is the beginning signs of an infection, a black scab is a sign of a serious infection that has progressed to ‘kernel’ stage
• hard foot pad– often accompanied by a black scab, if the foot pad feels hard then an infection ‘kernel’ is present

Bumblefoot can occur on one foot or both feet at the same time.

One way to catch bumblefoot before it becomes too serious is to do a monthly health check on your homestead flock. A monthly health check will allow you to check for external parasites as well as examine the feet of each bird for injuries or signs of bumblefoot.

How you treat a bumblefoot case will depend on how severe the infection has become. If the infection has been caught soon enough, you can treat it with an antibacterial, antimicrobial solution to kill the infection. However, if the infection has progressed so that a hard lump, or ‘kernel’ has formed, then you will have to perform surgery to remove the abscess.

How to Treat Mild Bumblefoot

Usually if a black scab has not yet formed and the foot pad still feels soft, then the staph infection is still at its beginning stages and can be considered a mild case of bumblefoot. The chicken may still limp, have a swollen foot pad, and there may be a light-colored scab in the case of a mild bumblefoot infection.

1. Soak– First you will want to soak the chicken’s feet in warm water along with some Epsom salts for 10 minutes. Soaking will help soften the skin and soothe the infection.
2. Slice– Next you will want to use a very sharp blade (a surgical scalpel or a sharp x-acto knife may work well) and make a small slice on or near the infection on the chicken’s foot pad. Don’t worry, the chicken will feel a little pain, but it will be no more than if they got a splinter or a cut while free-ranging. Since chickens walk on their feet all day, the skin on their foot pad is very tough and resilient to pain.
3. Spray– Once a small cut has been made, stop any bleeding if necessary. Generally small wounds on the foot pad won’t bleed very much. However, if there is blood, apply pressure with a clean cloth or paper towel until the bleeding stops. Then spray the wound with Vetericyn antimicrobial spray. Give it a thorough spraying since the spray is what will penetrate the wound and kill the infection.
4. Wrap– After the wound has been sprayed, apply Vetericyn to a gauze pad and bandage the gauze pad over the wound using vet wrap.

After Treatment Care:

The chicken can be returned to the flock after treatment as long as the wound is thoroughly covered and securely bandaged. As long as the chicken is walking and behaving normally, it can go back with the rest of the flock. Keep an eye out for any bullying, especially if the other chickens think the bandaged foot is fun to peck at.

If the chicken is being bullied or pecked at, you will want to move it to an infirmary pen until the wound is completely healed and the foot doesn’t need to be bandaged.

You also want to make sure the bandage won’t fall or come unraveled. You don’t want to introduce any new bacteria to the wound which could lead to further infection.

After the initial treatment, you will want to repeat the soaking, spraying, and bandaging process at least once every day until the there is no sign of infection on the foot pad and the wound is completely healed. Continually saturating the skin around the wound with Vetericyn will allow the spray to soak into the skin and help fight the infection.

Use fresh bandaging and gauze every time you soak, spray, and re-bandage the foot. If you feel like the wound is healing nicely, you may not need to soak the chicken’s feet in Epsom salt water every time you re-bandage the foot.

When there is no longer any sign of a scab, swollenness, or pinkness, then the infection has been successfully treated!

How to Treat Severe Bumblefoot

If the staph infection has formed an abscess on a chicken’s foot, then surgery will have to be performed to remove the infection’s ‘kernel’. Severed cases of bumblefoot are often characterized by limping, unwillingness to walk, a black scab on the foot pad, and the foot pad feeling hard to the touch.

Supplies:

• clean infirmary pen
• plenty of clean towels or paper towel
• Epsom salts & warm water
• a sharp blade
• surgical gloves
• tweezers
• Vetericyn
• gauze
• vet wrap

Procedure:

1. Prepare the infirmary pen with food, water, and clean bedding for after surgery. Put on gloves.
2. Soak the chicken’s feet in a warm Epsom salt water solution for at least 10 minutes. The skin on the foot pad should soften and you should be able to peel off the black scab. If the skin is not soft enough, continue soaking the foot until you can get that black scab off.
3. Once the black scab has been peeled off, you will need to gently press and prob the wound to extract some of the yellowish, cheesy, waxy core in the abscess.
4. If there is any blood, use the clean towels or paper towels to gently wipe away the blood so you can see the wound. You can also use the towels to remove any of the puss from the wound.
5. After a majority of the puss has been removed, gently press the skin away from the wound and look for one or several hard, yellowish kernels. Remove as many or as much of the kernel(s) as possible. You can gently prob the kernels out using tweezers or a sharp blade.
6. You want to remove as much of the abscess as possible and especially the hard kernels in order to treat the infection effectively.
7. Clean the wound as best as possible with warm water. Apply the Vetericyn spray in liberal amounts.
8. Cover the wound with a gauze pad and bandage the foot with vet wrap.

After Surgery Care:

After surgery, you will want to keep your patient quarantined in an infirmary pen. This will prevent her from getting bullied by the other flock members and keep her from jumping up and down from roosts while her foot heals. It will also help you keep the wound and surrounding area clean to prevent further infection.

Make sure your patient has fresh water every day along with food and enough space to stretch her legs. The litter in the pen should be thick and soft. Large flake wood shavings make an ideal infirmary pen litter. Don’t provide any roosting poles for your patient while she heals. You will want to clean out any droppings from the litter on a regular basis to keep the pen clean and fresh.

Every day you should unbandage the wound. You can continue to remove any puss or kernels from the wound for the next 2-3 days after the initial surgery. Continue to clean, spray, and re-bandage the wound every day as it heals. After 2-3 days, allow a scab to form over the wound so that it can completely heal.

Spraying the wound with Vetericyn will continue to help kill the infection. Once the wound has completely healed and the foot pad is looking back to normal, you can start re-integrating your patient back in with the rest of the flock!

Notes:

Vetericyn– Vetericyn is an antimicrobial and antibacterial wound spray that helps prevent infection and will encourage wound healing. It can be used as a natural treatment for bumblefoot.

Expiration Date– Vetericyn is one product I always have on hand in my poultry first aid kit! However, when it comes to treating an infection like bumblefoot, I always check the expiration date to ensure the product is fresh and will be at its strongest for killing the infection.

Clean Feet- Before soaking the chicken’s feet in Epsom salt water, rinse the chicken’s feet off with warm water to remove any litter or droppings. The less bacteria you can have floating in the water, the better!

Epsom Salts– Epsom salts help soothe the foot pad and soften the skin around the infection. Don’t let the chicken drink any of the Epsom salt water while its feet are being soaked. The water will contain bacteria from the chicken’s feet and, while Epsom salts are safe for consumption, they act as a laxative.

Prevent Infection– In the case of a surgical treatment, you will want to be very careful about cleanliness. All your tools should be sterilized with rubbing alcohol before and after use. You don’t want to introduce any bacteria into the open wound which could lead to further infection.

How to Bandage:

Bandaging a chicken’s foot can be a little tricky! For most breeds, cut the vet wrap into a 3/4″ wide strip that is about 8-10″ long. Larger breeds will need thicker strips and smaller breeds will need thinner strips. You will then want to start wrapping starting at the foot pad, going in-between each toe, and going at least once around the shank (leg). Make sure the wrap is not too tight so as not to interfere with blood circulation to the foot and toes.

Herbs for Treating Bumblefoot

Herbs can be used to help kill bumblefoot infection and promote healing of any wounds! There are several ways you incorporate herbs into your bumblefoot treatment plan.

Fresh herbs can be chopped and added to the Epsom salt foot soak water. The chopped leaves will release compounds and oils that will be beneficial for fighting the bumblefoot infection.

Small pieces of torn herb leaves can even be bandaged right onto the wound when you wrap the foot pad with gauze and vet wrap! Place the leaves directly on skin and over the wound, then bandage the foot like you would normally do. The oils from the leaves will soak into the skin to fight infection and promote healing.

Lastly, you can offer fresh herbs or herbal tea to your patient as she heals! Herbs can help strengthen the immune system and provide essential vitamins and minerals that can promote a fast recovery.

Herbs for Bumblefoot:

• Bay Leaves– antiseptic, immune booster
• Calendula– anti-inflammatory, helps control bleeding, helps heal wounds, pain reliver
• Oregano– antifungal, natural antibiotic
• Slippery Elm Bark– helps heal wounds
• Thyme– antibiotic, antibacterial
• Yarrow– antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, helps heal wounds, stress reliever

How to Prevent Bumblefoot

Treating bumblefoot is no fun for anyone! While injuries and accidents can happen, there are ways you prevent the chance of bumblefoot becoming a problem in your homestead flock.

You will especially want to put into practice some preventative measures if you have larger birds in your flock. Breeds such as Jersey Giants, Orpingtons, and Cochins can be more prone to bumblefoot because they are heavier breeds. Jumping down from high roosts onto splintery bedding or hard flooring can lead to bumblefoot.

Here are some preventatives you can put into practice:

Management Preventatives

• Proper Roost Height– Have roosts that are no more than 2-3 feet off the ground if you have heavy breeds in your flock. You can also provide higher roosts for lighter breeds who like roosting high. Providing ramps or a ladder system can also aid large breeds.
• Soft Litter– Make sure the litter you are using in the coop is appropriate for your flock! A soft litter that is thick and cushy will help prevent foot injuries and splinters.
• Smooth Roosts– Sanding down roosts and perches will help prevent any wood splinters. Cleaning the perches will also help reduce the amount of bacteria on the roosts too.
• Old Enough to Roost– You can give chicks items to perch and roost on after they are 4 weeks old. This allows their foot pads to build up enough calluses to withstand the pressure of jumping down from roosts.

Strong immune systems can also help prevent or fight staph infections! Keeping your flock’s immune system strong can help ward off all sorts of diseases, including bumblefoot. Here are several ways you can promote a strong immune response in your flock:

Diet Preventatives

• Fermented Feed– fermented feed naturally provides probiotics which help boost the immune system
• Garlic– garlic is my go-to supplement for the homestead flock, learn why in this article: Garlic 101
• Elderberry Syrup– I like to give my flock the rehydrated elderberries leftover from making elderberry syrup along with occasional doses of the syrup itself
• Herbs– check out the list I mentioned earlier for herbs that also help prevent bumblefoot!
• Honey– honey can be a good supplement to give when you know your flock is under some stress or needs an immune boost

Learning how to diagnose, treat, and prevent bumblefoot in the homestead flock is one more important skill that will help you expand your poultry first aid knowledge. Preventing bumblefoot is the best way not to have worry about this poultry ailment, but it’s also good to be prepared for when this sneaky ailment does crop up due to an injury or accidental wound. Doing a monthly health check on your homestead flock can help you catch the beginning signs of bumblefoot before it becomes serious!

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by Alexa