Treating Snowflake's Foot

Our white Leghorn chicken, Snowflake, seems to have a mild case of bumblefoot. I'm trying here to keep track of what I've done. My research and notes are in another blog entry.

Update so far: Snowflake's foot seems to be doing better. I have been soaking it in epsom salts, and massaging it with olive oil. The pad continues to stay soft with no hard core.

Snowflake, chillaxin' in the bucket of Epsom salt soak

We discovered the bumblefoot because Snowflake was just dirty. We'd noticed that everyone else had nice clean fluffy butts, yet hers is just dirty. We also noticed that the fluffs underneath her wings were getting dirty too. So we caught her, and checked her out, and examined her feet, and yikes. There it was, like a cursed pirate... The Spot.

Day One

Found the dreaded black spot
Washed and soaked her foot.
Actually, we washed and soaked the entire chicken. She seemed to really enjoy it. She was one dirty bird.
Removed dot with sterilized exacto knife.
Poked a bit, but did understand how deep to poke, and decided to err on the side of caution
Let her run around outside to dry.
Did research

That evening, re-soaked her foot in epsom salts.
Wrapped with gauze pad, triple anti-biotic ointment, and medical tape
Did research

Day 2

The pad was warm and swollen, and I was worried.

This is Day two, after soaking and rubbing off the medical tape glue-residue

Removed the medical tape. The glue from the tape and dirt made her toes look really black and gross.
Washed her feet in soapy water in a bucket
Soaked her feet in epsom salts in the bucket (she likes this)
I used olive oil to rub the rest of the tape-glue off (didn't have vet-wrap on hand - now I do)
Did more research


It was also recommended that her feathers might like some olive oil rubbed on, to help with the dirty-bird thing she had going on. I also rubbed down her big floppy Foghorn-leghorn comb. She liked that, too.
No wrap.

Day 3

The pad is MUCH less warm, still slightly swollen.

This is Day Three with the reduced swelling

Soaked her feet in soapy water.
Soaked her feet in epsom salts for about 12 minutes.
Massaged her foot with olive oil, rubbed the rest on her comb and on her under-butt-feathers (I'm sure there is a technical term for them).

She really gets relaxed with all this spa-treatment stuff!

To be continued...........