A Guide to Recognizing and Treating Chicken Foot Problems
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Two common chicken foot problems and leg ailments are leg mites and bumblefoot, both of which are easy to treat. Less common, but sometimes mistaken for either leg mites or bumblefoot, is a character of arthritis known as gout, which is far easier to prevent than to treat .
Leg Mites
The lepidote leg mite ( Knemidocoptes mutans ) is a pale grey, round, bantam chicken leech, merely about 1/100 inch in diameter. It is more likely to attack older birds, but can besides affect young chickens kept with honest-to-god birds. It burrows under the scales on a chicken ’ sulfur shanks and feet, raising the scales by generating debris that accumulates beneath them. As a result, the shanks thicken and crust over and finally become deform .
Scaly leg mites spread lento by traveling from bird to bird along the roost. This chicken foot problem may be controlled by brushing perches once a month with a mix of one part kerosene to two parts linseed anoint ( not motor oil, please ), or twice a month with an old-time lifelike domestic fowl product called VetRx veterinarian rectify, which has a corn vegetable oil base .
once scaly leg mites settle in, they burrow profoundly under the leg scales and spend their integral lives on the wimp, so you ’ ll have a hard time getting rid of them. Every poultry custodian, it seems, has a front-runner method for these chicken foot problems. One such method acting is to use the drug ivermectin, which is not approved for chickens but is widely used to control both home and external parasites. Chicken keepers who regularly use ivermectin to control leg mites and other external parasites find that internal parasites finally become resistant to it .
other methods involve physically smothering the mites by dipping affect legs in vegetable anoint, linseed petroleum, or VetRx. Repeat the treatment every three days for a mild infection, daily for a severe infestation. Less messy than using drippy anoint is to liberally coat the shanks and feet with petroleum jelly ( Vaseline ), which stays on longer than anoint and therefore needs to be repeated only about once a workweek. Continue treatment until the erstwhile scales pop off and the shanks appear convention, indicating the legs are wholly free of mites, although don ’ metric ton expect hard damaged scales to return to convention .
Bumblefoot
A common bacterial infection, specially among heavy breeds, is an abscess in the foot pad, resulting in lameness. This chicken foot problem is known as bumblefoot, from the old british parole bumble, meaning to walk unsteadily. Today the abscess core is sometimes referred to as a botch .
An abscess may originate from such things as scratching in intemperate or rocky dirty, jumping down from a too-high perch onto packed or splintery bed, or spending excessively much time standing or walking on concrete or hardware fabric. As a result, the animal foot pad develops a bruise or cut, allowing staphylococcus bacteria to enter .
The occasional bumblefoot may be the leave of an accident, much as a person might get a sliver. The frequent appearance of bumblefoot in a flock is a clear signal that management changes are in ordering. normally, the first signboard is that the wimp is reluctant to walk, and limps when it does walk. The chicken ’ randomness foot may look well up and feel hot. At the penetrate of the foot will be a callus-like collocate, which may be either soft ( if the infection is late ) or hard ( if it ’ south been going on for some time ) and covered with a black fink .
If the infection has not progressed far, cleaning the foot, injecting the abscess with a desirable antibiotic, and moving the boo to a fairly environment may be all that ’ mho needed. If the abscess has progressed to the hard, scabby stage, it won ’ metric ton go away unless the congress of racial equality is removed. You may get lucky and find a veterinarian willing to perform this operation, but most likely you ’ ll have to do it yourself .
beginning, soften the abscess by standing the chicken in warm water for about 10 minutes, lightly massaging the foot to rinse off any clinging soil. Epsom salts dissolved in the water will reduce excitement and help sooth the foot. Avoid letting the chicken drink the water, as it will contain bacteria ; besides, if Epsom salts have been added, they are a laxative .
After a effective soak, the dull scab should pull off well, along with some of the abscess ’ mho yellow, bum or impressionable congress of racial equality. Once the fink has been removed, press the clamber out at the sides of the abscess ( don ’ thymine power play ) to encourage more of the core to come out. Use tweezers to pull out american samoa much as you can. If the abscess is large and hard, you may need the aid of a crisp tongue, such as a surgeon ’ sulfur scalpel or an X-Acto knife, to scrape or peel it out. Repeat the soak and effect scrape as needed, working gently and taking your time until the abscess has been thoroughly cleaned .
rinse out the abscess with Betadine, saline solution injure washout, or sodium hypochlorite ( Dakin ’ mho Solution ). After the abscess has been cleaned out, pack it with an antibacterial cream, such as Neosporin. Cover the foot with a gauze pad, secured with first-aid tape or thin strips of vet wrap, taking care not to make the wrap besides rigorous.
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repeat this procedure every two or three days while the abscess heals. interim, house the chicken in a affectionate, condom, uninfected environment with batch of body of water and adequate nutrition .
Could It Be Gout?
Gout is not a specific disease, but rather a signboard of unplayful kidney dysfunction. It is a complex phase of arthritis in which urate crystals accumulate in the joints, causing inflammation in the rhine wine and foot joints. The resulting swell, disfigurement, and sores may be mistaken for early chicken infantry problems such as bumblefoot or a dangerous event of lepidote leg mite .
Bumblefoot differs from gout in occurring as a one huffy at the bed of the infantry ( occasionally with lesser sores under or between toes ) and normally affects only one foot, while gout typically affects both. Scaly peg differs from gout in resulting from deposits under individual scales, quite than around joints under the peel. Unlike both bumblefoot and lepidote leg, gout has no certain bring around. But you can take measures to prevent this wimp metrical foot problem and to make an feign bird more comfortable .
gout in chickens takes one of two forms — articular or intuitive. articular gout may result from a genetic defect that causes the kidneys to function improperly, but may besides be triggered by a diet that is excessively high in protein. It is more common in cocks than in hens, by and large doesn ’ thyroxine appear in birds until they are at least 4 months old, and normally affects individuals preferably than an integral batch .
The usual signal is swell joints of the feet and toes, resulting in lameness and shift of the slant from peg to leg to relieve discomfort. Because of the swell, the boo is ineffective to bend its toes. The feet may redden and blister, and the blisters may develop into sores. Because walk-to is afflictive, the bird may spend a fortune of time sitting in one invest, grooming excessively .
Since articular gout makes walking and perching uncomfortable, installing broad roosts and keeping the boo ’ mho toenails clipped both avail reduce discomfort. A chicken that doesn ’ t want to walk may need to be encouraged to spend prison term outdoors in the sunlight and fresh publicize .
visceral gout is more coarse than articular gout and affects both hens and cocks. It has many causes including water privation ; excess dietary protein ; moldy feed ; high-calcium layer ration fed to growing pullets ; electrolyte excess or insufficiency ; prolonged function of sodium bicarbonate ( baking sodium carbonate in drinking water to relieve heat stress ) ; kidney-affecting diseases, such as infectious bronchitis and intestinal cryptosporidiosis ; exposure to toxic chemicals, including clean products ; overuse of antibiotics, particularly gentamicin and associate aminoglycosides, and sulfa drug drugs. Either tumors or kidney stones can obstruct the ureters, causing urates to accumulate in the kidneys and other organs .
Although visceral gout does not constantly cause swell of the feet and toes, when it does, it can be unmanageable to distinguish from articular gout. however, unlike articular gout, which affects the joints, intuitive gout involves inner organs and gradually progresses into kidney failure and end .
Neither form of gout has a known cure. A veterinarian may recommend a urine acidifier, such as ammonium chloride ( normally used to prevent urinary stones in male goats ) or DL-methionine ( a coarse ingredient in commercially prepared non-organic poultry feeds ). natural sources of the amino acid methionine include fish meal and oilseed meal such as safflower, sesame, or sunflower meal. Adding apple cider vinegar for chickens ‘ toast water is not helpful as an acidifier — because the chicken ’ s natural stomach acidic is much more acidic than vinegar — but it does make the water taste better to chickens and thus encourages drinking .
encourage urine inhalation flushes the bird ’ randomness system with moisture, increasing the amount of urates expelled and reducing the amount retained in the body. To encourage an moved shuttlecock to increase its moisture consumption, change the drink water often, furnish warm body of water in winter and cool water system in summer, and offer moisture-laden fruit and vegetable treats such as bracing sprouts, bits of apple, or slices of watermelon.
Have you dealt with chicken foot problems ? How did you treat them ?
Gail Damerow is the author of The Chicken Health Handbook and several other books on poultry keeping.
primitively published in Backyard Poultry February/March 2015 and regularly vetted for accuracy .
