Who'da Thunk It?

We sort of knew what we'd be getting into when we bought this farm from Neta's family, but there are days where we just look at each other with bewildered looks and realize that "we never saw that one coming".

Sure, we knew that we'd spend lots of time cutting grass, creating gardens (both vegetable and flower), clearing trees and brush, fixing up various structures, building new ones and eventually getting some animals for various purposes, like chickens. What we didn't envision...becoming veterinary surgeons. We did not have doing surgery on chicken feet on our "Farm Chores Bingo Card".

One of our chickens (Annie, as in "Little Orphan" since she's mostly reddish-brown) has been limping around a bit and walking completely flat-footed. A quick check of the internet gave us a list of possible ailments and looking at Annie's feet revealed the most obvious culprit...Bumblefoot.

Hard, swollen pad with a black scab. Drs. Craig & Neta to the OR...STAT! 

Bumblefoot is basically a staph infection usually in the pad of the foot, but can also show up in other parts of the foot. A hard, infection-filled abscess forms in more advanced stages. It can be caused by a variety of things, but it usually starts with a scrape or cut on the chicken's foot. And considering that they scratch around in dirt and their own poop all day, it's an environment ripe for infection.

Neta and I agreed that she would hold Annie, while I did the surgery. Then I would hold Annie while she dressed the wound.

Step one was putting the Annie's feet into a bath of warm water and Epsom salts for 10 minutes. We had an old cooler that worked out well as the recommendation was to keep the chicken is a darkened place to help her stay calm. Don't worry, we kept the lid barely cracked so she wouldn't suffocate.

Just prior to closing the lid for about 10 minutes.

After the bath we dried her feet, put her headfirst and upside down into a cloth bag (again to keep her calm) and moved on to step two: Removing the abscess.

This is where things get interesting, for us anyway. We did not have the benefit of a sanitized operating room (our back porch) or fancy surgical tools (small sharp scissors and tweezers), but we did have the internet to fall back on. We're not doctors, but with the help of several "chicken blogs", I can say with confidence that Neta and I are now certified country doctors (specializing in poultry podiatry) and we're awaiting a call from the Discovery Channel about getting our own show. I won't go into details about the surgery other than to say it was not as bad or as horrific as we anticipated. Even Annie didn't seem to be very distressed throughout the procedure.

We operated on both feet as the other foot was affected, but much less so. You can see our handy work here. It is not gross or bloody, but we decided not to display it for those that don't like pictures of open wounds, no matter how small and clean they may be. The link will open a new window.

Once the "surgery" was out of the way, Neta handed Annie over to me and she proceeded to bandage her up. She packed the wounds with Neosporin, applied a folded piece of gauze for padding and taped it in place. It was like taping the hands of a very small boxer.

Annie did very well. The two doctors also did very well. We did not pass out, vomit or run screaming for the hills. This wasn't as complex as a quintuple bypass, but it wasn't as simple as splinter removal either.

Once the taping/bandaging was complete, it was time to isolate Annie for a few days while her feet healed. We set up a dog crate in the coop with food, water and some soft bedding.

Annie is not happy being stuck in this cage, despite healing feet.

We changed the dressings on her feet a couple of days later and all were healing nicely. Two more days later we only had to dress one foot as one was completely healed. After a week she was free of her bandages and isolation and is back among the other chickens. We found a small scratch on one toe which we taped. So she's still walking flat-footed on one foot as she's trying to figure out what that thing is on her toe. The other foot is slowly going back to normal as she walks around.

In the meantime we've upped our game and purchased some basic surgical tools for future operations.

Is that instrument in the center right from Disney?

We found another chicken with a milder case a few days after operating on Annie. We've also cleaned that foot up, though it was not abscessed, and bandaged it. We didn't isolate her as it was a very mild case.

So here we are. If you'd asked us what we'd be doing later in life, we would not have said we'd own a farm in Georgia. We certainly wouldn't have imagined doing surgery on chicken feet. Now that it has happened it makes us realize that we probably don't want to take on animals that either our vet won't work on or ones that outweigh us/could kill us. We promise we will not be the next Tiger King or Queen.

This blog entry has gone on long enough. I don't want to sound like a heel, but our sole purpose is to toe the line and keep everyone informed and entertained. We hope we nail it from time to time, but we realize we may not always sweep you off your feet. So we'll try to stay instep and keep writing when we have news to share to remain in good standing. We're sure there will be more stories afoot from your new favorite Chicken Podiatrists!