Chicken Foot Update
Well, Peaseblossom's foot looked worse yesterday, so I fretted a lot, bought some chicken shoes online, looked up what to do about bumblefoot, bought the suggested medicine, and then since I couldn't sleep this morning because I was worrying, I got up before the sun came up, woke up Joel (who is awesome for not strangling me), got the chicken out of the coop, and soaked her feet in epsom salt. She seemed to be doing pretty well today, and this evening when I soaked her foot, the big black lump came off. The wound underneath looks pretty healthy (I think). We dried everything off, bandaged it up, and put her to bed on some clean hay. I'll get up before the sun again to soak her feet. I haven't even looked at the black lump on the other foot, since it is smaller and I don't have the energy to try to deal with both her feet at once. We'll get this one fixed and hopefully by then the epsom salt will have mostly done its job on the other foot. Once I get the chicken shoes in the mail, that will help a lot too. Will this be healed up in time for us to both go to the coast for Labor Day weekend? I don't know. Of course, if she needs me, I'll stay home with the chicken. However, I'm hoping that she'll be all healed up by then. We'll see!
I think that maybe the new wire mesh in the coop (or maybe some of the old wire mesh) hurt her feet. I'll put a bunch of grass in there to try to keep this from happening again and to protect the other two. It could also have been from the fight with the nutria, but I'm starting to think that there is another answer.
I think that maybe the new wire mesh in the coop (or maybe some of the old wire mesh) hurt her feet. I'll put a bunch of grass in there to try to keep this from happening again and to protect the other two. It could also have been from the fight with the nutria, but I'm starting to think that there is another answer.