Keep the Tail Wagging is supported by pet parents. I occasionally earn a commission (at no additional cost to you) when you click through an affiliate link to one of my favorite products. Thank you for your support. Read More
I order chicken and duck feet regularly for my dogs. It's the crunch in my dogs' meals. Once, I received an order for duck feet with brown/black markings, and I didn't know if these were callouses or bumblefoot. I've seen this on chicken feet in the past; I was told that this was fine and they were okay to feed to my dogs.
But how do I know? Because I make my dogs' food, I need to know if an ingredient is safe for my dogs, and I want to be able to identify bumblefoot. So, I turned to Google and raw feeding groups and couldn't get a straight answer.
Until now!!!
@nolorlin, an account I follow on Instagram, posted the following information about bumblefoot and callouses, and it cleared things up for me. The owner of the account permitted me to share this information with others. After reading everything, I realized that the duck feet I ordered have callouses, not bumblefoot, and I'm thankful that I can now tell the difference.
The following images are from @nolorlin ‘s Instagram post:
Bumblefoot on Chicken or Duck Feet
Bumblefoot is an inflammatory condition caused by bacteria (like stains of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus & Pseudomonas). Along with swelling, the infected area is often easily identifiable because of a hard, puss-filled abscess usually covered by black or brown scabs.
Bumblefoot is a common infection for most birds held in captivity, and you may have already come across it after purchasing infected poultry feet.
Does this mean if I see brown scabs on chicken feet or duck feet (or any other poultry feet, really) that, it is bumblefoot? No. Just because you see brown or dark-colored scabs on poultry feet, that does not automatically equate to an infection. Your poultry feet could have dark scabs due to calluses.
Calluses on Chicken or Duck Feet
Calluses are thick, hardened layers of skin that develop when the skin tries to protect itself against friction and pressure. I have shared some photos of calluses on chicken and duck feet that I purchased from local grocery stores.
If you are able to remove the layer of skin that has scabbed to reveal healthy tissue underneath, then you are not dealing with bumblefoot. If the poultry foot has an abscess filled with puss—that may or may not be hardened—then you should toss immediately and not feed it to your pet(s).
Head over to @nolorlin for more useful raw feeding tips. This profile posts tips on raw feeding for dogs and pics of NRC balanced meals to give us ideas on what we can feed our dogs.
So, are you as excited as I am to have this FINALLY and CLEARLY explained?
Can Our Dogs Eat Chicken Feet with Bumblefoot?
Better safe than sorry. When I shared this post, I saw a few comments from people who either don't feed chicken or duck feet or don't plan to feed them to their dogs because they don't want to take the risk.
But is it a risk?
It's hard to find information online about the impact of bumblefoot on our dogs. Can our dogs eat duck or chicken feet that have bumblefoot?
So, while bumblefoot isn't contagious (it won't spread to other chickens in the flock), I couldn't find any information on the impact on dogs that eat chicken or duck feet. In my reading, I found a lot of forums with pet parents admitting that they won't feed a bumblefoot infected chicken or duck foot, which is understanding given that this is a bacterial infection. Would you want to eat meat that had been an area of infection on an animal?
But, thanks to one person, we all now have the information that will help us identify bumblefoot and avoid feeding the foot to our dogs if that's our choice.
