My Bumblefoot fix...did I do it right?

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bethanyrae

bethanyrae

Songster
10 Years
Apr 5, 2009
176
1
121
mid-Michigan
I figured out with your help that my hen had a case of bumblefoot. After researching it and giving it a try today, I'm not sure I did enough for it.

I thought I'd be able to get further in to remove more stuff. I was running into living tissue and had to quit just a little ways in after removing the black stuff and carving out some stiff yellow stuff. I never did encounter loose white pus.

Why is the foot pad so swollen? Should those toes be that huge?

She's bandaged back up and walking around.

bumblefoot3350jpg.jpg

This is the black stuff I cut off after soaking it

bumblefoot3359.jpg

This is after cutting away most of the tough yellow.

bumblefoot3362jpg.jpg

This was about as far as I could go without running into living tissue. Any more yellow was all entwined and tiny like for getting at it.

I just treated it and wrapped it up and will check it later. But for what?
Help~~~~
 
It's a good start but you need to dig out all that yellow stuff. There will probably be a big hole when you finish. I find it helpful to soak, for a long time, in very warm salt water. Then you'll need to keep digging into the pad and trying to dig out the gunk. You'll also need to keep mashing and squeezing in an effort to get it all out. It will NOT be liquid. It will be more like cheesy rubber stuff. But it will be white and yellow. You can sort of feel the difference in good healthy tissue and the stuff that can be dug out of the pad. Try using tweezers or sharp manicure scissors. Just keep soaking and digging and soaking and digging (digging a little at a time). It's almost impossible to dig out the good living tissue - it's rather tough and held together and red but the abcessed infection will dig out. You'll also want to get the "plug" out. It's usually very, very deep - almost at the top of the foot but you'll be going in from the bottom. It often looks like a kernel of corn or a large zit center.

After you've dug it all out. Stuff the hole with Neosporin and wrap the foot with thin strips of vet wrap.

Good luck.
 
In other words, I just scratched the surface??

I was using a scalpel, and when I nicked tissue she would bleed (and fuss). What tools would you recommend?

How long would you soak it for?

Is there something other than that liquid purple stuff to stop the bleeding? It stains everything so dark I can't distinguish anything any more.
Thanks,
 
Quote:
I had to do a bumblefoot surgery yesterday and I did take some pics but they're kind of fuzzy. I'll start a thread and fill in all other info but here's a pic:

This is after pulling the plug out:

bumble7.jpg


Then soak some more and squeeze and more gunk squeezes out:

bumble8.jpg


Everything needs to be dug out of the hole.
 
Quote:
Don't worry about the bleeding. If you have a scalpel you can cut into the pad - make an incision across the "hole". It will give you more room to work.

I lay them on their side, covering their head with a towel and I find they don't make a fuss.

bumble3.jpg


I soak for about 5 minutes, all the while mashing the pad. Then I dig for a while - then soak for another few minutes, then dig around. I often spend nearly an hour soaking and poking around till I get the plug out and all the gunk. I use very warm salt water and it helps draw it all out. I also put them at the edge of the sink where I can run the warm water over the foot while I'm working on it. It helps wash the blood, if any, out of the way. Also, the "bad" tissue will turn white when the warm salt water gets on it and the good tissue doesn't.

But, yes, you only removed the scab. The real work is still ahead and must be done as gross as it is.
 
Thanks, Ruth.
You are so courageous! I saw your post on bumblefoot, and on crop surgery, too....amazing and impressive.
This is scaring me a little as I have such a soft, delicate touch when it comes to this sort of thing. Like drawing a sliver out of a little kid or something. ha.
I heard about using this black drawing ointment (Ichthammol) on it to try to bring the infection out without the "digging." I'm going to give that a try first. Will let you know how it works for me.
 
Quote:
Thanks, I'm not really courageous but I'll do whatever it takes to save my chickens. Trust me, I used to get physically ill, nauseous and dizzy, AFTER I finished a bumblefoot surgery or sewed up a ripped hen. It gets easier with each one.

I don't want to sound like a doomsayer but, from the pics, your hen has a large wound full of infection. Chicken/bumblefoot infection is not like a liquid puss that can be "drawn" out. It's more like a rubbery substance or cheese that must be dug out. Bumblefoot is a staph infection and can spread and can kill if it becomes septic. I would advise you to bite the bullet and soak her foot and dig out all that you can. Follow my "how to" thread. You can do it, I know you can. Now that you've opened up the wound you really don't want to leave it like that and lose time.
 
Hi, It's me again.
hmm.png


I tried the drawing salve on it for a few days, and it's not doing anything.

My husband was home today, so we soaked her again and got another scalpel out. We can't get much deeper into that hole than what the pics showed, as we're running into a barrier of living chicken meat.

We can't find anything yellow there anymore, but the pad is still puffy somewhere beneath that living tissue we have across the bottom of "our hole."

To get into the puffy part, we'd have to be carving through flesh that not only bleeds, but that makes her jump when we mess with it.

We can't find a way around it without making an experimental hole in another place on her swollen pad. Like cutting through healthy scaly skin on her foot pad.

This is rather uncomfortable for us at this point. It doesn't seem to be working like it's supposed to!~
sad.png
We wrapped her back up again.

What now?
Thanks,
bethanyrae
 

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