Blisters on foot

I have had good luck using L.A. 200 which is a broad spectrum antibiotic...
I would use either of what you have cause the important thing is to get the medicine in them!
I give shots just under the skin along the breast bone. Just lay them on their side and pull feathers back... Usually they will hold still but I hold their feet and tuck them under arm while giving it...
I used to ask my hubby but he wasn't always around so I do it myself now with no problem..
Just don't hit a blood vessel and inject cause it can kill them! that is why under the skin is good....

I cant help on the meds myself. I've quit for the most part even trying antibiotics. My poor Violet kept bumblefoot for over a year, in spite of antibiotic after antibiotic, including Lincomycin and Doxyclcine, and surgery after surgery, wet to dry dressings to debride the wound, etc. She rarely gets it now-heck, that girl ought to glow in the dark from all the meds, LOL. It can be one persistent infection!

I want to thank everyone for their input. Here's what I did...

We started it yesterday. All that happened was I got the upper scab off. Then Dh had to go to work.

After thinking it over for a day, I decided that we've avoided the use of antibiotics for ourselves and the children - why treat the chickens any different. That doesn't mean that we don't use them at all, just consider them "The big Guns."

Today we put a clean sheet on the old picnic table (we don't eat at it - just for holding up plants, etc.), gathered up everything I intended to use to clean her feet, put on a pair of gloves (Dh is an old EMT - know about that part already - but others might not so that was a good piece of advice).

Dh rigged a soft strap 'holder' so if she got away from me, she couldn't go far. I wrapped it around the table, securing her a bit and started to calm her down.

I grabbed a bottle of Rescue Remedy spray (not drops - spray), sprayed my fingers and started massaging it on her comb, waddles and nose. Sprayed a bit around her mouth. Talked to her while I stroked down her beak and she calmly laid there while I gloved up and started washing her feet - first with a solution of water and Grapefruit Seed Extract and then with a betadine swab and back to GSE.

For the most part she was pretty quiet as I poked, prodded and pulled. Eventually, Dh decided to come sit and help keep her calm so she wouldn't hurt herself. He asked "What did you do to this chicken!" I looked up - she was asleep. "I think she's drunk!"

For those of you who are worried - she wasn't drunk. RR does have brandy in it but the spray bottle only puts out a mist. However, I do believe that RR did work its magic and calmed her down alot!

I'm concerned that the bumblefoot was deeper but I got to the point that it seems like there was all plain skin. No blood, no 'cheese' - just healthy looking skin. I scrubbed it good once more with GSE, packed it with neosporin, and wrapped her up.

I'll check in with you again in a couple of days to let you know how it looks.

I did find another spot on her other foot afterall - small and hidden under some smutz. I cleaned it out and did the same as with the first foot. However - how do you get all the cheeze out of a small hole? I had a hard time getting the tweezers to grasp it - next time (which I hope won't come)I'm going to use forceps.

I'm hoping that the GSE works the same with the chickens as it does the cats. In the past, we've cleaned cat abscesses out with hydrogen peroxide but they take forever to clear up. Since we started cleaning them out with GSE it only takes one cleaning and it is gone the next day! I realize that chickens won't lick themselves like the cats and ingest it. Dh suggested that I put some in her water but for today since it is hot, I want to make sure she drinks her water. I'll slowly start treating it this evening.

Once again, Thanks to all!

Speckledhen, Do you think your violet just built up an immunity against it or did you find something that works?

You know I really dont know what broke the cycle for Violet. I did treat her recently for bumblefoot, but she hadn't had it in months before that. After the Doxycycline (second round of it), she seemed to heal up finally. I have no idea why hers was so tough to deal with. My very heavy RIR/BuffOrp hen, Meg, has terrible bumblefoot. Her feet are oddly shaped and I believe that makes her weight come down hard on them at a weird place. Anyway, she usually has a bad plug in both feet, but she's hard to operate on-her feet bleed really badly, even without cutting deep. I have so many that get it and it isn't anything in the pens or coops. It's whatever they get into on range, old glass perking to the top of the soil from old burn piles, splinters in the woodpile, etc. Who knows? I hate this thing, but we have to deal with it all the time here. Must be lots of staff in my soil.

I wouldn't use peroxide on wounds. It drys them up too much. Saline (IMO) is better suited for washing out wounds.

I few years ago I developed a horrible staph infection in my neck. I ended up in the hospital for a week with IV antibiotics. The doctor said that he'd never seen anything like it - it tested out to be a staph infection that mostly shows up in sheep. We don't have any but I had been carding some wool previously.

They had to cut into my neck. He assumed it was near the surface but was wrong. He said that if he had known he was going to have to dig so deep he would have put me in the hospital and do surgery on it. As it was, it was done sitting in a chair in his office with my husband holding me down. I can't remember if he used a local - if so, it sure hurt!

Every day for two or three weeks, the wound had to be swabbed out with swabs of peroxide so it could heal from the inside out. You would have thought it would hurt but it didn't. Just felt strange going in.

I had read that abscesses kill the skin and nerve endings so they aren't as painful as they look to treat. It helps me to know how it felt for me when I'm treating a pet. That if I must move slowly and try to keep them calm, there will be as little pain as possible.

It took almost 4 months but we finally removed the bandage from her foot and there is no sign that she ever had anything wrong with her.

It was almost like we had to let the infection run its course. The foot got worse before it got better. At one time the leg was starting to swell and I considered putting her down if the infection spread more.

Cleaning out the core on the bottom of the foot did nothing to remove the swelling/blister on top. I finally had to cut it and found more 'cheese' hiding. Everyweek, we'd remove the bandages, pull out more 'cheese', pack it with neosporin and wrap it back up. I thought it was never going to improve but it finally turned the corner after I had her stand in a pan of warm water with GSE.

After that night, we would just change the bandages and watch the wound push the 'cheese' out on its own. It's amazing how such a large gap can close.

I'll let you know if it comes back.

http://www.avianmedicine.net/ampa/16.pdf
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Could this happen to chicks also
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