A flock with bumblefoot: Journey back to health

[deacons]

@iwiw60-I'm happy to say the neighbors wood has been chopped and moved, so that's gone now.

On the underbrush, unfortunately there's just no way I can eliminate it as a concern. It's just everywhere, and with 5 acres, there's no way I can fence it all off. So it's really just a reality if my property and them free ranging-right now, I think the benefits of free ranging are worth it. When I'm back on my computer, I'll dig up a picture of one of the big fields they like

I have also instituted Monday night foot checks for everyone-as this group heals up, I will still be keeping an eye. On them for any future issues, and would catch future problems much more quickly.

 

[welasharon]

Are you perhaps pulling it tight? I barely pull it any. I put the gauze just in a square pad in the middle of the foot and then wind through the toes lightly. I don't know...maybe you could try going looser?

 

[Cynthia12]

Are you perhaps pulling it tight? I barely pull it any. I put the gauze just in a square pad in the middle of the foot and then wind through the toes lightly. I don't know...maybe you could try going looser?

This is exactly what I was thinking..a bit too tight?

 

[deacons]

This is exactly what I was thinking..a bit too tight?  

It's certainly possible. I don't think my husband will be home in time to help me tomorrow, but next time he is, maybe he can video what I'm doing. It seems like "loose" wrapping-at least what I think of when I think "loose"-would let a lot of dirt come in through the sides though, and I worry about that.

Also, I bought the liquid bandage stuff at CVS today. However, the instructions say it needs to be applied 1-3 times DAILY, and I'm not sure if I can really swing that. I'll have to continue to think about it. We'll see how things look tomorrow.

 

[welasharon]

Sometimes I do get dirt in mine so maybe that is the difference. Not sure which is worse! lol

 

[deacons]

Sometimes I do get dirt in mine so maybe that is the difference. Not sure which is worse! lol

Yep, it's all a grand experiment! But clearly what I'm doing isn't working, so probably time to try something different. Thanks for sharing your experience too. I hope people will find this thread helpful if they ever have to deal with this issue in the future.

 

[welasharon]

This has been the most beneficial thread ever.

 

[seminolewind]

I agree. Great OP and the first time there were so many bumbles being fixed on one thread and with pictures. I think you really did a good job here! I hate for it to be because you had multiple chickens with them, but it really covered everything.

Sometimes I think a bumble is the way a chicken protects itself from a staph infection-packaging it. Sometimes I don't even think it's an injury. I wonder if probiotics would help in giving them more resistance to it. We usually have bacteria covering us that keep the bad bacteria out. It would be interesting to find ways of pumping up the good bacteria to resist the staph . Just thinking outloud.

 

[deacons]

Day 38 Treatment (Tuesday)

Everyone was squirmy and grumpy tonight- I actually find they are much less cooperative at night right before going to bed. I don't know if it's because they have full crops so the whole flipping-over position is uncomfortable, or if they know they're missing out on evening free-ranging, or what, but I find this whole process much easier first thing in the morning. So, I didn't get very many pictures tonight because I was concentrating on keeping everyone in place!

Running down the list...
-Goldie #1 was looking really good. I probably could have taken her last bandage off, but it's going to be really wet and steady rain over the next couple of days, and I won't have much chance to check feet closely because of work stuff, so I opted for one more bandage. I think next update, she'll be free, completely. Here is the one still-healing foot (excuse the dirt, this was pre-washing):


-Goldie #2 was looking good on her most affected foot, but I am frustrated to update that I actually rebandaged her foot that had been unbandaged for a few days now. There was a little hint of a scab there, and it plucked off easily and cleanly but did leave the tiniest bit of a crater underneath, so I thought better safe than sorry- sprayed with vetericyn and rebandaged.
-Robin was looking about the same on her one bandaged foot. I cleaned it, sprayed with vetericyn, and rebandaged. The unbandged foot still looks fine.
-Pretty Girl was about the same too. Not great healing, but not terrible. She has 3 blisters to contend with as well. I don't know what about her is different, but her feet are ALWAYS the absolute dirtiest. After cleaning the blisters off, they weren't as bad as I initially thought, but there was definitely a lot of dirt in there.
-Ro. Poor little Ro. I am reaching a point where I just don't think she's getting any better. There are 3 bad blisters affecting both feet, and the foot pads aren't in great shape either. Here are a couple of feet pictures.



It's sort of hard to see what's going on here, but this is the other foot. The big dark spot under the shadow at the top of the picture is the worst blister, and the darker spot towards the bottom is the scab on her foot pad:


I decided to go back to the Magnapaste (epsom salt poultice) thinking maybe that would feel soothing on the blisters? I tried wrapping the feet looser, but in less than a minute, she had pulled out one of the pieces of gauze, so that seemed fairly counter-productive. Here is how the feet looked bandaged before I turned her loose with the others:


I am just running through some options for her in my head, but here are a few I can think of:
1. I do have access to an avian vet. I have held off bringing her in, since it seems like at this point what needs to happen is really just the healing process, and I'm not sure what else he could do for me. I suppose he would probably flush the feet out, put something topical on them, bandage, and send me home to do bandage changes. Do you all think he would do anything different? I would bring her in if it seemed like it would be beneficial- but if I'm the problem because of my bandage changing, does this help at all?
2. I could unwrap her feet completely, and make her stay in the "hospital crate" bedded deeply with straw for a few days. Maybe that would allow her to heal up a little bit without irritation from bandages and with minimal dirt getting in (though she could certainly step in poop even in the crate and the straw inevitably has some dust and dirt). I just think this would be really hard on her to be separated and stuck in the cage when she's not really sick. But it could be an option.
3. I can try the liquid bandage stuff, but I don't realistically think I can reapply it multiple times a day. Plus, the foot pads aren't really completely healed yet, and I don't know how to bandage those without the toes involved.
4. I wonder if I bought a long roll of gauze and wrapped the whole foot thickly in that, and then applied just enough vet tape over the top to hold it together? Right now, I just use little non-stick gauze pads folded between the toes, but the wrap job is primarily vet wrap.

Any of those options jump out to people as better than the others?

And on a more upbeat note, here is Pretty Girl earlier today testing out the new nesting boxes my husband made and installed for them yesterday:

 

[welasharon]

I can't think a vet could do any more than you are doing.
I don't like separating them either.
I don't see liquid bandage doing much good here.
I don't see your bandaging looking much different than mine. Is that how you've been doing it? It doesn't look too tight.