A flock with bumblefoot: Journey back to health

[rnchick74]

RN, thanks for the advice on Ro, I will see what I can do about giving her an epsom salt soak next time around. And I agree on the 3 day bandage change schedule- we will definitely be going back to that.

IW- I think the cause was most likely a too-high roosting bar, at least initially. That has been addressed. Another contributing issue is probably the area that they free range (somewhat rocky ground, meadows + forest edges that have raspberry brambles and other assorted prickery growths), but I don't see any way for me to control that absent not free ranging them at all. Right now, I'm not willing to never let them out. I will continue to monitor their feet after this incident is resolved, and if I end up back in this position, obviously I may need to reconsider. I'm hoping it won't come to that.

I look forward to your next update & pics! Hopefully Ro will start healing well...maybe a plug will come up & your can get that out of there!

It does sound like the free ranging & terrain might contribute to the bumblefoot...but this is one of those situations that you have to really look at the pros/cons of free ranging vs risk of injury. It sounds like you have done that & are willing to take the risk & let them out. There are no right or wrong answers here, only how you respond to the risks. Going forward I feel sure that you will take foot checks very seriously and be very aggressive in treating bumblefoot, as you have this time!

You have done a great job!!!

 

[iwiw60]

Aaah, yes...I remember about the brambles and such now (brain matter disintegrating as we speak..aack!).Without pictures of your grounds it's hard to made a suggestion, but have you considered using some of that green/plastic chicken wire stuff to cordone off the areas that are problematic?


It's really inexpensive and if you use cheap garden stakes you could put up temporary barriers for those areas they should stay out of. It's surprising how readily your girls will not venture further with the use of that stuff. Just an idea!

 

[deacons]

We had quite a scare last night. We were all outside around 6pm, girls were just doing their normal thing and I was standing about 10 feet from them in the driveway taking pictures of the foliage and sunset while my husband was around back at the grill. All of a sudden, I heard a huge commotion, flapping and squawking. Out of the corner of my eye I saw three of the GLWs dive under a lilac bush. Then it was completely silent. My husband yelled out to me from the back deck that he just saw a huge hawk fly really low across the front yard and land across the street in the neighbor's field. My heart started pounding. The three girls closest to me were calling out, terrified, but I couldn't find the other 5. It was like one of those old war movies, where after an attack, the dust settles, and slowly people start calling to each other from their hiding places. I soon found the two Goldies huddled under another lilac across the yard, and the 4th GLW started talking from under a bush next to the wood pile. But my two oldest girls (who survived a hawk attack that killed one of their sisters about 3 years ago) were nowhere to be found. The girls were all completely freaked out- not even shaking the scratch cup would get them to move from under their bushes. About 5 excruciating minutes passed, when I heard a faint sound from deep in the brambles just up the hill from where the GLWs were hiding out. Sure enough, the two older girls were actually stuck in the underbrush. The Barred Rock was trying to fight her way out, but my favorite hen, Red, didn't seem to be moving. Turns out she was just actually trapped in some raspberry brambles and my husband and I had to bushwhack her out. I have no idea how they got that deep into the brush that quickly.

About 15 minutes after this all started, everyone was present and accounted for, and checked out fine. No one even had feathers missing, but that hawk must have buzzed them pretty close as the only other time I've ever seen a flock this spooked is when a hawk actually succeeded in getting one. This morning they were still pretty freaked out. I let them out to free range and they stuck close to the run. After just a couple of minutes they were in such a tizzy from the blue jays flying around that they all went back in the coop and stayed in there. They never spend any time in the coop during the day unless they are in and out to lay, so this has really affected them. I just thank all the guardian chickens in the sky who were watching over my girls last night. I would have been inconsolable if something had gotten them while I was standing right there!!

Day 23 Treatment (Tuesday)
So after all that excitement, this morning was a bandage change day (at least they were all easy to catch since they were all huddled in the corner in the coop

)

I am SO pleased with how everyone looked today. I don't think I mentioned it last time, but for the most part, I just sprayed the vetericyn onto the scabs directly and put neosporin on the gauze, vs. the other way around. It might be a coincidence, but I think the healing between the last change and this one has been remarkable- much faster than in between any other changes. Most of them had dried out scabs that just flaked off with a scrape of my fingernail, leaving barely a little divot underneath- definitely not a large, open hole on any of them!

Pretty Girl is the first one to officially have a bandage come off for good. I did keep one of the feet bandaged though, as the scab was a little stubborn and didn't want to come off completely, but had a turned up edge. I figured if there was no bandage, dirt and other stuff could probably work its way under there so better safe than sorry:

Ro's blisters are still looking sore. I didn't have time to do the epsom salt soak because things were just too busy before work, but I can fit it in this weekend. Here's one of the feet with blisters, but there are actually three blisters total:
(This just looks a little shiny because I had just sprayed with betadine- it's not puss or anything like that)

I rebandaged with even more gauze in between the toes.

Here is Ro's other foot though, the main infection in the foot pad is looking good (you can sort of see the redness between the toes, those blisters are much smaller and not open like the one above):


Actually, three of the girls had small blisters, so I bandaged everyone up with the gauze between toes. I think this is probably a lesson for anyone else going through this- if you have to have bandages on this long, look out for that sensitive space between the toes. I thought I was being super careful with making sure the bandage was laying flat and not bunching when wrapping, but I guess it's just hard to avoid the irritation.

My pictures of Goldie #2 aren't worth posting, but you'll remember that on Saturday I got the giant plug out of her foot. On that foot today, the hole is filled in already! Goldie #1 was sitting on the nest while I was doing all of this, and I didn't want to pull her off, so I'll catch her right before bed tonight. I expect she'll be looking good though, she was almost ready to have bandages off last time.

And Robin just makes me so happy. She was the "canary in the coal mine" who was so bad at the beginning of this she wouldn't walk. And now her sores are almost completely healed up and all that awful swelling of the footpad has gone down. Just one little scab left on one foot, and really nothing at all on the other- I think she'll be bandage free by the end of the week!


I'm feeling so lucky to have all 8 of my girls still with me after last night, doing all this work on their feet is a small price to pay for having them around. Here are a couple of non-bumblefoot pictures.

Little Red, my favorite hen and head of the flock (Goldie 1 and 2 in the background):


Busy girls:

 

[iwiw60]

First off....holy CRUD!! That must have been an awful scare for sure...yikes!!

So glad it all turned out okay.

Second...you said, in part:
Quote: YAY!! I remember posting several days ago how it struck me odd that you were using the neosporin directly on the foot and the Vetericyn on the gauze and that I felt that if you reversed the order you might see better results.....WOOT!!!!

So SO happy to hear that!!

Keep us posted with updates...I always look forward to them!

 

[deacons]

First off....holy CRUD!! That must have been an awful scare for sure...yikes!!

So glad it all turned out okay.

Second...you said, in part:
YAY!! I remember posting several days ago how it struck me odd that you were using the neosporin directly on the foot and the Vetericyn on the gauze and that I felt that if you reversed the order you might see better results.....WOOT!!!!

So SO happy to hear that!!

Keep us posted with updates...I always look forward to them!

Yes, thank you for the suggestion- I think it was a good move!

 

[rnchick74]

AWESOME JOB!!! Everyone looks great!!

 

[deacons]

Day 25 Treatment (Thursday)
So I did an impromptu 2-day bandage change today. It was a soggy wet mess here yesterday and I can't stand the thought of feet in wet bandages. You'd think I would have learned by now though, the vet wrap is much tougher than it appears and really below the outer layer was just fine. But anyway, change complete.

Sort of a discouraging change today I think.

Started with Goldie #1, she now has one foot bandaged and one free. Everything with her was looking fine, unbandaged foot good, bandaged foot continuing to heal:


Did Ro next. She was not really improving. One foot that looked like it was fairly healed up last time actually had reverted back to a hard black scab:


Peeled it off and still a pretty gaping hole underneath (filled with vetericyn, topped with neosporin-gauze):


It's getting to the point that the toe blisters are becoming more concerning than the foot pad. Unfortunately not great lighting here but was trying to show the head-on of the blister (all the way to the left)- it's very hard and scabby, but as soon as you disturb the scab it bleeds a ton. And on the far right, you can see there is still a scab on the bottom of this foot too:

I sprayed with vetericyn, and rebandaged with very liberal gauze under there. I really think getting these bandages off will be the best thing for her.

Goldie #2 was next, seems to be generally continuing to heal.

Reopened the scab from the big plug again, cleaned it out, applied vetericyn, rebandaged.

Robin was next, she was NOT in the mood for this tonight and squirmed and fought the whole time. Couldn't take a hand off of her to snap a picture. Her footpads are fine, still healing up, but she is also having some toe blister problems. I'm guessing it's probably not a coincidence that she and Ro are the heaviest birds, I guess their feet probably work harder than anyone else's.

Pretty Girl was last, she was also really uncooperative. Unfortunately there was a setback with her too. Last time, I left one foot unbandaged because I thought it had healed enough, but tonight a scab was back on that one. It popped off easily enough, but I went back to bandaging again. So now she's back to two feet bandaged. Sigh. I actually thought she might be bandage free tonight. Oh well, we'll keep going as long as we have to. I couldn't get a picture of her feet because she was fighting me too hard, but here we are having a moment after the fact:

 

[deacons]

Day 28 Treatment (Sunday)
Short update today, as it was a pretty routine bandage change. Generally nothing looked particularly different- not better, not worse. I didn't have to remove any scabs or anything- this was primarily giving everyone a good scrub to clean out the dirt and then reapplying vetericyn and clean bandages.

The only notable change was that I was able to take a bandage off Goldie #2, as one foot was looking pretty well healed. So now both Goldies have 1 foot bandaged, 1 foot not. The only picture I took showing notable progress was Goldie #2's foot that had the big plug removed a couple of weeks ago- nice healing on that one:


I was able to soak Ro in a warm epsom salt foot bath for about 15 minutes, so we'll see if that helps soothe her blisters at all. They did seem to look a bit better after being wrapped with so much gauze last time- but they are still there.

Generally speaking, I'm feeling a little discouraged today. I am wondering how much longer to expect the healing to take. Several of the girls are getting harder and harder to catch, and are really fighting through the bandage changes. Temps are starting to dip down into the low 40*F-high 30*F at night, and I'm getting worried about having damp bandages on feet overnight and ending up with frostbite problems. We're not in the danger zone yet, but in a couple of weeks, that could be a concern. I can't really think of anything I could be doing differently to encourage faster healing, but I'm open to suggestions!

 

[deacons]

Day 32 Treatment (Wednesday)

So we've been at this for over a month now. Feels like it's been much longer than that! But, I was a little more upbeat after the bandage changes last night. Almost all of them looked to be in pretty good shape.

The Golides are looking good. Both of their unbandaged feet continue to look good, no relapses. Goldie #2 (the one who came to the party a little later than the others) is still showing good healing on the foot that had the big plug:


Robin was looking GREAT. Just barely a little scab on the footpad of one foot:


And the other foot was basically clear. So that bandage came off completely, she joins the "bandage on one foot only" club. And really, the only reason I left the bandage on the other foot is not because of the bottom of her foot, but because she has a scab between her toes that came off and left an open sore. So trying to keep that clean.

Pretty Girl was also looking fine. Kept bandages on her to let the bottoms of her feet continue to heal up. Here's the worse foot (though I actually think it looks worse in the picture than it did in person):



Ro is still the one not doing great. I will say, I think the epsom salt foot bath was good for her, and I will try to do that again this weekend. The footpads were not clear, but looked better:


The blisters between the toes are still the biggest worry though. The picture doesn't do this one justice, but it was a really big scab- when I disturbed it, it bled A LOT. I kept flushing it out and then sprayed it with a ton of vetericyn and a bit of neosporin on the gauze between her toes.


I'm not sure the best strategy for what to do about the blisters and continued bandaging, and would love opinions. In the next few days, I think both Pretty Girl and Robin will be healed enough on the bottoms of their feet that I would take the bandages off completely. However, both do have the blisters between their toes, and those scabs seem to come off pretty easily. If the scabs came off while the feet were unwrapped, am I asking for more infection to set in? Or do you think without the constant rubbing of the bandages, they would just resolve themselves more quickly? I'm really torn on the best thing to do. I would love to hear opinions!

 

[sunflour]

Just found your thread…what a nightmare to have bumble foot in so many. Read most, tho not all of extensive posts, so I do apologize if this has already been addressed.

Most cases are Staph infections and can spread by the bacteria. In humans it can cause infection even without a break in the skin. Make sure all hard surfaces where they roost, congregate have been sterilized to avoid lingering potential sources of the infection ---vinegar or alcohol scrubbing.

Looks like you are ready to publish a how to treat article.