Bumblefoot Cure

[Clucktown]

I wanted to share a treatment that FINALLY cured my bantam sebright hen of a chronic case of bumblefoot. After 4 bumblefoot surgeries and a month of Baytril, I decided to take Grace to the vet. He instructed me to stop cutting into her and to bandage her with a donut-like splint on the bottom of her foot. I used pipe insulator my husband had and used his drill press with a half inch bit to cut holes in the insulator material. I then used vet wrap to fasten it to the bottom of her foot, with the hole over the infected area. The idea was to relieve the pressure on the infected area. I changed it every 2 to 3 days, as the pipe insulator would become compressed and needed to be replaced. After 6 weeks, the hard mass came to the surface of the foot and could easily be pryed out with no bleeding. I then wrapped for an additional week to be sure all was healed. Thankfully, after 7 long months, Grace is finally healed. Despite my constant web searching, I never found this treatment, which finally cured her. I hope someone finds this treatment helpful, and I
would be happy to provide any pics.

 

[Clucktown]

I am attaching a picture of both the template the vet made out of vet wrap (left) and my modified version with pipe insulator, which is lighter and more conforming (right). When I was cutting a new splint every other day, I would trim it to be certain the fit was good and would cut a little section out for that back toe so it wasn't being pushed up at an unnatural angle. The swelling between both toes showed huge improvements within the first week. A rock hard center then began to form where the hole in the splint was and continued to push its way out over the next 5 weeks. She could not put her foot down to walk without the splint because of the size and hardness of the infection as it was making its way out. However, with the splint she was fast as ever and could roost and scratch as well as the others. I never isolated her and neither she or the other chickens picked at her bandage. Initially, they all gathered around to get a look at it, and then it was forgotten. Grace was such a good patient that she would lie on my lap while on her back and allow me to change her bandage every other day - I can only imagine what she thought about the whole ordeal. I checked her foot yesterday and the skin is super soft with no scarring or swelling. The other thing that the vet recommended is that I cover all the roosts and perches with some sort of fake grass material, but I used outdoor carpeting. Lowes has cheap outdoor carpeting by the foot which can be hosed off. Apparently, they do that for the raptors at the Birds of Prey center where he volunteers. Again, I hope this helps someone whose chicken is struggling with bumblefoot. Despite repeated surgeries of removing the "bumble", I could never get a total cure - just slight improvement that would worsen again over the next month. Relieving the pressure allowed the infection to push its way out without surgery; however, it did take a considerable amount of time. By the way - Amazon has some great 1-inch generic vet wrap that is totally cheap. Link is below...........

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NHB4BY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Leahs Mom]

I saw your post because @lalaland gave us a link on the Natural Chicken Keeping Thread.

Good post. I, also, have quit cutting unless I see an obvious infection. I don't do anything if there is just a black spot only. I think that we were all taught to over-react when seeing a spot and often times caused more damage doing surgeries that were unnecessary. If I see the spot I observe the bird over time to see if any active infection shows before doing anything and, like lalaland, I haven't had to treat anything for a long time.

I am definitely going to remember this if I ever need to treat again in the future. Thank you for posting!

 

[cindyklr]

I wanted to share a treatment that FINALLY cured my bantam sebright hen of a chronic case of bumblefoot. After 4 bumblefoot surgeries and a month of Baytril, I decided to take Grace to the vet. He instructed me to stop cutting into her and to bandage her with a donut-like splint on the bottom of her foot. I used pipe insulator my husband had and used his drill press with a half inch bit to cut holes in the insulator material. I then used vet wrap to fasten it to the bottom of her foot, with the hole over the infected area. The idea was to relieve the pressure on the infected area. I changed it every 2 to 3 days, as the pipe insulator would become compressed and needed to be replaced. After 6 weeks, the hard mass came to the surface of the foot and could easily be pryed out with no bleeding. I then wrapped for an additional week to be sure all was healed. Thankfully, after 7 long months, Grace is finally healed. Despite my constant web searching, I never found this treatment, which finally cured her. I hope someone finds this treatment helpful, and I
would be happy to provide any pics.

This us hoW my vet treated my hen with bumblefoot. However, for the donut-shaped cushion, she used a fun noodle. You know, the foam noodles used when swimming. She said she learned that trick on vet school. She cut off about 1 inch thick sections and sandwiched between two nonstick gauze pads, then secured with vet wrap. No cutting, no antibiotics. So glad we didn't have to deal with cutting.

 

[JanetMarie]

It took two weeks to get this out. I used the drawing salve, then changed to Neosporin, because the drawing salve was smelly. I changed the bandage every few days. Yesterday when changing the bandage, the scab was loose enough that it didn't take much to pull it all out!

I put Neosporin on/in the hole and wrapped up. Will change bandage every day until healed. Now will work on the other foot, which has a scab but not swollen.

 

[lazy gardener]

I had one girl that was a bit gimpy, and had a couple of very dark scales on the bottom of one foot. This came on after I forcefully pulled her out of the raspberry patch, and I'm certain that in her haste to get away, she got a thorn, though I never saw it. She stayed a big gimpy last summer, I wrapped it once or twice, didn't see any benefit to that, so let nature take it's course. She's fine, no further development. All appears to be well with her. I agree, we tend to micromanage every little detail of our flocks, sometimes to their detriment. But, aren't chickens just plain FUN!!!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have never had a problem with roosts causing bumblefoot. BUT...I have had a problem with those ramps that have the cross pieces of wood to walk in and out of the chicken house.

When I first got chickens I had one of those ramps. It seems that they were always sliding on them going down. I finally figured out that the RAMP was what was causing foot injury.

So...more than 2 years ago I replaced those ramps. We had some old logs that needed to be burned (not good anymore for a heating fire) and they were various sizes. I set up the logs as steps the the birds just stride right up and down like a stairway. Even the little ones hop easily from step to step.

NO MORE BUMBLEFOOT HERE .












I also use them inside (and outdoors too) for interest/varying heights for places for them to hang out...and a place I can sit too

 

[goslingluv]

I pulled a tiny thorn needle out a couple hours ago. Im sure it is the cause. Im hoping this will suside with epsom soaks and antibiotic cream

 

[Sylvester017]

Followup on my Dominique "Dana" who had Bumblefoot (both foot pads):

If you read my earlier posts I used Triple Antibiotic Ointment covered with a round cotton makeup pad and paper-taped the pad to the bottoms of both her feet. It's been 5 weeks of doing this everyday and the one Bumblefoot crust came off after a short few days but the other crust on the other foot was stubborn. I took her to the vet who told me to continue the same treatment and did not prescribe antibiotic at the first visit. 5 weeks later Dana's last crust would not come off and I rescheduled another vet visit. He said there was swelling, so he dug out the last little stubborn crust (it bled), he washed the wound with Bentadine (?spelling), then generously applied an antibiotic cream to the wound, covered with a cotton pad, taped up the foot securely (said to leave it on for 48 hours) and finally prescribed Clindomycin (antibiotic) for 7 days (1 ml 2x daily). He didn't want to prescribe antibiotic on our first visit because there was no swelling and she was still laying eggs but this last visit he finally prescribed Clindomycin. My regular breeder said she found surgery rarely works without using an antibiotic too, and with my vet's assessment, we finally are giving an antibiotic since Bumblefoot is a type of staph infection. Bumblefoot untreated can eventually kill a bird and nothing to be taken lightly IMO.

So, my conclusion is that if the Bumblefoot is caught early enough it probably will work to use the non-surgery procedures but if the crusts are stubborn you more than likely would need to do surgery to get a stubborn crust out or if there is swelling plus use antibiotics. What we don't do for our babies, eh?

 

[sunflour]

Thanks for sharing your experience. A picture would be helpful, but your description is clear.

Did she try to peck/remove the bandaging ? Did you isolate her or just leave her with the flock?

7 months !!! A long struggle and I am sure It was quite frustrating. Glad she is better.