Newbie needs help with bumble foot!

[GermanKennhuhn]

I have never used quickstop, I usually use a bit of corn starch.

 

[joesandy1822]

Well, our first attempt was an epic FAIL. I went out and bought everything I needed that we didn’t already have. Got a temporary pen set up for the night. Soaked her foot for a full 20 minutes in warm epsom salt water, then proceeded to trying to pull the scab/plug out. We spent over an hour. That thing will not budge! The edges are somewhat free, but it won’t come out. My 30 year old son, who was assisting, thinks I’m crazy. “That’s not a scab! It’s part of her foot!” We tried cutting just a tiny piece off the top, and I do mean tiny. Like the size of a bb. It bled like a stuck pig. That’s when he said he was done because he thinks we were cutting her foot. We stopped the bleeding, I thoroughly disinfected it, and then bandaged it. Before I knew what was happening, she bolted into the pond, bandage and all. Spent the next hour happily swimming around, eating bugs, and doing duck stuff. Obviously, the bandage fell off in the pond. All I could do is cry in the shower. (She pooped all over me.)

I decided not to try and bandage it again tonight. By the end of the ordeal, she was panting. I didn’t want to subject her to any more stress. I’ll sleep on it I guess. It’s disappointing, because all the videos I’ve watched made it seem like it would just pull out nice and easily once it had been soaked. Not for us it didn’t! I haven’t seen pictures of any bumbles this big, so it must’ve been going on for quite awhile. As I said, we only got her 3 weeks ago.

I’m more than a little sad. I’m sure if I can find a vet, they will want to do X-rays, bloodwork, and who knows what else. This could end up costing hundreds, if not thousands. Not good timing. But I love this duck, and her “sister”, even after only 3 weeks. Strange thing.

 

[CoriM]

Yes, I feel your pain. I had a pekin who had a huge bumble like that and I worked on it for 9 months. It's frustrating for sure! I did use clean scalpels to try to cut away tissue at times, and also brought her to the vet once. It's very stressful for the poor duck, for sure, and for you! I never found a clean kernel that just popped out, as many people describe. Maybe for now just try soaking her twice a day for ten minutes, and then in 3-4 days try again. Try not to stress, she sounds like she's doing okay. When you end up doing the surgery just make sure she doesn't have any way to access the water so you keep it dry at least a couple days until it's scabbed over. I'm sorry you're going through such a stressful thing since you just were so generous to rescue these poor ducks. Just know that you're doing a good thing, it can be a long haul, but I'm sure eventually she'll get over it.

 

[CoriM]

PS - I always just applied pressure with gauze or paper towels to stop bleeding, then applied the meds, gauze pad, and vet wrap - secure but not tight enough to stop circulation.

 

[joesandy1822]

Yes, I feel your pain. I had a pekin who had a huge bumble like that and I worked on it for 9 months. It's frustrating for sure! I did use clean scalpels to try to cut away tissue at times, and also brought her to the vet once. It's very stressful for the poor duck, for sure, and for you! I never found a clean kernel that just popped out, as many people describe. Maybe for now just try soaking her twice a day for ten minutes, and then in 3-4 days try again. Try not to stress, she sounds like she's doing okay. When you end up doing the surgery just make sure she doesn't have any way to access the water so you keep it dry at least a couple days until it's scabbed over. I'm sorry you're going through such a stressful thing since you just were so generous to rescue these poor ducks. Just know that you're doing a good thing, it can be a long haul, but I'm sure eventually she'll get over it.

Thank you again. I very much appreciate your input. I guess I’m not understanding the anatomy of a “bumble foot scab”. In a human, if you have a large scab and you cut part of it off, it doesn’t bleed because it’s just hard, dead skin cells. Yes, it will bleed UNDER the scab when you pick it off, but the scab itself doesn’t bleed. But when we tried just cutting a tiny piece off the very TOP of her scab, it literally started bleeding immediately. I can’t even imagine the amount of blood had we removed the entire thing! And how far down do you know to cut if it doesn’t just nicely pull out like a kernel like everybody says? She hated getting soaked, and she’s pretty powerful. I can’t even imagine soaking her every day, twice a day, for 9 months!! How in the world did you manage that?

I bought a book that was recommended by someone in another post I wrote. It’s a good book, but the author is very much an advocate of veterinarian care for everything. I feel guilty for not having unlimited funds. And I feel scared thinking this could get into her bones and kill her.

 

[joesandy1822]

Thank you again. I very much appreciate your input. I guess I’m not understanding the anatomy of a “bumble foot scab”. In a human, if you have a large scab and you cut part of it off, it doesn’t bleed because it’s just hard, dead skin cells. Yes, it will bleed UNDER the scab when you pick it off, but the scab itself doesn’t bleed. But when we tried just cutting a tiny piece off the very TOP of her scab, it literally started bleeding immediately. I can’t even imagine the amount of blood had we removed the entire thing! And how far down do you know to cut if it doesn’t just nicely pull out like a kernel like everybody says? She hated getting soaked, and she’s pretty powerful. I can’t even imagine soaking her every day, twice a day, for 9 months!! How in the world did you manage that?

I bought a book that was recommended by someone in another post I wrote. It’s a good book, but the author is very much an advocate of veterinarian care for everything. I feel guilty for not having unlimited funds. And I feel scared thinking this could get into her bones and kill or cripple her.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Get some drawing salve and try that on this bumble after soaking apply the drawing salve and wrap. Keep her out of the pond for a couple days so the salve has a chance to work. I'm not sure if the drawing salve will help but def worth trying since the scab didn't want to budge on it's own.

 

[CoriM]

It can be kind of a trial and error effort. Since you already ordered the drawing salve, I agree with Miss Lydia, give it a try.

 

[joesandy1822]

Get some drawing salve and try that on this bumble after soaking apply the drawing salve and wrap. Keep her out of the pond for a couple days so the salve has a chance to work. I'm not sure if the drawing salve will help but def worth trying since the scab didn't want to budge on it's own.

Thank you. It should be here today. Keeping them out of the pond will be a definite challenge. I’ll either have to put a fence around the pond or make them a temporary enclosure. I read somewhere that the more time they spend in water, the better for bumblefoot. It keeps it moist. But the bandage and meds will fall off. I don’t know. I’ve read so much, my head is spinning.

 

[CoriM]

Thank you again. I very much appreciate your input. I guess I’m not understanding the anatomy of a “bumble foot scab”. In a human, if you have a large scab and you cut part of it off, it doesn’t bleed because it’s just hard, dead skin cells. Yes, it will bleed UNDER the scab when you pick it off, but the scab itself doesn’t bleed. But when we tried just cutting a tiny piece off the very TOP of her scab, it literally started bleeding immediately. I can’t even imagine the amount of blood had we removed the entire thing! And how far down do you know to cut if it doesn’t just nicely pull out like a kernel like everybody says? She hated getting soaked, and she’s pretty powerful. I can’t even imagine soaking her every day, twice a day, for 9 months!! How in the world did you manage that?

I bought a book that was recommended by someone in another post I wrote. It’s a good book, but the author is very much an advocate of veterinarian care for everything. I feel guilty for not having unlimited funds. And I feel scared thinking this could get into her bones and kill her.

I didn't soak my duck twice a day for nine months! She had an ongoing scab that would never go away, and her foot pad developed a lot of extra tissue. So sometimes I would take a couple of weeks of just letting her go without soaks or bandages, then the scab would get worse and I would start working on it again and keep her bandaged for a few days. I wanted her to have a life and she needed to swim. I felt bad for her, it was quite an ordeal. She was a really heavy duck and I think that made it worse. At once point I took her to the vet but he said the infection was gone, and we were just dealing with the scabbing and extra tissue, which he said wasn't going away because of the pressure from walking on it. He made her this giant donut bandage which was supposed to take the pressure off the scab area. It was ridiculous and she was tripping all over the place, so I took it off as soon as I got home. Eventually her scab did go away and the foot pad shrank back.

As for vets, if you find a vet that understands bumblefoot could you say you just want the scab removed and the foot cleaned out, and refuse any x-rays or further testing? It's worth a try in this case since it's so large and seems difficult. Don't feel bad about not having unlimited funds for vets. With my first set of ducks I had an issue at 5 months where one of them had bare skin on her neck, looked like a wound, and I ran to the vet, who had no idea and gave me antibiotics. The "wound" started appearing on her sides and since the meds at the first doc didn't work, I found an avian vet and proceeded to spend hundreds there on various drugs and injections as we tried to figure out what her problem was. In the end, I discovered it was another duck pulling her feathers. Ugh, I don't have much confidence in my vet, and feel that it's a matter of trial and error for them. Since I have a flock of 8 I'm not prepared to spend thousands on each of those animals either. I usually have just as good of luck reading this forum and trying things on my own. But if you can find a good one that won't charge you an arm and a leg, it can be comforting to have someone else take charge.