Another bumblefoot question

Hi all,

My security rooster, Worf, has bumblefoot and I've been treating for three weeks now. Today I opened the bottom of his foot (this started in his middle toe). I cleaned it out really aggressively and soaked the whole foot in a cup of peroxide. Since the polysporin doesn't seem to be working, I crushed up two sulfa pills and packed the wounds with the powder and covered that with polysporin before bandaging him up. I didn't find anything in my books that said sulfa was bad for chickens. Has anyone else ever used sulfa and what was the out come?

Thanks,
Kathy

I haven't tried it, but I would be wary of using peroxide. It can dry out and kill tissue making the problem worse. I had a turkey once with a bad case of BF. I had to reopen and clean it out every day for a few days.

Sulfa drugs aren't inherently bad for chickens, but they aren't incredibly broad spectrum. Albon (that we usually use for coccidia) is a sulfa drug. I would NOT recommend packing a wound with a crushed antibiotic tablet. It may be doing nothing- as contact absorption may not be happening with this preparation- or worse- it might be really irritating to the tissue. Stuff made to pack into wounds usually has a low concentration of antibiotic like 1% Silver Sulfadiazine =10mg silversulfa per ml or gram. If you are putting grams of concentrated tablet powder into the wound- you are likely in the best case prevent heathy granulation tissue from forming, and worse- kill the tissue you are trying to protect. I would wash the material out, and use something made for packing wounds (like silver sulfadiazine).....

If you see the link for Bumblefoot which Ruth has started, it will give you some ideas what you can help your birds.

I would NOT pack it with any type of drugs, it would do more harm than good. Neoporin (sp) would be the best one to use and soak your birds foot with either espom salt OR Batyrin (as mentioned in my post of my Welsummer hen who had bumblefoot). She completely healed from her wounds and did well.

I have been soaking his foot in betadine and epsom salts and using polysporin but the infection is spreading. I have gotten the plugs out but every time I clean it now liquid infection comes out. I'll reclean his foot and bandage it again with polysporin. Can I get silver sulfadiazine at the feed store without a perscription?

I find a sugar/iodine poultice works the best and I (and others that I've told this too) have had great success with it. I learned this poultice when I worked at the vet clinic- we used it on horses with sole abscesses. Give it a try and let me know how it goes...
If the bird's foot is quite mucky, wash it under warm, running water. Don't soak it as you will be introducing more bacteria into the wound. If there is a scab and you are able to gently peel some of it off without causing a large amount of bleeding, then do so, once the scab has been under running water for quite some time. Clean out any visible pus (cheesy, gross looking stuff) and then rinse the foot once more.
You'll need granulated plain white sugar, iodine or betadine, coflex (or vetwrap, coban...), 2x2 gauze or 4x4 gauze (folded into thirds so it's the size of a large postage stamp), duct tape and scissors. Cut a 1 " wide 10 inch long strip of coflex bandage, and a 1/2 inch wide, 10 inch long strip of duct tape. Next, mix up the poultice - into about 1 heaping tablespoon of white sugar, dribble some iodine/betadine and mix. You shouldn't be able to see white sugar granules in the poultice, but you don't want it runny either. Kind of pasty - so you can pick it up and "mold" it in your hand, somewhat. Put a blob of this on the gauze. Put the gauze and poultice directly onto the foot. If there is a wound there from picking off the gauze, the bird may flinch, but the sugar/iodine can go right into the wound. Holding the gauze on the foot, begin wrapping the coflex strip around the foot, going between the toes and around the back of the foot (above the hallux, or back toe) but not up the shank of the leg. Once you're finished, repeat the wrap with the duct tape. Make the "shoe" tight enough that the bird isn't going to lose it immediately, but not so tight that you're cutting off circulation. Once the foot is wrapped, they should have a little shoe with their toes sticking out. The poultice works very well at drawing out infection. Change the shoe every day for the first few days, then you can leave it on for a couple days at a time. THe iodine will soak into the foot, leaving the sugar behind. The iodine will work its way into the infected area, killing bacteria, while the sugar draws fluid out of the foot (as it does when you put it on fruit- draws out the moisture). Sugar is also antibacterial and can be used topically on many different types of wound.

If the foot is severely infected, you can put your bird on Penicillin G Procaine at a dose of 30 000 IU per kg, once per day, IM or SC. Clavamox drops work well, too. However, often the poultice is enough and hopefully you don't need any further medications.

Hope this helps

Laura

Thanks everyone for your help. This morning Worf was on the roost with the girls. He's been staying on the floor in the deep bedding since this started. Thanks Lara, I used the betadine and sugar in the wound and also some Pen G and wrapped it up well. I also have been giving him injections for the past 4 days. He's walking almost normally now. He is my first rooster and a rescue. Thanks again.

hey, are you guys still listening to this thread?

I did surgery last night, and opened up the booties today to see what was going on. My Chicken Little's foot is swollen (still) and now bruised looking dark foot meat in the hole where the plug was. There isn't really a hole anymore though, it seems to have been filled in with chicken foot. It's not screaming red flag to me yet but I wanted to see if anyone else had experienced this look on day one after surgery.

Knock knock...anybody still reading this thread??? I just performed bumblefoot surgery on a hen yesterday and for Opalwednesday, my girls foot did exactly this. This morning the hole was gone and filled in. I am wondering if this means I did not get the infection out. I am keeping an eye on her this morning.

Opalwednesday...how did your chickens foot turn out? Did it heal up completely? I had never done this before and winged it as I went along. My girl is a tad bit better, but it still looks funky to me this morning. Time will tell if I need to go back in to remove more gunk.

That's normal... it will be a dark purplish color until it heals over. Now, if you feel any more "bumps", then you'll need to reopen!