Sunny Has bumblefoot! HELP!

After finding out Sunny was underweight, I studied her some more to see if anything else was causing her distress. I fed the ducks at the lake, and boy...did those things eat! But Sunny only takes a few mouthfuls. Which is only enough to round her chest. Before she would eat until she looked as if she was gonna explode! Everything was normal behavior wise. But I noticed something on her foot while she scratched her head. My heart jumped as I looked at her feet. Bumblefoot. It made sense, I never considered her feet very much. We would often take walks on the concrete sidewalk. Little did I know that I was causing her pain. Poor Sunny! No more walks from here on. Ok, ok...how do I cure it? I know you have to cut the sore open in severe cases, but her's isn't SO bad. But I can easily identify it as bumblefoot. It looks like a small lump with a scab on her "heel". I guess I caught it early, cause she doesn't show pain. And happily dabbles away in the grass. But when it comes to feeding time, she doesn't care as much as she used too. She stays in a grass pen during the day, and in a dog carrier at night. The carrier does have blankets in it. We clean those everyday, but I have to say it was the walks scraping up her feet. Please help everyone! This is my first obstacle with Sunny. Keep in mind I live in the near the city. No exotic vets around here.
So....help!

Put bumblefoot in the subject of this post.

I have heard of people soaking it and it going away on its own but i have no personal experience with it. i hope your girl gets better soon,

Ok, I NEED Nettie's duck shoes! That will help us out A TON!
Meanwhile, how do we bandage up her feet? And how do we treat them? Soak them? In what?
I need quick answers!

If you can take Sunny to a vet, that would be best. Antibiotics is often necessary to cure the infection. Nettie and I got Baytril for Ming Mei when she has her infection.

You might need to remove the pus in the wound to ensure that it heals. This requires cutting open the wound and squeezing out a cheese-like pus. I would have a vet do that if possible.

You can soak the duck's feet in a solution of warm water, epsom salt, and an iodine solution (we used povodine-iodine). Both are available at any drug store. Put the warm water in a small basin and add enough epson salts that it can still completely dissolve and enough povodine-iodine to make it the color of a dark tea. You'll need to watch Sunny the entire time to make sure she doesn't try to drink the medicated water. After 15-20 minutes, rinse off her feet.

After soaking the feet, we would give Ming Mei her antibiotics then dress her feet. We had to feed her the antibiotics and a pain medication with a syringe and squirt it down her throat. The vet also gave us a solution of Baytril, DMSO (helps the medicine get absorbed), and a pain medication (I don't recall the name right now). The solution went directly on the infected area.

Once she had her meds, we dressed her feet by:
1. Using those donut shaped corn cushions for people's feet. We'd put that around the bumblefoot area so there wouldn't be any direct pressure on the wound.
2. Used some antibiotic ointment (Neosporin - make sure it is the kind WITHOUT the lidocaine/pain killer) directly on the bumblefoot. Basically, fill up the center of the corn cushion donuts.
3. Put a band-aid over the corn cushion to keep the ointment on the wound.
4. Use some medical cloth tape (or medical paper tape) to prevent the band-aid from coming off.
5. Wrap the foot to help keep it dry. We use the shoes for this. You can use vet wrap or self sticking wraps meant for people (available at any drug store).

We went through this process daily - more often if Ming Mei managed to take off the bandages or get them wet.

BTW, if you want to get the shoes, you can either PM Nettie or me here or email us at [email protected].

I just PMed Nettie about the duck shoes. And...I would really, really prefer not to cut open the wound. As I'm only 13. Any idea where I could get baytril? I really can't find any vets that would take ducks. And since my father isn't too crazy about animals, he would rather not bother finding one. Can you give a simple list on what I need the most? I really appreciate it. Sunny is my first duck, and a pet. I live in the city, so ducks, chickens, etc. are not common around here. Neither is the supplies needed for them.

It's too bad you don't live around here, there's alot of vets that even do rescues & adoptions for ducks. I hope you get her fixed up soon.

Yeah, it's why having a pet duck in a Florida city is so uncommon. People always just stare and gasp at the fact I have a pet duck. Some people say I must be the only person in the world that has a pet duck. But I'm sure there's thousands of them, like you guys. Anyways I just checked Sunny's feet. They aren't as bad as I thought, but it's still bumblefoot. I'm sure Nettie's shoes should keep infection at bay after we get through this. So as of right now, I'm planning to soak her feet in warm water with iodine and epsom salt in it by tomorrow. I'll do the soaks until the shoes come. Then I'll start putting neosporin on the scabs, and dressing her feet. Then I guess I'll put the shoes on to keep them dry. Sunny is still eating enough to keep her belly nice and poochy. So I don't think I'll really need antibiotics and other stuff, will I?

There are no guarantees, but generally, with people and ducks, if we catch an infection early, treat it properly, and make sure the animal gets proper food, enough clean water, enough rest, and is in a safe environment, the immune system we all have can often fight off infections. The soaks are a great idea - topical antibiotics are good, too. Could you get a tiny clean sock (friends or relatives with a baby sock they don't want?) to put on the foot? Then you could put antibiotic cream on, slip the sock on (perhaps just at bedtime), to get a head start on treating the infection directly.

Duck_feeder, does this make sense to you?

Hmm....not sure about the small sock. It most likely won't be easy to put on her feet. I guess I should have mentioned that it's both feet that have the infection. Looks as if I just caught it in the early stages though. I'm going to feed Sunny more often now, as she seems like she just want's quick bite here and there. She still drinks plenty. I'm probably going to wait till I get the duck shoes till I put any neosporin though, just to make sure. I'm sure I'll get a response from Nettie by tomorrow. It shouldn't be long until Iget the shoes either, maybe a few days at the most.

You could get a pair of small socks & cut holes around the top(ankle) and weave a zip tie through to hold them on until you get your duck shoes from Nettie. I saw someone a while back that had to use socks on their ducklings.