My duck has what looks like a bumble on his foot. I followed the advice I have found on this forum and cleaned and soaked it, then tried to pick out the scab. Thing is, the scab is not black it is foot-coloured and it is in several bits. It looks and feels just like hard skin. When I picked at it, it started to bleed underneath the hard layer and inside it looked pink not yellow. If there is a plug, then I think it is under health skin. Problem is, I'm a bit nervous about digging around and hurting him, and about damaging good skin. Is this really a proper bumble and am I doing it right?
I ended up chickening out (ha ha) of the scab digging bit and just put a poultice of sugar and neomycin/chlorhexidine cream covered by a gauze pad and vet wrap, topped with strips of duct tape made into a shoe to keep it clean and dry.
I thought I would leave it wrapped in the poultice for a couple of days, and then have a look at it. Hopefully the scab will have softened and some of the infection drawn out? Perhaps this is all useless unless I have first got off the scab and dug out the plug. I just wish I could be a bit bolder with the surgery.
I treated a bumbled chicken before but the lump was around the joint and was just calcified scar and gristle and no lump of pus to remove, despite having cut into the skin to try and expose it. So I had to poultice it to clean any infection out and it healed well, but still has a lump and the toe points a different way (I think she has arthritis from a possible broken toe in the past, which is prone to bumble infections because it is now misshapen and she treads on it differently). Therefore my history of digging out an actual plug is nil!
I ended up chickening out (ha ha) of the scab digging bit and just put a poultice of sugar and neomycin/chlorhexidine cream covered by a gauze pad and vet wrap, topped with strips of duct tape made into a shoe to keep it clean and dry.
I thought I would leave it wrapped in the poultice for a couple of days, and then have a look at it. Hopefully the scab will have softened and some of the infection drawn out? Perhaps this is all useless unless I have first got off the scab and dug out the plug. I just wish I could be a bit bolder with the surgery.
I treated a bumbled chicken before but the lump was around the joint and was just calcified scar and gristle and no lump of pus to remove, despite having cut into the skin to try and expose it. So I had to poultice it to clean any infection out and it healed well, but still has a lump and the toe points a different way (I think she has arthritis from a possible broken toe in the past, which is prone to bumble infections because it is now misshapen and she treads on it differently). Therefore my history of digging out an actual plug is nil!
