A flock with bumblefoot: Journey back to health

[sunflour]

It was suggested by "Sunflour" who is a member here at BYC that I please re post this in this section as there were a lot of people already following this subject of Bumblefoot so here you are:

Greetings again everyone and thanks for the nice welcomes I received plus the interest in helping a chicken with "Bumblefoot".

This is what I did and am continuing to do for about another week just to make sure it is all gone.
What I did for my girls was very time consuming however as I stated in my first posting if there was any other alternative to cutting a chickens foot open I was determined to try it .
Okay, I will try and describe this in as much detail as possible without making this into a novel lol.
I first discovered this bumblefoot about a month and a half ago when sitting outside watching my girls enjoying the sunshine and nice weather I noticed that my big red bird ( Delaware Rhodie ) was limping so I picked her up and started to examine her feet... her legs and feet were noticeably very warm to the touch and I saw the usual black scabby looking things on both feet... I had no idea at the time what this was, so I started researching and learned everything I could.

I decided after reading about all the various treatments people had tried including the "so called surgery" that I would try the product called
Tricide-neo that is sold as a medicine for fish that states that it " literally punches holes into bacteria, allowing antibiotics to enter and help destroy drug-resistant strains of bacteria". I ordered some from Amazon.com and then about a month later another pkg off the E-bay site as Amazon didn't have any. Apparently there seems to be a fairly high demand for this .

This works best with 2 people 1 to hold the bird while other person does wrapping/dressing etc

This is the link to video I watched on wrapping a chickens foot. Copy and paste this into your browser
I highly recommend you view this . The woman who did this video was great WATCH IT

Here is what I used :

Tri-cide neo ( 2 pkgs ) follow instructions do not use anything other than distilled H2o
Vet wrap ( yellow) this stuff is great it totally sticks to itself . I used Yellow because I didn't want to use a color like red which might cause the other chickens to peck at it... I wanted it to look as normal as possible to them.
Duct-tape
Small cotton pads
Penicillin ( injectable buy it at feed store) I did not inject the birds with it...just used the needle /syringe to get the Rx out of glass sealed bottle then took needle off and used the open part of syringe to put some on cotton pad while dressing chickens foot. Keep this refrigerated !
Vaseline

1. Prepare the Tricide neo I used a small cat litter pan ( clean-not ever used ) poured the liquid into it. Just enough to barely cover a chickens foot while they are standing. Do not let your chicken drink this! I just kept my hand gently on bird while timing the soak for about 7 min .
2. Have your partner sitting in a chair and then after soak they will lift bird up putting the bird on their lap while laying the bird on its side so you can dry and wrap the feet with medicine ( I used clean animal towels to dry feet )
3. Dry foot
4 Get a sm. cotton pad and cut in quarters ( 4 pieces) take 1 piece and put Vaseline on it very thickly this makes it stick to the foot while you are preparing to wrap it and also will keep the birds foot moist which is extremely important as you don't want the bumble to dry out in between treatments.
5 Lift cotton pad up just enough to get end of syringe ( NO NEEDLE) between pad and foot and put some Penicillin in there,
6. Take a piece of vet wrap ( Don't forget to watch the video ) and start to wrap chickens foot I have found myself that once you get the top part stuck the rest will come together and then I used extra strips that I had already pre-cut to fill in where more wrap was needed .
7. take one final strip and wrap around the chickens ankle area ( guess its called that )? and then I take 1 more small strip of duct tape and go over the last wrap at ankle to secure it.

As I said in the beginning " this is time consuming" I can't guarantee that this will work for your chickens but it definitely worked for mine
I have read many responses for people who used this on BYC and other poultry sites but feel that maybe they didn't do the treatment long enough and gave up after having to do this every day until it was gone.

I had to dedicate about an hour and a half every day to my birds...but again I didn't want to cut on them pain meds or not . I preferred a different approach. I love my birds they all have names and I don't want to do anything that would be harmful to them in any manner. Some people have opted to cut on their birds ...that is a personal decision but I believe that all creatures feel pain and who are we to decide how they feel it ? Just my opinion don't mean to offend anyone .

Also one more thing that was changed we already had round roosts in our coop for the birds ( no square which some experts say can cause a pressure or sore on foot eventually causing bumblefoot)
We also raised up the floor in our coop instead of lowering roosts... either way we just added a couple of wood pallots then covered with plywood then lots of straw ...as I am sure most of you already know that if a bird is too heavy or just even up too high when they jump down off roosts that can... over time cause a bumble also.
Good luck everyone.


Good luck with getting rid of bumblefoot .

Thank you for taking your time to detail this. Many of us have not yet dealt with Bumblefoot, but bet we do. And all who have contributed their experiences will help us all!

 

[Cynthia12]

I personally like this gal and how she does it. I've done a few, and I like knowing it's out right away.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/07/bumblefoot-causes-treatment-warning.html

 

[deacons]

Hi everyone, just thought I would pop back on to this thread with an update on the girls. I just did my first spring "foot check," and everyone is still bumblefoot free. It was a long, hard winter for the girls, and they are sure enjoying being back out in the fields, scratching around in the leaves and dirt and catching those first spring bugs. I'm going to continue on with Monday night foot checks, as I am more than convinced its worth it to catch any possible bumblefoot issues sooner rather than later.

Some of the girls enjoying the first spring days:

 

[slordaz]

one thing I might suggest is something I use on not only my pets but myself and my kids:

I get an 8 ounce bottle of virgin olive oil and put it in a glass jar then slice in a clove of garlic, close it up and agitate it 1-2 times a day for 3-5 days . Strain the garlic out and put the infused oil in a dark glass jar for storage. I go through about 2 of these a year and have not had them go bad as long as they are out of the light and closed tightly.

We have used it for ear mites on the dogs and foot pad injuries, and I usually add a couple of drops into their food 1 time a month, they don't seem to ever get worms and it appears to keep the fleas and ticks away too.

On us we have used it for ear and tooth aches, and even tried it when felt the starting of a sinus infection

The oil will help soften while the garlic helps to boost immune so they can better fight getting an infection. I noticed when I used it for the tooth ache it mildly numbed the area so it was not throbbing.

 

[deacons]

@CC1892 - sorry you had such a nasty case of bumblefoot to deal with, but glad you were able to get it cleared up. Extra glad that this thread was helpful! I still consider myself a novice with chickens, but am really happy that sharing details of this experience could be useful to someone else. All the more experienced members of this forum are such a great resource!

 

[vivaciouswoman]

Ideally you want to get big enough to go around the black scab + a 1 mm margin (or larger if you can feel the kernel below). When I have used these on parrots that have been abused (improper perches causing foot issues) I've gotten a size or 2 larger than I think as well as a size or 2 smaller than I think. That way you know you have the right size somewhere in there. They aren't too expensive.

I know this is a pretty old thread, but it’s exactly what I’m facing...with 50+ chickens!!!!!!! So: punches and curettes that are sharp and effective, and NOT too expensive: where do you find those???