A flock with bumblefoot: Journey back to health

[Eggcessive]

I have bought disposable scalpels at TSC in the cattle and goat supplies. They work very well for bumblefoot surgery, but I wouldn't try to re-use them as bleach will dull them as well as use.

 

[seminolewind]

I'm really not trying to criticize at all! I think you are doing a great job! As I said before, hindsight is always 20/20 - I'm not sure what I would do "in the moment". Next time you are at the farm supply store, look for biopsy punches. They are much easier to use than scalpels and can get deep enough for you to not have to dig as much. You might also want to invest in a crafting X-acto knife instead of a scalpel. If you do use a knife or scalpel, you want to cut around the scab at about a 30 degree angle. Practice first cutting "bad" spots out of apples. Hope this helps!

rnchick, my misunderstanding. I didn't realize that deacon's successes were without using a blade of some sort.
I'm very interested in the biopsy punches. I hope I can find one-sounds much easier to get to the depth you need.

What size do you suggest?

 

[deacons]

I'm really not trying to criticize at all! I think you are doing a great job! As I said before, hindsight is always 20/20 - I'm not sure what I would do "in the moment". Next time you are at the farm supply store, look for biopsy punches. They are much easier to use than scalpels and can get deep enough for you to not have to dig as much. You might also want to invest in a crafting X-acto knife instead of a scalpel. If you do use a knife or scalpel, you want to cut around the scab at about a 30 degree angle. Practice first cutting "bad" spots out of apples. Hope this helps!

Oh, criticism is more than welcome here- as I said, I'm sort of making this up as I go, so very open to any feedback, and it doesn't need to be "cheerleader" feedback! I appreciate the visual you offered for using the scalpel- very clear and I could see trying to practice that way.

 

[deacons]

Day 15 Treatment

Worked through the bandage changes this morning- as an aside, it takes me roughly an hour to get through bandage removal, foot cleaning/tending, and rebandaging for 5 chickens.

Just as a reminder, since there have been a lot of recent posts, the last treatment was Saturday, and all I did was give everyone a Magnapaste treatment and apply clean bandages.

Started with Pretty Girl and Ro, as they were the poor unsuspecting girls who happened to be sitting on the outdoor roosting bar and were easiest to grab

Pretty Girl was actually a good test case, as both of her feet had what felt like thick, hard black scabs on them. They were probably the most perplexing in terms of whether they were "good" scabs or "bad" scabs. This is what one looked like:


After a betadine rinse, I peeled back the scab, and there was nothing in there except an empty socket. There was no redness, it hardly bled, it was just sort of a hole. I poked and prodded and squeezed, and I really just did not feel anything hard anywhere across the foot pad that suggested there was a kernel in there to be extracted. I repeated with the second foot, same thing. In my decidedly non-professional opinion, I think I removed healthy scabs. I flushed the holes out with betadine, packed in neosporin, sprayed the sterile gauze pad with vetricyn, and bandaged.

Same thing for Ro. Her scabs looked very much like Pretty Girls'. Peeled them back, found the same clean looking hole underneath. This isn't the greatest picture, but maybe you can sort of see the hole (this one did bleed a little as I squeezed all around it in case I was missing something):


Pretty much the same story with the others. I think Goldie may be the first that goes bandage free-if I had to guess, I would say next week she might be? We'll see.

I was most excited about Robin- if you remember, she was the worst out of all of them, the one that first clued me in that there was a problem. Her scabs pulled back very easily and cleanly. After they were off, I would say her feet looked the best they have since this process started.

The swelling in her foot pads has gone done a lot. Although I would still like to see her feet looking a bit less puffy, the feet are soft and pliable instead of feeling very hard as they did as recently as Saturday.

Actually, that seemed like a huge positive for all of them today-almost all of their foot pads felt "normal" to me- i.e., just like the pads of the girls who do not have any signs of bumblefoot. None were hot, none were hard, none felt like they were tight with pressure under the skin. Everyone got the neosporin/vetricyn soaked gauze/clean bandage treatment and went on their way.

You might remember that on Saturday I started treatment on one additional girl (she makes #5 being treated). I wasn't able to get her scab on the worse foot to pop out today, so given the lack of scalpel and the ineffectiveness of tweezers (no clean edge on the scab to get a good grip and pull), I opted to repack with Magnapaste and rebandage- will take a look at that foot in a couple of days. But, you might also remember that her other foot had just a tiny black scab that I had been treating with just vetricyn. I rinsed that foot off with betadine, and in the process of drying it off with a papertowel, the tiny black scab just popped right off, leaving just a tiny pinprick hole that looked completely clean inside. I did put some neosporin on that foot and bandage just to insure healing vs. re-infection, but it was very satisfying to see that black scab give way to a clean foot!

And finally, this is the girls' opinion of me after everyone was done this morning- they were clearly not excited to see me! I'm sure we'll be friends again by the end of the day after they get some afternoon treats

 

[Skyfeathers]

I have learned so much by reading this thread, thank you, Deacons, and to everyone who has commented!

 

[deacons]

Day 17 Treatment (Wednesday)
Not much to update today- I've decided to extend the amount of time between bandage changes this week, so will probably change everyone tomorrow. The only exception is the newly-treated chicken who I started on Monday. So yesterday was really Day 5 for her.

To recap, she has had Magnapaste wrapped in a bandage twice now (for two days at a time). I'm a little disappointed in how her foot has been responding to it- unlike some of the others, I didn't really see much evidence of the swelling being drawn out or the scab loosening up. Here's what it looked like after the second application of Magnapaste- no real change:


I've had a lot of trouble getting the scab off (I know, I know, this is the perfect situation to have that scalpel handy!!

) Without removing the infected part, I don't feel like I'm going to make much progress. I did pry it back a little, so figured I'd change up my strategy and apply a thick coat of neosporin, and rewrap. We'll see if that helps loosen up the scab and allow me to really get it popped out next bandage change. Otherwise, I'm going to need to do something different, as we're not really going to have much improvement.

For all the Goldie fans out there, thought you might get a laugh out of this picture of her trying to find a spot on the roost last night- she was being brave taking on "Red," who's the boss, and trying to force her way into a new spot.


Fall is definitely here in New England- all of a sudden, the leaves are starting to change:


I love this time of year, but it's making me realize how much work I have to do before the real cold is here! Sincerely hoping we get these foot issues resolved before we start getting frost or (gasp) snow, as I can't have wet, frozen bandages on feet. I think we've got a good month before that becomes a worry, but send good thoughts for speedy healing!

 

[tridentk9]

Day 15 Treatment Worked through the bandage changes this morning- as an aside, it takes me roughly an hour to get through bandage removal, foot cleaning/tending, and rebandaging for 5 chickens. Just as a reminder, since there have been a lot of recent posts, the last treatment was Saturday, and all I did was give everyone a Magnapaste treatment and apply clean bandages. Started with Pretty Girl and Ro, as they were the poor unsuspecting girls who happened to be sitting on the outdoor roosting bar and were easiest to grab Pretty Girl was actually a good test case, as both of her feet had what felt like thick, hard black scabs on them. They were probably the most perplexing in terms of whether they were "good" scabs or "bad" scabs. This is what one looked like: After a betadine rinse, I peeled back the scab, and there was nothing in there except an empty socket. There was no redness, it hardly bled, it was just sort of a hole. I poked and prodded and squeezed, and I really just did not feel anything hard anywhere across the foot pad that suggested there was a kernel in there to be extracted. I repeated with the second foot, same thing. In my decidedly non-professional opinion, I think I removed healthy scabs. I flushed the holes out with betadine, packed in neosporin, sprayed the sterile gauze pad with vetricyn, and bandaged. Same thing for Ro. Her scabs looked very much like Pretty Girls'. Peeled them back, found the same clean looking hole underneath. This isn't the greatest picture, but maybe you can sort of see the hole (this one did bleed a little as I squeezed all around it in case I was missing something)

When you're dealing with infection, I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a "good scab". If a scab closes up the pocket and there is still any infection in there, it now has this perfect environment to multiply. Moisture, heat, food- what else does an anaerobic bacteria need? That's what starts the whole problem in the first place, a closed environment. Pull that scab off!!!

 

[rnchick74]

rnchick, my misunderstanding. I didn't realize that deacon's successes were without using a blade of some sort.
I'm very interested in the biopsy punches. I hope I can find one-sounds much easier to get to the depth you need.

What size do you suggest?

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.

 

[iwiw60]

Quote: Hmmmm. You know, when I read your most recent post for some unknown reason I thought to myself "why neosporin as the 'pack' and then Vetericyn on the pad?". I'm almost thinking you're doing this in reverse order. After flushing with the Betadine maybe you should be using the Vetericyn as the 'pack' .... dunno, just thinkin'.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
Thanks, I ordered a set of various sizes just in case.