BUMBLE CHEST?? (**PICS ADDED** NASTINESS FACTOR WARNING**)

[MamaMarcy]

Is it possible to have bumble foot on the chest??

We have an extremely obese turkey we rescued and she likes to do 2 things: eat and lay down. She lays down so much that her chest is bald. Honestly it's hard for her to walk, and I imagine standing is a chore. She gets to free range but after about 10 feet she'll start huffing from exertion.

If she sees food she tries to run...and will follow a bowl of pellets slowly back to her coop at night.

The other day my 7 yo son told me Big Mama had hissed at him as he walked by, and just layed there in the lawn. I thought that odd. She's so friendly and talks to us, not hissing.

So at bedtime when I went to coax her to bed she was indeed still laying there, hissing and shaking. Short little hisses. She let me pet her but showed NO interest in food whatsoever.

I patted her down, checked under her wings where I;ve known our muscovies to eat on her before and she seemed a-ok. My next step was to ROLL her onto her side (oy!!!) and in the middle of her chest was this dirt/poop looking "ball"...I popped it off and it broke, leaving a layer still stuck to her and at that point it looked like it was sticking INTO her skin. she got up and pecked at 2 pellets and I got her to finally walk to the coop, and the hissing stopped. Once to the coop, I managed to look underneath her and find the edge of the dirt-plug-thing and popped it off with my thumbnail. Cottage-cheese and thin yellow fluid POURED out under her (and of course she tried to eat it, grody!). There had to be at least an ounce of this crud. I rolled her again and squeezed it, not making much more progress,a nd put her to bed. This morning she was eating/drinking and the plug had reformed (it's textured like horse poop almost) so I removed the plug, rinsed it with soapy water, got some foamy crud and a pebble out, and packed it with Neosporin. The hole itself is maybe the size of a penny & goes thru all skin layers. Oh I also removed some dead tissue from the edges. This evening she's still acting normal and eating like she's never going to have a chance again (her normal), and we changed out her straw to make sure her bed is clean.

Could this be "bumblechest?'

 

[nurse_turtle]

Sounds like a pressure wound. In humans, some would call it a bedsore. It's caused from repeated and prolonged pressure in the same area which smashes the blood vessels cutting off blood supply resulting in an area of dead and infected tissue. If the infection reaches into the bone, it's very difficult to treat. You turkey may need to be euthanized. I'm not certain she can tolerate the treatment and then how on earth will you prevent it from happening again. Part of the treatment is to not put any pressure on the area.

 

[MamaMarcy]

It doesn't look like a pressure sore (I've seen many).

My hunch is either something irritated the spot, or one of her quills became infected. The tissue under the skin looks very healthy (unlike with a pressure wound where the lack of circulation often affects layers beyond the skin).

Ever since I first opened it she seems to be behaving very normally, and eating and drinking well.

My plan is to continue to treat it twice a day with warm water rinses and opening it as needed for drainage. As long as she acts healthy we'll avoid putting her down. She tolerates this fine, and covering her head helps her stay calm. The tissue I removed yesterday seemed mostly scab vs necrosis. And there's no foul odor.


It looks very much like pictures I've seen of bumble foot, just on the chest.

Poor Big Mama.

 

[LeezyBeezy]

Wow- keep us posted! Can you get any pictures?

 

[FlaRocky]

Hello, Sounds like an abcess (bumble foot) to me. You can do a warm Epson Salt compress and fill a syringe with the warm ESalt water to flush the wound. Is this bird a pet or are you going to process? You can post on the Turkey section of the forum for more help.

Hope this helps,

Maye

 

[MamaMarcy]

I'll try to get pics later today...it's kinda tough because I do this from behind and have to hold her on her side with one hand (she's HEAVY). I'll head out soon for her 1st treatment of the day.


She's a pet. All our birds are.

I resuced her from a friend ... they loved her too, but she got too big to go in their coop or something like that and their dogs kept attacking her (she was too heavy to get hauled off though). Not sure what kind she is. She's white. And obese.

 

[Connorrm]

I don't want to be a downer, but if this is a broad breasted bronze or broad breasted white turkey this might be an exercise in futility. She'll never get the weight off...

It's like the cornish cross...they live to eat then be butchered. If they do make it they usually flip, or have a heart attack.

 

[MamaMarcy]

If anyone knows her "breed" feel free to guess.

I've wondered if she may be a meat bird desiged to get fat & eat. She can live here as long as she is able (and is comfortable). If she has a heart attack so be it...she's known for falling down the porch steps when she lived with her old human-mom, landing on her back, and not being able to flip back upright. If she ever seems to be in pain or miserable we'll put her down humanely.

I just cleaned her wound...it hadn't closed back over today like it did yesterday. It doesn't seem to be oozing (moisture in the picture is from me washing it). The pics of her are her snack after wound care. It's a little more brown around the egges today but seems more of a scab-like appearance than necrotic skin.

So, here's 2 pics of the wound and a couple of the beautiful girl herself. The big lump on her neck is from scar tisuue from an old dog attack.

 

[flgardengirl]

That looks necrotic. Almost like she got bit by a spider or something and it ate into the surrounding tissue. I think I would try and clean the wound as well as possible and put neosporin on it and try and keep it covered up so no dirt gets into it. Maybe put some gauze on the wound and wrap some vet wrap around her whole chest to keep it on or if you have an Ace wrap bandage you could try that.

 

[LeezyBeezy]

Can you clean it enough to make it bleed? Or do you think it's healing already? Does it smell? At least, with the help of gravity, it should drain well. Good luck!