Bumble Foot in BOTH feet

TherryChicken

Crowing
7 Years
Sep 16, 2012
5,380
196
253
del valle, tx
My hen has bumble foot in both feet. I took her in to have surgery to remove the puss as we couldn't get it out. Cost over $300. Well now even on antibiotic she got it back, got the puss out of one foot, but the other one is way too tiny to get anything out. I have no more money for the vet. Any advice on what I could do? We are going to soak her feet every bandage change in hopes it'll keep the infection out of the one I just removed and help keep it clean and heal well. However my concern is the other foot. Any advice would be great :). Thank you!!
 
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About 3 weeks after surgery it returned..
 
You need to do two things here - treat the returning infection and also prevent it happening again.

Treatment is the hardest part - some people use sugar and betadine poultices, some soak the feet in epsom salts. I tried all sorts, but ended up getting the best results with a solution of Tricide Neo - an antibiotic for treating ulcers in fish. You can get it from koi carp suppliers, but it's quite expensive, so you need to use it very carefully.

I made up half the solution, washed my girl's feet in warm water before putting them in the solution to soak (to keep the solution as clean as possible), and then carefully poured the used solution back into a bottle to store it for the next time. I warmed it up again for the next use by sitting the bottle in a bowl of hot water for 10 minutes. It took a few weeks, but the bumble fell out of her foot and left a hole right through the skin between her toes!

Preventing bumblefoot is an easier thing to do. It is caused by small abrasions on the underneath of the foot that then get infected when the chicken walks around. The most frequent cause of these abrasions is the perches that the birds sleep on. If the perches are round then they should be smoothed with sandpaper to make sure that there are no splinters that could cause a problem. If they are flat pieces of wood then the best solution is to place a piece of old towel over them. It provides a softer perch, and rounds off the hard angled edge. My birds all perch on planks of wood, and I had to treat two cases of bumblefoot in my three original girls within a few months of owning them. I got several old towels to cover the perches, and I remove and wash them when they get too dirty. Since I started using them I haven't had a single case of bumblefoot (touch wood!) and I've got 17 birds now.

The other cause of abrasions can be the environment - make certain that your birds don't have access to anywhere with too many sharp thorns / broken or jagged stones etc underfoot. My husband has a habit of pruning the roses and leaving small pieces of branch on the ground, so I nag him every time to make certain to pick every small piece up, so that the birds don't tread on them.

I hope that your girl gets better soon. Let us know what treatment you choose and how it goes. Good luck, but don't forget that it's never a quick fix - it takes a good few weeks to see results.
 
Thank you! We are using antibiotics from the vet we got when she went in for surgery about 3-4 weeks ago. We got the puss out of the other foot. Soaked in epsom salt and then dried her up, and then wrapped her up again.
 
I did what I didn't want to do which was cut her foot. I did it as fast and painless as I could. We will take wrap off tomorrow, re soak that foot, put neo back on it and re wrap it
 
2x KayTee's advice to pad their roost. An absolute must for bumblefoot. Covering the roosts with astroturf works best, but it's difficult to find the real thing.

The scab may need to be removed several times over the course of a few months, once every 3 weeks or so. We don't soak our girls' feet until the wound has scabbed over and haven't removed any scabs that look like the milder one on your girl's foot.

We had 6 with varying degrees of bumblefoot. One of our girls' feet looked just like the more severe lesion on your girl's foot. At 3 weeks after antibiotics and the vet removing the scab, ours also looked worse and so did the rest who didn't see the vet. We didn't give any additional antibiotics. It can seriously take months. Our worst cases are finally getting better and it has been 3.5 months now.
 
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2x KayTee's advice to pad their roost. An absolute must for bumblefoot. Covering the roosts with astroturf works best, but it's difficult to find the real thing.

The scab may need to be removed several times over the course of a few months, once every 3 weeks or so. We don't soak our girls' feet until the wound has scabbed over and haven't removed any scabs that look like the milder one on your girl's foot.

We had 6 with varying degrees of bumblefoot. One of our girls' feet looked just like the more severe lesion on your girl's foot. At 3 weeks after antibiotics and the vet removing the scab, ours also looked worse and so did the rest who didn't see the vet. We didn't give any additional antibiotics. It can seriously take months. Our worst cases are finally getting better and it has been 3.5 months now.

My girls nastiest wound is looking 10 xs better already. However the other one has pus I couldn't get out. Only way is to cut the foot in that area to remove the pus n I really don't want to do that to my poor girl again. But I also can't afford anymore vet care. So idk what to do.
 
My girls nastiest wound is looking 10 xs better already. However the other one has pus I couldn't get out. Only way is to cut the foot in that area to remove the pus n I really don't want to do that to my poor girl again. But I also can't afford anymore vet care. So idk what to do.


If one foot is looking better then that is already good news. I appreciate that you don't want to cut your girl's foot again, and in all honesty in your situation neither would I. Although bumblefoot is a nasty infection, it is not immediately life threatening - many birds live with bumblefoot for a long time without further complications. If you continue to treat it, with epsom salt baths (and Tricide Neo if you can get it) then you should gradually see an improvement and eventually it should heal.

However, having said that, if your bird starts to show a sudden change in behaviour or looks lethargic / ill then you should suspect that the infection may have spread, and get her to a vet immediately.
 
If one foot is looking better then that is already good news.  I appreciate that you don't want to cut your girl's foot again, and in all honesty in your situation neither would I.  Although bumblefoot is a nasty infection, it is not immediately life threatening - many birds live with bumblefoot for a long time without further complications. If you continue to treat it, with epsom salt baths (and Tricide Neo if you can get it) then you should gradually see an improvement and eventually it should heal. 

However, having said that, if your bird starts to show a sudden change in behaviour or looks lethargic / ill then you should suspect that the infection may have spread, and get her to a vet immediately. 

How will that remove the puss though?
 

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