Bumble Foot

[Heritage Farmstead]

I know there are many Bumble Foot posts on here... I've been reading for hours. The tutorial on surgery was fanastic. If only I had brains enough to check here before I paniced and paid $100 to take Myrtle to the vet!! =( Anyway - I knew she had bumble foot (this is our first case) but I was scared to do surgery ourselves (I'll know better next time!) Myrtle is an EE and she has been battling BF for about a month now. She had it in both feet. Her one foot healed nicely after getting the plug out, but the other foot we just cannot get healed up. I soak everynight for about 15 min in epson salt and betadine solution, then my husband pushes and squeezes, while I hold. We have gotten what we thought was a huge plug and loads of runny puss along with the 'cheesy' stuff too - but we just cannot get this to clear up. When we soak, and push/clean, the once huge swollen area between toes looks like a deflated balloon, so we think we got it all out and we're on the road to recovery- only to find it swollen or filled right back up by morning. We are injecting Muricin into it as the vet instructed/perscribed. She was laying right up til about a week ago. Now for the last couple days she isn't eating like normal and lost the color in her comb, has runny green poop. I've been feeding her plain greek yogurt - she eats it, but she is sooo thin....she doesn't move around much and hops bady when she does move. My poor girl is so sore! What do I do? Do I lance it open at the top of her foot and how will that heal? Thank you for any direction!

 

[Heritage Farmstead]

Anyone have additional advice? I'm getting more worried. Left for work this morning not feelig so good about her. She just lays in the cage I have her in - before I would come home to all the newspaper being torn up and her being vocal. Her foot is still huge and will need to be drained again tonight. Does it sound like there's another plug to get out? She did eat some of her yogurt but... what else can I feed her? HELP!

 

[welasharon]

Well I took mine to the vet after I kept piddling around trying to get it and the vet was able to get it all. I have read and been told that if it isn't ALL removed it won't heal so maybe the vet needs to look again? The vet cut mine on the tops in between the toes and on hte bottom.

 

[seminolewind]

Yes, I have bumblefoot surgery tonight. There was one lump now there's 2. I also cut from the top. I think the bottom's too painful, but that's me.

If it's not healing, I would think about putting her on an antibiotic like penicillin. Injectable if possible.

 

[skidder]

Hope you had luck with your chicken. I have fed our chickens small pieces of broke up bread in a dish of water, this way she gets both food and water, it is very important to make sure she stays hydrated. I had also made scrambled egg, then cooled and broke up into smaller pieces which she ate. This has worked well with our hens.

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Thank you to all who posted helpful information. I will be doing my 1st bumblefoot surgery tomorrow, my daughter will see that her hen (skidder) is well cared for after her ordeal. She will see that her hen stays in a large metal dog crate for a day or so during her healing process. This same hen (skidder) out smarted a predator twice in the last month, but both times was injured. Most recently she had a puncture wound on the top of her head while her throat was literally protruding outwards making it nearly impossible for her to eat and breath. We could only fed her alittle as she would gasp for air after eating. (food was not going down). We placed her in a cage and fed her small pieces of moist bread and water from a eye dropper for two days, we slowly moved up to chopped pieces of grass. We released her with the others but watched her carefully, the other hens took her back by the end of the third day. Now, poor thing has bumble foot. But confident she will bounce back from this as well. Thanks again.

 

[seminolewind]

Good luck!
I'm waiting for Tricide-neo, which is supposed to dissolve the kernal. I wonder if it worked for anyone.

 

[janinepeters]

Good luck!
I'm waiting for Tricide-neo, which is supposed to dissolve the kernal. I wonder if it worked for anyone.

Well, this is interesting. My thought, after reading through a lot of threads, is that Tricide-Neo probably only works if there is no hardened kernel. I think that early on, bumblefoot is a simple abscess, but if left untreated in the early stages, a hardened kernel forms, which needs to be surgically removed. TricideNeo worked for me, but I had assumed it was because I had caught it early and there was no hardened kernel. Not 100% sure on my interpretation, though.

I also think Heritage Farmstead was smart to take the bird to the vet. I've read through so many threads where people who tried it themselves found that eventually the bird had a recurrence, which probably indicates either they didn't get the whole kernel, or that they inadvertently got some bacteria in the wound during surgery, so the abscess developed again.

 

[seminolewind]

I don't know about the kernal either. I've been soaking in epsomsalts thinking I can soften the areas enough that the kernal is easy to locate.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Someone on the thread linked below used a sugar & iodine poultice on Bumblefoot:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/670000/bumblefoot-not-healing-well

I got the impression that the poultice helped draw a bumble & some pus to the surface where it was easier to remove. But I may have had a scrambled understanding...

Skidder--Your hen Skidder sounds amazing to have survived attacks & overcome such difficult injury! I'm glad you were able to give her TLC that helped. I hope your treatment of her Bumblefoot goes well.

 

[remisophy]

Hello
are you packing the sore foot with antibiotic ointment fill the wound with it? after soaking the foot