Bumblefoot – is this a good treatment plan?

[kryp]

I decided to go in again... I went in a little deeper this time and picked/squeezed more out gunk out. I packed in as much sugardine in as I could then wrapped her foot.

My plan right now is just to keep digging into it every 4-5 days and putting as much sugardine in there as I can.

I don't really want to be going in that often, but as I mentioned in my previous post the issue I'm having is that it scabs up quite quickly so I can't get the sugardine in there and puss seems to be forming in her foot which I can't get out unless I cut in. I'm not convinced it's any safter just leaving it to develop for weeks be honest.

My theory that if I just keep digging stuff out and putting sugardine in the wound eventually it might clear up...

She doesn't like putting weight on it anymore and although she's active and seems happy it's clearly bothering her.

 

[coach723]

If you can get the sugardine down in there, I use the end of the curette to kind of push it in, it helps. With a small hole I found it easier to pack in the sugar while it was plain, and then add 1 or 2 drops of betadine and let it wick in. When I had a really bad foot, I would pack it like that every day, and clean out what pus I saw at the time each time, gently, no cutting. The pus gradually became less and less, and then stopped making it. Doing this daily also helped keep it from healing on the surface first, closing everything in, and rather enabled it to heal slowly from the inside out instead. It was a long process, but my bird was completely recovered in the end and never had a recurrence in that foot after that. I know it may seem like you are going no where fast, it is a slow process. This was the only treatment that helped in my birds case, I'd tried everything else, tricide neo soaks, multiple surgeries, several oral antibiotics, pretty much everything. I was going to cull and then tried the sugardine as a last ditch effort. I will not lie, I was really surprised it worked. But it gave that bird several more years of good life.

 

[kryp]

If you can get the sugardine down in there, I use the end of the curette to kind of push it in, it helps. With a small hole I found it easier to pack in the sugar while it was plain, and then add 1 or 2 drops of betadine and let it wick in. When I had a really bad foot, I would pack it like that every day, and clean out what pus I saw at the time each time, gently, no cutting. The pus gradually became less and less, and then stopped making it. Doing this daily also helped keep it from healing on the surface first, closing everything in, and rather enabled it to heal slowly from the inside out instead. It was a long process, but my bird was completely recovered in the end and never had a recurrence in that foot after that. I know it may seem like you are going no where fast, it is a slow process. This was the only treatment that helped in my birds case, I'd tried everything else, tricide neo soaks, multiple surgeries, several oral antibiotics, pretty much everything. I was going to cull and then tried the sugardine as a last ditch effort. I will not lie, I was really surprised it worked. But it gave that bird several more years of good life.

Out of interest did your bird have a similar swelling to mine? And did you not need to extract anything – just kept putting sugardine in their daily and it eventually cleared up on its own? How do I know I'm making progress – should I expect to see the swelling subside?

Thank you

 

[coach723]

Yes, I had to extract pus. It was probably at least 2 weeks before it was really noticeably decreasing (it's been awhile, my memory isn't perfect). It would adhere to the healthy tissue, so I used the curette and tweezers to loosen and remove as much as I could as gently as I could. His foot did not have swelling between the toes, but I've had others that did. The pus should gradually decrease and then stop. I find it easier to feel when it's in the meatier parts of the foot, you can usually feel hard spots where you know you should not. In the bottom of the foot it can be harder to feel it, there is bone in there, and hens tend to have less meaty feet than roo's do. The swelling should subside as the pus formation does.

 

[RubelliteRose]

I don't really have anything to add to what coach723 has told you, that is really good advice.
I do remember that the swelling between Torchic's toes did take a while to go down after the infection was gone. The skin was pretty stretched out and she still has a small amount of extra skin between her toes in that spot even though the infection was several years ago.