I’ve posted on here recently about my bumblefoot ordeal. Basically, I’ve been dealing with bumblefoot with 5 out of 6 ducks in the last couple of months, 1 drake and 4 hens. “Miss Limpy” had it the worst so I’d done surgery twice on her foot to drain the abscess and take out the pus, and put her on oral antibiotics for 5 days. She was doing better. The swelling seemed to be going down but her foot looks quite swollen again though not as hard. The scab remaining is a little yellow dot on the underside of the swollen area. So I started up the antibiotics again today. And my drake, Nibbles, seems to favor her because the back of her head is raw and she developed foamy eye which I’m now treating.
My drake has been put in isolation in a crate until I figure out what to do with him. He has 5 girls to himself but that’s not enough apparently and he’s even gone after one of my chickens a couple of times which I stopped right away. I was told that I should get rid of muddy areas in the run to prevent bumblefoot so I put my ducks out on grass and have been treating milder cases of bumblefoot by spraying with Bannix twice a day which seems to be helping. But Miss Limpy is on oral antibiotics a second time like I said and Nibbles’ sister and best pal, Tabitha, has bumblefoot on each foot pad which I treated by removing the scabs and then the pus. The scabs left behind now are yellow but the swelling hasn’t gone down really. Do yellow scabs indicate healing or could that be bumblefoot?
My question is, could it be my overzealous Welsh Harlequin drake who is causing all this bumblefoot in part? He likes to stand on top of my girls’ backs like a surfboard for a while and pull on the feathers on the backs of their heads before he even attempts to mate. I caught him recently doing that near the water bucket and casually taking a sip as he stands on his victim. I don’t know how I’m going to manage separating him and for how long I should separate him. I can’t keep him alone in a cage forever. But the bumblefoot is getting out of control and if he’s the culprit, I will need to let him go. Any ideas?
My drake has been put in isolation in a crate until I figure out what to do with him. He has 5 girls to himself but that’s not enough apparently and he’s even gone after one of my chickens a couple of times which I stopped right away. I was told that I should get rid of muddy areas in the run to prevent bumblefoot so I put my ducks out on grass and have been treating milder cases of bumblefoot by spraying with Bannix twice a day which seems to be helping. But Miss Limpy is on oral antibiotics a second time like I said and Nibbles’ sister and best pal, Tabitha, has bumblefoot on each foot pad which I treated by removing the scabs and then the pus. The scabs left behind now are yellow but the swelling hasn’t gone down really. Do yellow scabs indicate healing or could that be bumblefoot?
My question is, could it be my overzealous Welsh Harlequin drake who is causing all this bumblefoot in part? He likes to stand on top of my girls’ backs like a surfboard for a while and pull on the feathers on the backs of their heads before he even attempts to mate. I caught him recently doing that near the water bucket and casually taking a sip as he stands on his victim. I don’t know how I’m going to manage separating him and for how long I should separate him. I can’t keep him alone in a cage forever. But the bumblefoot is getting out of control and if he’s the culprit, I will need to let him go. Any ideas?