Bumblefoot back and worse than ever!

[Ziggy1973]

I had treated a couple birds with early stage bumblefoot at the end of last year and thought it had been "cured". I'll admit I got lazy with checking their feet over the winter. I noticed one of my girls holding her foot up off the ground so went to check her out. I've attached photos of her foot. I know this is a bad case and I feel awful! Is it at the point where I need to cut into the top of her foot? The foot is quite warm but soft. I feel no hardness. So I went in through the bottom scab and only found some stringy white stuff, which I pulled out. I've dressed her wound and put her back in the coop as I didn't want to traumatize her any more today. I really need some advice on what to do at this point. I'm a bit squeamish but will do what needs done. I don't want her to continue suffering or die from this. Thanks.

 

[dennisma1]

Hi , sorry to hear that. Are you soaking her feet too?. My hens never seem to mind. Epson salts is a plus .

 

[Tom Kathleen]

I use a very sharp tweezers (like razorman tweezers -- they're almost like little scalpels) to pull the whole circle off. It's a TWO person thing. One person holds the chicken upright and the other has to work below (I never tilt a chicken to work on them -- unless it's a crop massage with a bad impaction). When the whole circle is opened up, use tweezers to really go in there. There will be a lot of white stuff judging from the size of the swelling. It will start to bleed pretty profusely. When I've gotten all the white stringy, pussy stuff out, I squirt it HARD with iodine or chlorahex. Really get it up there. Chicken's gonna struggle. Then, I pack it full of antibiotic, put a water proof padded blister bandaid on there and wrap it in vet wrap. Lace the vet wrap in and out of toes and up over and around leg to make sure it sticks -- don't ever stretch vetwrap to apply on something like this -- it will cut off blood flow. Then I release her with her friends. In one week, I cut off the bandage. Sometimes it's healed and sometimes it requires a few more treatments. Bumble is usually caused by staph infection, so if it's really bad, you can give her a week's worth of staph treating antibiotics, but a vet would have to tell you want exactly to give. Good luck!

 

[aart]

I had treated a couple birds with early stage bumblefoot at the end of last year and thought it had been "cured".

How did you treat it?

 

[Ziggy1973]

yes, I am doing epsom salt soaks.

Hi , sorry to hear that. Are you soaking her feet too?. My hens never seem to mind. Epson salts is a plus

 

[Ziggy1973]

How did you treat it?

Every three or four days I would soak the foot in water with epsom salt for around thirty minutes then used tweezers to work the black scab off and pull out any of the white, stringy infection. There was never a kernel in the foot. I would then put antibiotic ointment on a gauze pad, put it over the wound and wrap with vetwrap. I did this until there was no black scab reforming.