Bumblefoot in Geese

[RURU]

Last year during the winter I believe it was I did a surgery on my gander Spicie. I took a lot of the infection out and treated him. By the time Spring hit he had a bumblefoot so badly I could not believe it.
So I went and ordered scapel's to help do the surgery this time. So got everything ready.

1. Filled the kitchen sink with warm Novasan solution the vet recommended. Then took Spicie and soaked his foot for 15 minutes.

2. Got everything ready to operate on the foot. Scapel, tweeser's plastic and metal, scissors. Boiled water in a bowl for 6 minutes in microwave. Took it out and put everything in there to sterilize it with alcohol in there as well after taking it out of the microwave. Had vetericyn, mercuroclear, liquid bandage, q-tips, penicillin and syringe, vet wrap, towel for the counter and laytex gloves.

3. After soaking Spicie's foot cleaned the foot off with towel and took and put on laytex gloves. Picked up Spicie's foot and it was awful! Sorry no photo's. Husband is impatient with helping me.
It had a 2 and a half inch long ugly black pine cone shaped bumble and it was as big around as a 1 and a half inch around. I took the scapel that went right through this nasty black bumble so easy! After I got the off I sliced as much of it off as I could. Then it started bleeding so I took the towel and held it to stop the bleeding just like you would do for yourself after blood work.

4. After I got the blood to stop I then put vetericyn spay all over it let it dry. The took the clear mercuroclear and put that all over it. Then when that dryed I took the liquid bandage and put that on with two dipped q-tips in the liquid bandage and put that all over it. Let it dry.

5. Then took Spicie's foot and took vet rap and took a good size piece and took his foot and put it across the foot and held the foot full open when I put that piece on. Then took a long piece cut it inhalf long ways so had two long ones to wrap the foot more. I took it and started on the bottom and wrapped it and start going up his foot. Then took the second pice and started about the top of the foot continuing up the leg. This worked great it stayed on for 4 days before I took it off and re wraped it.

6. Then gave penicillin shot a tiny bit more than a 1/2 cc. Then gave a penicillin shot every other day for 5 times. The foot is looking much better and I hope will heal up good. I need to take another bumble off the other foot in an early stage.

But wanted to get him well on this other foot so he could walk better and he is walking so much better now. So after awhile of healing time I will then do the other foot. Which will be so much easier that that huge bumble. That was awful and nasty.
One thing you need to remember is even if you do operate they can and will come back if you miss any of that infection of the bumble! That is some nasty hard stuff!!!

I hope this will help anyone that has had problems with bumblefoot...

 

[Starfire669]

Thanks RURU. I have not had bumble foot yet, and I hope I never do. But I am glad to have a good guide for how to treat if it happens.

 

[RURU]

Thank you Starfire. I had read up on it but they did it on a chicken. Which was just a very minor case. So did not help much. Geese seem to get bumblefoot in a much different way and lots bigger. This one on Spicie was just awful... My husband called it a pine cone. When I finally got it cut off he said my gosh that was nasty and really big. It came to a point at the end. Just as black as can be.
We looked at all the infection in it. It was all hard infection in there!

My husband helped me the first time with Spicie's foot and he seen it the first time we removed it.
He could not believe how fast and how big it got from when we did it in the fall until spring. I could hardly believe it myself.

But I am glad to help in any way I can to help someone if hey have to do surgery on their feet.

 

[Starfire669]

I have seen pictures and videos of bumble foot removal for chickens, and it's not for the squeamish.I hope I am able to perform the surgery if/when the time comes.

 

[Tivona]

I had to deal with bumblefoot once. It was a duck so perhaps a bit easier then a goose but I was a nervous wreck by the end. I kept wondering did I get it all, am I hurting her, etc. The biggest problem I had was her bandaging. She would rip it off and I had an issue keeping the webbed foot in an open position. CelticOaks recommended using a thin craft foam sheet. I just set her on it and traced her foot a few times. I cut out the pieces and trimmed the edges making sure they would be smooth. Used a bit of bandaging and the vet wrap around that and the foam. It worked great for keeping her foot in the open position I wanted it in. I also used duck tape over the bandage to help keep it in place so she couldn't rip it off as easy. Plus she was a duck so it seemed duck tape would be the thing to do.

In the end she healed great and now I feel more confident if I should see it again.

 

[Starfire669]

I think you knew I needed your help RURU. Yesterday I discovered my rooster Screwball had bumble foot. I caught it early, I checked because of your thread actually, and I got the kernel out without having to dig too far into his foot. He is all bandaged up and walking fine, you wouldn't know anything was wrong except for the bandage. Thanks for the thread RURU, it really helped me yesterday.

 

[RURU]

I think you knew I needed your help RURU. Yesterday I discovered my rooster Screwball had bumble foot. I caught it early, I checked because of your thread actually, and I got the kernel out without having to dig too far into his foot. He is all bandaged up and walking fine, you wouldn't know anything was wrong except for the bandage. Thanks for the thread RURU, it really helped me yesterday.

So glad I could be of some help. Yesterday I had to have surgery on my arm. So I had surgery the same day your rooster did...

I am happy I could help.. We need a thread like this so people can ad to it on what they have done to help their birds....
You are welcome Starfire...Please anyone who has more to add to this join in and give you experiences. Or poltuses (sp?) to put on the foot to help heal or pull the bumble from the foot..

 

[Starfire669]

[COLOR=FF3333]So glad I could be of some help. Yesterday I had to have surgery on my arm. So I had surgery the same day your rooster did...[/COLOR]   [COLOR=FF3333]I am happy I could help.. We need a thread like this so people can ad to it on what they have done to help their birds....[/COLOR]
[COLOR=FF3333]You are welcome Starfire...Please anyone who has more to add to this join in and give you experiences. Or poltuses (sp?) to put on the foot to help heal or pull the bumble from the foot..[/COLOR]

Well, I'm still looking for a lot of things for my flock. So I did have to improvise. I sterilized a brand new craft knife (looks exactly like a scalpel) and cut his bumble out, I also read on another thread that bandages soaked in colorless Iodine help leach out any remaining infection in the foot. So I soak a piece of gauze in iodine, cover it with a dry gauze, the bandage with vet wrap. I check and reapply two times daily and it looks good. Since i did not have to cut in very deep, he dose not have a large wound. My main concern is if I missed some of the bumble, this being the first time I have had to treat this. I also gave him some oral antibiotics in his water and kept him penned up for the first day after surgery. Because Screwball came to me with mites, I am also treating him with Epirnex pour on, he gets his second treatment tomorrow for that (my whole flock is getting treated, just to be safe.). I am being very careful not to give him any antibiotics today or the next couple days because I don't know how the antibiotics and Eprinex could interact in his body if mixed. I will keep everyone posted on how the iodine bandages work.

How is your arm RURU? I hope it doesn't give you lots of pain. I have had 2 surgeries in my life, and both sucked. The leg surgery wasn't so bad, but my spinal fusion surgery, well, it still gives me all kinds of issues and pain. I hope your surgery wasn't nearly that invasive and that you heal and can move on with your life soon. Good luck!

 

[RURU]

Well, I'm still looking for a lot of things for my flock. So I did have to improvise. I sterilized a brand new craft knife (looks exactly like a scalpel) and cut his bumble out, I also read on another thread that bandages soaked in colorless Iodine help leach out any remaining infection in the foot. So I soak a piece of gauze in iodine, cover it with a dry gauze, the bandage with vet wrap. I check and reapply two times daily and it looks good. Since i did not have to cut in very deep, he dose not have a large wound. My main concern is if I missed some of the bumble, this being the first time I have had to treat this. I also gave him some oral antibiotics in his water and kept him penned up for the first day after surgery. Because Screwball came to me with mites, I am also treating him with Epirnex pour on, he gets his second treatment tomorrow for that (my whole flock is getting treated, just to be safe.). I am being very careful not to give him any antibiotics today or the next couple days because I don't know how the antibiotics and Eprinex could interact in his body if mixed. I will keep everyone posted on how the iodine bandages work.

How is your arm RURU? I hope it doesn't give you lots of pain. I have had 2 surgeries in my life, and both sucked. The leg surgery wasn't so bad, but my spinal fusion surgery, well, it still gives me all kinds of issues and pain. I hope your surgery wasn't nearly that invasive and that you heal and can move on with your life soon. Good luck!

This is a good place to talk about how we have treated our birds no matter what kind of birds. Because they all seem to get bumblefoot. I am interested in learning more of mixtures to put on the foot to help pull the extra bumble from the foot.
I have heard clear iodine and sugar make a good paste to put on the bumble and draw out the bubble infection.

Thank you for asking about my arm. It is all swollen up and hurts because he had to remove a lot of muscle from my arm because it had a graft of parathyroid in it from my neck. They operated on me 2 years ago to take all my parathyroid glands from my neck due to it was producing too high of number and causing the calcium to bleed from my bones. So they took it out and put some in my right arm. Last year I had to go back in again and have the right arm operated on and a chunk of muscle taken out. Now the number's went up again so I had to go back and have it operated on again. I pray to GOD they got it out this time. Because when it bleeds the bones of calcium it makes you hurt so badly you can not function! Any surgery hurts some more so than others. Thank you for the hug!

 

[viggo]

Cant catch my goose Hansel. I think he has bumble foot he is free range help