bumblefoot not healing well

[welasharon]

I like the idea of the poultise as well. I will keep it in mind.

 

[Novaleigh]

I gave White Tip her first shot of penicillin yesterday, I also lanced her foot open and removed the black scab. No puss, nothing. Only a bunch of blood. She had swelling in her feet, between her toes, ankles and shank. Poor girl. I also soaked her foot in salt and put a crap ton of neosporin on both her feet and wrapped them up with vet wrap. Today, I soaked her feet again in salt water. I put a bunch more neosporin on both of her feet. I put fresh vet wrap on her. She has been living in our livingroom since yesterday in her own little quarters. The swelling has not gone down. However, her swollen foot (both have the black scab, but only one was hot and swollen) was not as hot to the touch today. I will keep yall updated on her progress and what I do each day for her. I will give her another penicillin shot tonight.

 

[PoultryPedia]

I'd be sure to rinse the salt water off her feet after if you aren't already--I hear salt left on wounds will inhibit wound healing. But wonderful of course for drawing out infection! It sounds like you're giving her wonderful TLC!
If you are using Procaine Penicillin, I think you can possibly skip a day because the Procaine slows absorption so the dose is "long-acting". I don't like giving Penicillin shots so try to find ways I can avoid when possible.

 

[bucky52]

i treated my hen with (Tricide -neo powder) in may, it did not help my hen.i was so hoping this would cure my hens bumblefoot.it cost me around 26.00 after shipping.i treated her for seven days.
last week we put a load of sand in the coop and run.and i have noticed she is not limping as bad.

 

[welasharon]

i treated my hen with (Tricide -neo powder) in may, it did not help my hen.i was so hoping this would cure my hens bumblefoot.it cost me around 26.00 after shipping.i treated her for seven days.
last week we put a load of sand in the coop and run.and i have noticed she is not limping as bad.

Same here. I do believe it held it where it was at...but I think it was too far gone to fix it. It does seem, as some have posted, that as soon as the "bumbles" are dug out the swelling and redness goes away.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Another (hopefully the last) update on the bumblefoot:

Before the heat hit, if you remember, i was trying a new iodine/sugar salve, and i had reported great success with it, but i had to stop during the heat just in case the bandage was too much. (we had temps in access of 100 this month!)

Yesterday i saw that her foot was bumped out again, and i was bummed, thinking that it was the end......... But i did one more sugar/iodine treatment, to soften the scab so i could pull it off easily today.

Boy was i surprised, i cut off the scab and out came a core and the cheesy stuff that i should've seen before! It appears that the salve drew the last hard plug out from between her toes! (I found it after the salve had shrinked her foot pad the other week) So i will not have to do a real surgery, it just came right out!

So if anyone on here has to deal with a possible level 3 infection, (whole foot pad gone solid, almost to the bone incurable)
I would suggest doing the 1 ml penicillin for 5 days, doing the sugar/iodine as well. Do the surgery, infection should be down enough to easily see what you need to cut; less chance of getting staph yourself. Wrap with the standard triple antibiotic ointment, continue with the other 5 days penicillen.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

could you clarify this? I'm picturing the bottom of the hen's foot, open sore because you've operated. At what point are you putting it on the wound?
Gold star on your forehead, you've really worked for your little girl.

No, this is something i started doing a few days after, when the scab was solid.

I gave White Tip her first shot of penicillin yesterday, I also lanced her foot open and removed the black scab. No puss, nothing. Only a bunch of blood. She had swelling in her feet, between her toes, ankles and shank.

Yours may be advanced, like mine was. Most of the help i saw was for the first and second stage infection, not for when the whole thing is going solid. See my last post, advice at the end. I too, thought i had done the surgery the second time i did it, but i just cut a hole in it. All that stuff that looks solid does not belong. I winged it and went from just outside the scab at an angle. there will be a seperation between the foot skin and what is the dead hard tissue. I didn't use the sharp side of the knife for this, just seperate. it takes hours. Mine ended up down to the bone, if i had to do it all again i would start the antibiotics and salve first to shrink it and make it easier for the hen and myself!

Whatever you do, know that in a case as far gone as this it will not be easy and will take a lot of patience. I have been trying to cure my hen for 3/4 of a year now, and only now have i reached this tipping point. I am still not out of the water, stage 3 has a low cure rate, and i won't rest easy until i see it without any scab!

 

[Novaleigh]

Today is day 5 of White Tips penicillin shots (one a day). She is doing so much better!!! The swelling has gone down a considerable amount, and she barely limps anymore! YAY!

 

[TwoCrows]

I gave White Tip her first shot of penicillin yesterday, I also lanced her foot open and removed the black scab. No puss, nothing. Only a bunch of blood. She had swelling in her feet, between her toes, ankles and shank. Poor girl. I also soaked her foot in salt and put a crap ton of neosporin on both her feet and wrapped them up with vet wrap. Today, I soaked her feet again in salt water. I put a bunch more neosporin on both of her feet. I put fresh vet wrap on her. She has been living in our livingroom since yesterday in her own little quarters. The swelling has not gone down. However, her swollen foot (both have the black scab, but only one was hot and swollen) was not as hot to the touch today. I will keep yall updated on her progress and what I do each day for her. I will give her another penicillin shot tonight.

You mentioned in this post that she has swelling between the toes, ankles and leg shanks. Are the scales of her leg opaque as well? I dealt with a hen with what I thought was bumblefoot for 5 full months...swelling between the webbing of the toes, swollen foot joint, hot, swollen foot pad, daily surgeries to the pad, and it turns out that I was not only dealing with a staph infection from a puncture wound, (bumblefoot), but my flock had an outbreak of MS, mycoplasma synoviae, which causes similar symptoms to bumblefoot. It only affects the left foot of the chicken, causes swollen pads, foot joints, swelling at between the toes and webbing, sometimes the hocks are affected and it causes them to limp and or lameness. Penicillin only staved it off and I had to move on to Baytril and Cephalexin. I am still working on it, and this is day 40 on these meds. But this hen is nearly done an is expected to make a full recovery.

If you have cleaned out this wound til the cows came home, and there is nothing in there, and it is months later, but the infection continues, you may be dealing with MS along with bumblefoot.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

With the MS was there a black scab? I had never heard of it being only in the left foot, thanks for the info! Had to think back on what foot mine was! Whew.
My little hen continues to get better, i got to let her go bandage free today!

I can't feel any more hard stuff in the foot pad.

Novaleigh, feel her foot now and see if you feel any hard lumps...... Now the swelling is down they would be much more pronounced. If there are corns, or dead tissue in there, it still has to come out or it will re-infect! This is the perfect time to do a "surgery", the crud should come out easy now. (I wouldn't even call the last one a "surgery", i just cut around the scab and it all came right out with a tiny squeeze) My hen had a bit between her toes that i missed with the first surgery, that's why it wasn't healing right, but i didn't find it until after the salve and antibiotics had brought the swelling down. Good luck, i am rooting for your hen!