Bumblefoot not healing.

[RifleBear]

Hey folks. New to this site.

I have an ongoing issues with our huge cuckoo maran rooster (Buck). He has/has bumblefoot. It started a few months ago when just just stopped walking. We brought him inside and put him in a crate by the woodstove. He hardly ate or drank. We researched what to do, so I ran to the co-op to get the scalpel and everything else we needed. I cut the scab off very carefully but never saw any kernel. It didnt bleed much as I was extremely careful. I did pull out some 1/2" long white stringy things, but never saw a kernel. We bandaged him up with neosporin and his foot healed over. He eventually started eating and drinking pooping normal but never since has put weight on that foot.

As of today, he still wont stand on it. He stands on his good leg and swings his bad leg slowly underhimself. Like he's slowly paddling in water.

What am I to do now to fix him? Do I need to cut his foot open again and start digging around for a kernel? I really dont wanna do that. I have penicillin. And I dont want to cull him and cant afford a vet. Please help. I'm sick of this crap.

It wont let me attach the video of him. It says the "following extensions are allowed" then covers those extensions with a shaded box so that I cant see. Awesome.

 

[Eggcessive]

Videos here need to be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo with a link posted here to be seen. Pictures may help as well. Did the bumblefoot start out with a scab on his footpad? Could he have gotten his leg injured? How old is he?

 

[RifleBear]

Oh ok got it. Thanks for the help! I dont have any pics as I just got a new phone.

He was born first week of may 2020. Yeah it started with a scab on his foot pad. About the size of a dime. I should add that I did being him to a local homesteader lady who removed the scab for the 2nd time and she said there was no kernel in there either. His pad is still a little swollen, but it was never red like some others I've seen in pics.. The affected leg also looks smaller now (skinnier).

No leg I lnjuries that I'm aware of. There is a scab on his breast bone that we found last week. Probably from laying down all the time.

What do you think I should do next?

 

[Eggcessive]

I have had chickens with bumblefoot, but they never became lame. You are right that the breast blister is probably from him lying down a lot. I would would make sure that his bedding is padded and dry. You can clean his breast blister with betadine daily to help it heal. It would be helpful to see pictures of his feet and legs if possible. Was he vaccinated for Mareks disease? Roosters can get injured sometimes.

 

[RifleBear]

I have had chickens with bumblefoot, but they never became lame. You are right that the breast blister is probably from him lying down a lot. I would would make sure that his bedding is padded and dry. You can clean his breast blister with betadine daily to help it heal. It would be helpful to see pictures of his feet and legs if possible. Was he vaccinated for Mareks disease? Roosters can get injured sometimes.

I dont lnow if he was vax'd or not. We got him from Hoover hatchery. Not sure if their birds are vaxed before shipping or not. Probably not. I'll get some pics tomorrow. Wish I'd have done that today.

 

[RifleBear]

Here are some pics of his legs. All of that black stuff under his scales is ash. Their run was build over an old logging slash pile.

I soaked and scrubbed his feel with an old tooth brush before I took the close up pic of his pad. We can see that there is a small scab left. I will cut into that here in a little bit and squeeze the crap out of it. (Hopefully literally). He's a legend. He can handle it.

Please let me know if you have anything to add! I like to consider EVERYTHING before I start ANYTHING!

 

[Alaskan]

Extremely odd... I never would have guessed such a mild case of bumble would cause so many issues.

 

[coach723]

That looks like it still has infection in it. I have a roo that has had very stubborn bumblefoot that is the type that has stringy/ribbony pus through the foot rather than a compact plug. It's much harder to treat it as it's much harder to get it really cleaned out well, it sometimes tunnels through the foot. My first go round with my roo it took over a year and multiple procedures to get it to finally heal, no fun for either of us. He was good for about a year and a half and then had bumblefoot again. Second time around I cleaned it out as normal, but then used sugardine to treat instead. Sugardine is used on horses for hoof infections and thrush.
I will attach a video on it below. Sugardine is made with plain white sugar mixed with betadine. Pack the wound with it, then cover and wrap. Since their feet are relatively small and not much is needed I just packed the wound with the sugar and then added 1-3 drops of betadine and let it wick in, worked better that way for me. I did this daily at the beginning, as time went on I was able to go to every other day. I covered the sugardine with Duoderm CGF bandages (you can get them on amazon - https://www.amazon.com/DUODERM-CGF-...id=1612818908&sprefix=duoderm+,aps,624&sr=8-3) cut to size, they adhere to the skin but not the wound and hold it all in well. Cut to size you can get a lot of them out of a box of 5. Then wrap with vet wrap or co wrap bandaging. It also helps the wound to heal from the inside out, and not trap pockets of infection in there. It is not a quick process, it ended up taking about 5 months to get it to heal enough to leave bandages off. At first you may continue to see pus forming, so clean it out as best you can each time, reapply the sugardine, eventually the pus should stop forming. I don't have a before picture, but this is the foot after about 3.5 months of only cleaning and sugardine treatments (the dark part is just dirt-had just removed the wrap):

You can see the original margins of the lesion outside the pink part, where the tissue has filled in, it was pretty large. Despite the length of time it took this was much quicker than his first bout and healed much better.
If this roo of yours is constantly having issues then once he's healed up you might want to consider birdie booties for him, to protect his feet.
http://www.hensaver.com/Birdy-Bootie.html
Lowering roosts and making sure he's not jumping down from things too high, since he's heavy, may also help.

 

[RifleBear]

Extremely odd... I never would have guessed such a mild case of bumble would cause so many issues.

I know right. I have cut the scab off a few times, is was alot bigger.

It's got to be the ribbony type.

 

[RifleBear]

That looks like it still has infection in it. I have a roo that has had very stubborn bumblefoot that is the type that has stringy/ribbony pus through the foot rather than a compact plug. It's much harder to treat it as it's much harder to get it really cleaned out well, it sometimes tunnels through the foot. My first go round with my roo it took over a year and multiple procedures to get it to finally heal, no fun for either of us. He was good for about a year and a half and then had bumblefoot again. Second time around I cleaned it out as normal, but then used sugardine to treat instead. Sugardine is used on horses for hoof infections and thrush.
I will attach a video on it below. Sugardine is made with plain white sugar mixed with betadine. Pack the wound with it, then cover and wrap. Since their feet are relatively small and not much is needed I just packed the wound with the sugar and then added 1-3 drops of betadine and let it wick in, worked better that way for me. I did this daily at the beginning, as time went on I was able to go to every other day. I covered the sugardine with Duoderm CGF bandages (you can get them on amazon - https://www.amazon.com/DUODERM-CGF-4x4-Box-187660/dp/B001V9JUVE/ref=sr_1_3?crid=IYP6SPAVMZ89&dchild=1&keywords=duoderm+cgf+4x4&qid=1612818908&sprefix=duoderm+,aps,624&sr=8-3) cut to size, they adhere to the skin but not the wound and hold it all in well. Cut to size you can get a lot of them out of a box of 5. Then wrap with vet wrap or co wrap bandaging. It also helps the wound to heal from the inside out, and not trap pockets of infection in there. It is not a quick process, it ended up taking about 5 months to get it to heal enough to leave bandages off. At first you may continue to see pus forming, so clean it out as best you can each time, reapply the sugardine, eventually the pus should stop forming. I don't have a before picture, but this is the foot after about 3.5 months of only cleaning and sugardine treatments (the dark part is just dirt-had just removed the wrap):
View attachment 2521962
You can see the original margins of the lesion outside the pink part, where the tissue has filled in, it was pretty large. Despite the length of time it took this was much quicker than his first bout and healed much better.
If this roo of yours is constantly having issues then once he's healed up you might want to consider birdie booties for him, to protect his feet.
http://www.hensaver.com/Birdy-Bootie.html
Lowering roosts and making sure he's not jumping down from things too high, since he's heavy, may also help.

Yeah my roo's looked like that a while back too. He's gotta be on the uphill slope though now because his poop looks really good and healthy. Before it was literally rotten water spraying out.

I'm gonna cut that scab off in a little but here and treat him with something. Probably neosporin and get wrap. I'll have to use what I have here. Either that, or some other combo of vetericin, prid, neosporin, or Epsom salt.

If the stringy type infection is what he has, wouldn't he need to be treated with an antibiotic too? I have injectable penacillin here. Wouldn't that help expediate the healing process? Or is that totally unnecessary?