Bumblefoot plan of action .... please add any suggestions

[DTRM30]

I feel relieved that it seems as though as long as the wound is kept covered / clean / dry - that it heals rather quickly.

On a side note - I was thinking about soaking feet - and was dreading the time needed - needing to do each of 4 birds for 20 minutes or so tomorrow for a proper soaking -
I think I figured it out ...
My bathtub.

I'll fill my tub with an inch or so of warm water, add salts - put in the chickens and close the door (it has a sliding door, not a curtain) - set my timer and head back in a half hour - checking in every few minuts of course or even just sitting there reading my book (providing of course that they don't poop in it - then I'll have to drain it and refill it.)

Then, since I'm in the bathroom - I'll have the whole tiled floor area to treat with peroxide - dry, apply neosporin and bandage, then let loose - in the bathroom - to do the next. IF they poop on the floor - it's only tile. I've raised two boys and lots of dogs - and between them all have had to deal with a LOT worse than a bit if chicken poo on an easily cleaned tile floor. LOL.

If I do the tetricde-neo - I can do te same thing - then I don't need to worry about exposing myself to it. Though - not sure how the septic would feel about it ... hmmmmm - i'll have to research the recommended disposal method - but at least it's not a sewer - putting stuff like that into a sewer system is BAD. the treated water still contains traces of the drugs and ends up in drinking water, river water, etc. scary that is.

anyway ....
I'm almost excited about this - putting and end to this BF nonsense ! I'll have no more of it in my coop !

 

[SuziQ991]

I would wear latex gloves if I were you.

 

[DTRM30]

Quote:
yes, it's pretty much the same thing .... but I guess that they can get it from stepping on something sharp or the pad of their foot getting raw and bacteria entering the wound as well.

and yes - I was thinking maybe just a shelf type thing - kind of an elevated small strip of floor

We'll see - one thing at a time ...Good idea though. Thanks !

 

[lurky]

I have my first hen with bumblefoot too. We have been soaking it with epsom salt and warm water and bandaging it the same way you are, with the cloth/gauze tape.
Its not getting better, but not worse either. Its a frustrating thing when you dont really know if what your doing is going to help or not

I am lucky to just have one..........I feel so sorry for you to have so many to have to tend to

 

[DTRM30]

Quote:
YEs I plan on getting those as well - I didn't realize until further investigation that it's genrally staph - which makes sense now that I know - staph presents itself pretty much in the same manner in people .... a hard black sore. I have washed well after each handling yesterday and today - but will be taking that precaution as well.

Good to mention though - thanks !

 

[lurky]

i didnt know this, thank you both

 

[dawg53]

SuziQ991 is absolutely correct...wear gloves when doing the bumblefoot surgery. There is a post on here about tricide neo curing bumblefoot, just type in 'tricide neo' in the search box and it should come up for you. I've used it and it works...without the surgery. However, it can be time consuming...depending how deep the infection is. If you have rainy weather etc...I recommend using duct tape instead of vet wrap or other types of bandages, you can precut it to fit between the toes and so on. I take a piece of gauze, put iodine on it,then neosporin on top of that,then put in on the hole. Then wrap it up with the duct tape, not too tight though. Chickens cant pull it off neither. You'll need sharp scissors to cut through it to change it out. I dont recommend hydrogen peroxide for deep tissue cleansing, use betadine instead...Walmart has it. For bad cases of bumblefoot, DTRM30 is going to using a broad spectrum antibiotic which I think is a good idea to prevent the infection from deepening and going to the bone. I DONT recommend antibiotics for mild cases. Another BYC'er here recently lost her hen to bumblefoot because the infection went up to the hens knee and 3 different vets said there wasnt enough antibiotics to stop that particular infection because it was so deep and involved. The hen was culled. I dont recommend doing surgery unless your chicken is limping, that way you know infection has started. I've cut open small black spots and actually found nothing....a waste of time and putting stress on the chicken as well as possibly cutting small tendons and nerves when it's the plug/goop you're going after, and it not being there grrrrr. So, that's why it's best to wait til they limp. Furthermore if you have a muddy pen or something of that nature, the dirty water will get into the cut and introduce all kinds of germs and bacteria....another needless problem. Hope this helps.

 

[DTRM30]

I like the duct tape idea for bandage - I saw a show on duct tape - it's amazing what you can do with that stuff. They built an actual working cannon out of the stuff - but that's for another thread. Thanks everyone for all your help and advise - I'll let you know how it goes

Lots of thanks to Dawg - he's been awesome.

I;m thinking WalMart on my way home instead of CVS ... they'll have all the same stuff - and duct tape too - don't thin CVS will have that

But, maybe they should start to carry it, eh ?

 

[DTRM30]

Well, all went well - I hope. Now it's just a wait and see - hopefully I got it all and they heal quickly.

soak in the tub worked very well - at least for me. Got all 4 in - and they didn't move a inch. I set my timer for 30 minutes and walked away. Checking now and then - to see if they had pooped. - they Just stood there. They did poop in the water once - so I had to drain and re-fill it, but since it was only an inch deep - it only took a minute and being in the tub it was easy to clean. I will definitely use this method if I do the tricide neo. And that is only 7 minutes so even easier. I could probably put the whole lot of them in there and treat them all at once

Eh, we'll see.

The one who has it the worst I am worried about. The wound doesn't look like infection has stared, but it's just not looking very good or any better. It's a large hole - probably about half th size of her foot pad - and Her whole foot has swelling in it. Just waiting now for the antibiotcs to arrive so I can start her on those. I don't know if I'm being aggressive enougn either - I used a clean razor blade and made a small about 1/4 slice in the hole but it wasn't very deep - and squeezed - and got nothing - so I'm going to assume that there is no puss hiding inside - just general swelling. I still wish I had someone to show me the first time around - so I knew exactly how agressive I should be in working with the wound. I had gotten I think a small plug the first time though - I could be wrong though. I did use a lot of betadine - just squeezing some from the bottle right on the wound - and then holding a cotton ball with pressure for a minute on each foot - so hopefully that'll be good. I know my run is dry - so not worried about them walking in mud - one less thing anyway.

The others I don't think I'm going to medicate unless when I open their bandages on Sundy it looks like they'll need it.- I'm not going to soak again until Sunday. The second one whose foot was also starting to swell did have a little plug that popped right out- it looks like a tiny piece of corn stuck to the bottom of the scab - and was easy to clean upand bandage. The other two - well, one I hadn't planned on treating b/c her foot wasn't swollen, but the scab tore and she started to bleed so ended up treating her as well. I just washed it out - squeezed a little to see if there was any puss, wrapped her up and sent her on her way. The same with th last one. I do have to say - the ones that weren't showing any signs of swelling yet had nothing but scabs. I would definitely recommend not worrying about it until it starts to show swelling and limping. It's a learing experience for me so ....live and learn. I found it stressful for me to be worrying about 8 feet - and if I did the right thing - and hoping they don't get any secondary infections but I figured since I was treating them, I might as well treat both feet - since all feet had it.

So, 8 feet later and it's time to relax - after I check on my EE - she's the one that is the worst - and has the largest bandage on her foot - but was picking at it. Need to be sure she's leaving well enough alone. I didn't get a chance to get duct tape so used the roll of white waterproof bandaging tape I had -and I can tell you - it doesn't stick worth a s**t. I used the stretchy brown wrap - and that is holding. I wanted to have them somewhat breathable bandages. I may check the EE's bandage tomorrow and just change the dressing. My sister is in health care - and always reminds me not to over do it with the bacatracin - too much can be damaging - allowing anerobic bacteria to build which will kill new tissue. If I need to do more extensive surgery I think I'll ask her to come along - she has a bit more experience in cutting.

anyway - I took a few pictures - I need to find the thread with the directions to post them.

 

[DTRM30]

I'm thinking I may need to end up slicing the EE's foot right down the middle ... that swelling just isn't going away

The last one is the tiny plug that came out of the last chickens foot.

There was some bleeding - but not bad - and I just kept the water running and held their foot under the water so I could see what I was doing
None are limping - so that's a good thing so far.

They were actually extremely calm through the whole thing. The only time they pulled their feet away was when I was squeezing. Not sure if it was because it hurt or because it just felt strange.

Too bad no one has taken pics of the process of lancing - they may be graphic, but at least those of us who have never done it before would have a better idea of what we're doing

Someday ....