Bumblefoot surgery turned into much more! And now Roo troubles! Gahh!

[Airilith]

My EE hen has what I believe to be early stages of bumblefoot. So I got all the things I would need from the store yesterday, with the plan of cleaning it up today. This morning I soaked her feet in epsom salt water for 15 minutes. In the process of getting her out of the tub I noticed that one of the roosters must have cut her side quite bad. I'd seen injuries like that plenty of times when I worked in the poultry industry, but I have to admit that I freaked a bit to see it on my Star.

I calmed myself down, and my Animal Sciences degree kicked in. The supplies that I had set out for the bumblefoot treatment were all that I would need to patch her back up. The cut was all the way through her skin, which made me nervous. But there are no vets around here that see chickens, so I was the only option. I dipped a papertowel in the epsom salt water and soaked her side until the scab softened up a bit. I used the x-acto knife to get all of the scab off. She was very calm, though having her wrapped up in a shirt helped wonders. I then packed the outside of the wound with sugardine, as I'd seen recommended for bumblefoot. I just figured it would work the same keeping infection from setting in on this wound as well. For those of you who haven't heard of it (as I hadn't as of a few days ago either) it's just a mixture of betadine and sugar. After smearing it on the outside of her wound I taped gauze over it, and then tied a piece of cloth over it all to keep her from pecking at it.

I have her separated in a dog kennel in a different building. She's not exactly staying calm, but she has yet to remove the cloth, much less the gauze. I plan on changing the bandage daily, and I'm hoping that I can get her to sit with me calmly after I remove the bandage to let it air out a bit before I re-bandage it.

Now the reason I went into such detail is because I want to make sure I did the right thing. Is there anything else I should do for her?

Thanks guys!

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like you did fine. I've had to do that with two or three hens myself. Getting all that dirty scab out is the worst part. All we did was clean it out, pack with neosporin type stuff, put a stitch in, maybe a bandage over it. They usually heal up very well.

 

[Airilith]

Thanks Speckled!

There was not enough skin to put back in place

Poor girl. And I'm fairly sure I got all the nasty scab off. It had actually scabbed into the open portion of the wound. Pulling that stuff out was by far the nastiest part

Did you put neosporin into the wound, and not just on the outside?

At what point should I stop covering it? I just don't want to keep it covered too long because that can keep it too moist to scab properly.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm no expert on this stuff, but we packed the triple antibiotic ointment into the wound and covered with a gauze bandage,which we changed every couple days. It seeps some at first, but when it stops seeping/draining, you could leave the bandage off and just coat with ointment, I'd think. Both my girls were ripped up on both sides, poor things.

 

[Airilith]

Well it's healing nicely. When I changed the bangade on her side today, I had to tug a bit to reopen the wound (it had sealed slightly already!) to put neosporin in there. There's no smell, and no infection that I can see.

For any of you who are considering using sugardine, I don't suggest it on feathered body parts. Apparently her body heat made it turn into a sticky liquid that dripped down her entire side and has made all her feathers stick together. It took me a while to unstick them. Haha!

I also went ahead with her bumblefoot surgery this morning. I figured I should get it out of the way so she doesn't have to be isolated long than necessary. First I soaked her in epsom water again. I thought I had done good on the first foot, until I got to the second one. On the second foot, the 'plug' popped right out. So I don't think I went deep enough on the first foot. I packed both with sugardine and wrapped them. Tomorrow I think I'm going to have to try to get the plug out of the first foot. Poor girl!

For those of you who may have to do bumblefoot surgery in the future, it truly is a plug. On the second foot, I cut on the outer edge of the scab (into healthier looking tissue). Once I had cut clear around the scab, I applied slight pressure and the plug just came right out.

Oh the experiences we get owning chickens!

PS - Hey Speckled, should I have put her on antibiotics?

 

[Airilith]

I went to check on Star this afternoon, and found my poor RIR roo (Elmo) with one of his spurs ripped more than halfway off his foot. Am I doing something wrong, or do I have accident prone chickens?

I soaked it, cleaned it, put sugardine all over it, and wrapped it up. Is there any chance of it actually reattaching? Or do I need to remove it?

Back to Star, she's doing well. She was panting a bit, so I put a fan on her, and gave her some frozen tomatoes. Her feet are sore as expected, but she seemed pretty comfy laying down.

 

[speckledhen]

I don't give injectible antibiotics for bumblefoot anymore, not unless it is truly serious. Treating it topically seems to work just as well.

Not sure how your rooster's spur is hurt--my own Dutch had one snap completely off, so that he'd never get another one in its place. I think I'd remove it, but I can't picture exactly what your boy's looks like.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

I'd go ahead and remove the spur. The rooster we had when I was very young was a "Golden Comet" (another name for red sex link, iirc). "Whitey" (yup, we were not the least bit creative) lost a spur when he was young. It never grew back. The other spur continued to grow his whole life, which was quite long. Mom decided she had seen enough of the rooster tripping, so she got out the hacksaw. I had the "honor" of holding the rooster still for the procedure. (The joy of being the firstborn!) The spur looked like a tiger tooth when she cut it off! I think we had the shaving pencil thingy that stops bleeding ready, but Whitey did not bleed. It really was like cutting a toe nail on a mammal.

If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Bunny and my son recently had an altercation. Son (age 7) got a small scratch. Mr. Bunny tore his dew claw. It was dangling and looking quite painful. I have blood-stop powder for toe nails, so the Husband assisted with sprinkling powder on the wound once I removed the claw. I haven't checked to see if the dew claw is growing back yet.

Also, you mentioned wrapping the chicken in a shirt? I keep old towels on hand for wrapping critters in. A tight wrap in a towel reduces the number of scratches I get. I'd be afraid of claws piercing the shirt.

 

[Airilith]

Thanks everyone!

Elmo's spur was ripped off on the skin side, not on the hard part. That's why I was hesitant to remove it. He left it wrapped overnight, so for now I left it. Tomorrow I'm going to unwrap and deal with it.

GGCM, I use a thick work shirt. It's not a thin cotton shirt. And it's worked great so far because I can put theie heads in the sleeve so that they can't just roll out from under it.

Star Update: Her side is looking very good, but has yet to stay closed so I'm still covering it for now. But I think it'll be all healed up soon. I also dug back into her feet today. I still couldn't get a plug out of the first one, but I took out a bit more of bad looking tissue. The second foot had a bit more infection in it, so I cut that out too. I soaked both before and after cutting out the infections, so I'm hoping that will help as well. I also put only neosporin on her this time.

She was a whole lot more fiesty today while I was working on her, which I'm hoping is a sign that she's feeling better.

Thanks again for your help everyone!

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Put their head in the sleeve! That works for me, lol.

We had a cat that we would put in a pillow case for vet trips. She would squirm into a corner and purr extra loud. We surmised that she was remembering being in the womb. I always said she looked like the Shmoo from Lil Abner. (Am I the only one that remembers those weird little white things that could transform into anything?) The vet would pull out a hind leg and administer the shots. I'd hold her like a baby while my Mother drove. Except for the shots, the cat was stupid happy the whole time.