Bumblefoot surgery Update - RIP Duckie :(

[desertdarlene]

Awww, that's really sad.

 

[Miss Lydia]

so sorry

 

[eurodanceqn]

Alright. So, I went ahead and tried to work on one foot. I got the 'scab' off, but there was nothing underneath except what looked like living tissue. The 'scab' was more of a callous. It's not warm or hot to the touch, and doesn't hurt him when I mess with it. My thought is that the infection itself is gone, but what is left is scar tissue from healing on it's own. Just a theory. So I just decided to pack both foot pads with antibiotic ointment and bandage them. He is residing in my spare bathroom at the moment so I can keep an eye on him. Thank goodness he is so tame. He was a real trooper. I took some pictures.

before I started.

after I got the top layer off.

after I attempted to find this elusive pus core and gave up before I hurt him.

He didn't have any trouble with walking before, but he might now. Poor guy.

Hi. I know that this is an old thread, but I had to comment on it in hopes of getting more information about ducks out there. Duck bumblefoot, though the exterior symptoms may look similar to chickens, look VERY different on the inside. Duck bumbles are usually not hard kernels. It will indeed look like living tissue, but it's living tissue in the sense that tumor cells are living tissue, so keep that in mind if you're being squeamish about cutting so much out of your duck's feet. It looks to me that most of the contents of that large growth is actually bumble that needed to be removed. Duck bumbles often look disturbingly similar to fat deposits, except they are usually pinkish in color. Also, unlike chickens, the bumble may not be isolated in a single, large deposit. It may travel some distance along the toe. If you live anywhere near an Asian grocery store, I highly recommend visiting their meat department and buying a package of duck feet so you can dissect a few and learn what healthy tissue should look like, because believe me, there will be moments where you will second guess yourself in your assessment of what is and is not a bumble. The "scab" that you had seen wasn't really a scab at all, but necrotized flesh, so you definitely did the right thing in removing it. That "scab" is not indicative of the duck's condition improving.

I'm sad to say that I learned the hard way that ducks can bleed out or go into shock and die during bumble surgery. You will need to use a tourniquet. A piece of fabric and a pen will work in a pinch. Just tie the fabric around the duck's leg VERY tightly, and then knot the pen onto the fabric. Twist the pen to tighten the fabric until blood flow is cut off. Do NOT use shoestring or any other type of cord. This will absolutely cut into the flesh like a knife. I had found that a benadryl or two (which was recommended by a vet to use as a mild sedative for pets) helps a lot in muting the pain and keeping them calm, so you may want to consider giving some to your duck in order to prevent it from going into shock while you're operating. Another thing, as I said, sometimes a bumble can travel up the length of a toe, which means you may end up with a very long incision that would require stitching before it can be bandaged up.

I really hope that this will help some duck owners out there. When I first started raising ducks, I found it very difficult to find any information on the problems I encountered, and frequently had to just do what I would do for my chickens and hope for the best. This definitely wasn't an effective method when I adopted a new drake into my flock and he ending up having the duck version of bumblefoot, the poor thing....