Bumblefoot surgery - with pics and "how to"

[LR Gamefarm]

I got a question one of my broodcocks has bumblefoot and I followed the directions but when I pulled the scab off there was a big piece (I'm pretty sure it was the kernel) so I pulled it out and squeezed his foot and nothing came out but blood so did I get everything out or is there still something in there?

 

[wildsam]

I got a question one of my broodcocks has bumblefoot and I followed the directions but when I pulled the scab off there was a big piece (I'm pretty sure it was the kernel) so I pulled it out and squeezed his foot and nothing came out but blood so did I get everything out or is there still something in there?

You might have gotten it. But only time and healing will tell. I would let it heal (with Neosporin wraps daily) and see if it gets better. The swelling should start to subside and she shoud start walking on it better, but it can take a few weeks, depending on the severity of the bumble.

 

[LR Gamefarm]

You might have gotten it. But only time and healing will tell. I would let it heal (with Neosporin wraps daily) and see if it gets better. The swelling should start to subside and she shoud start walking on it better, but it can take a few weeks, depending on the severity of the bumble.

It was pretty big a little smaller than a dime or penny I noticed it about a month ago but I didn't know what it was until I seen this thread it didn't bother him that much he walked around didn't limp or nothing acted normal but I raise American games strains they are bred to with stand pain so maybe that's why he didn't show any signs of having it.

 

[acwoodrum]

Help! Maybe you can tell me where I went wrong. I have a lovely duck that I just noticed has what I thought to be bumblefoot. Her mass is at least 5 times that of the one in your pictures (I would say larger than a marble...maybe the size of a "catseye" marble?) I soaked in epson salt water and cracked off the black scab with the help of some sterilized nail scissors. what was left looked much different than your pictures. A large fleshy mass (still HUGE) was under the scab (It looked like of like a brain?). I cut at it with the scissors and it started bleeding. I cut on another side...more blood. A TINY bit of fluid MAY have come out but it was likely just blood. I kept squeezing, cutting different areas and nothing but blood. Feeling sufficiently WRETCHED for putting this poor girl through what had to be so painful, I gave up. I sprayed it with a heavy dose of a spray antibiotic for livestock letting it flush away some of the fluid and taped it up tight. I didn't have the same tape as your pictures but it should hold until I can get the right "equipment". Please tell me what happened! I poked the scissors in fairly deep, there was much more blood than your pictures, and it just felt like a large tumor. The more snips I made the more flesh I found. The foot is hot and slightly swollen, it looked just like many pictures I've seen (though larger than the majority) except there was no pussy mass that could just be pulled out leaving an empty cavity behind. What is going on?

 

[Amiga]

I don't have experience with advanced cases, but I would start this duck on antibiotics - Duramycin10 probably would be the way to go. One reference I saw was half a tablespoon of Duramycin-10 per gallon of water for 7 to 10 days.

Meanwhile, even some of the more advanced cases of bumblefoot have been cleared up with treating with clear iodine instead of cutting.

On July 1st, I found one of my Pekin ducks with what I would consider a bad case of Bumblefoot. Both feet were involved and I'm ashamed to say, the only way I found it was she was limping. One foot had 7 and the other had 3. I was able to grab her and bring her into the house and put her into a warm bath to clean and soak. Two water changes later and softened feet, all I had time to do was paint the bumbles with colorless iodine, grabbed the wrong stuff, and put her into a dog crate in my house until I could get everything ready to operate and get them gone. Did I mention the thought of this scared me half to death?

Sad to say it took 6 days before i was able to get everything together and someone to help out with the 'cure'. The following pictures are what we found after the bath we gave before the planned surgery to remove these things.




















As can be seen, there really wasn't much to operate on, even though I was prepared to do just that. No matter how much squeezing or prodding or soaking, there just wasn't anything more to come out, it was all on the scabs that were covering the sores. The swelling was down from the 'marbles' I saw when I first found them. I poured betadine over the ones I had opened and painted the ones that I hadn't again with the iodine and put her back into her crate with clean bedding.

the next pictures are of the same Pekin and anothe duck, Dottie the Mallard, who was also found limping.












As can be seen in the first two pictures, the bumbles have been dramatically reduced on the Pekin with just the iodine application and the smaller ones totally gone. The last four pictures are of the Mallard who is still under going the iodine applications.

As can be seen, this is how the left and right foot look tonight on the Pekin duck. The heels being the worst are still showing infection and need for more treatment. tomorrow, I will again give a bath and pull/cut out the scabbing and treat with straight iodine this time. These spots are now flat or as flat as they should be considering the part of the foot they are on. I will still touch up the places that had the spots before as well.

 

[acwoodrum]

@Amiga Thank you for your response. although my girl only has one black spot it is MUCH larger than those I see on yours and yours doesn't appear to have any blood. Where do I get Duramycin? We have a Rural King and a Farm and Fleet nearby but both seem to be pretty useless when it comes to poultry (though both claim to be "farm" stores...).

 

[wildsam]

You might get it in the Meds and refrigerated section of the feet store. Usually where they keep all the cow stuff too (yea, been there and done that too!).

The bumble is kinda what I kept getting with my Pekin (don't it seem like mostly pekins get affected or is it just me?) and I kept cutting in and deep. Lots of blood. Enough to worry me and stop. SO got worried too if we even cut at the right stuff.
Still didn't get any kernel or anything like this and just BlueKote and Neosporin wouldn't help. Then we sapped on clear iodine and a bunch of Neosporin for a few days and she is good as new now! So from now on we will remove the scan and the stuff underneath and try that first if we don't seem to find a kernel and see how it goes.

Of course SO still keeping to crush over his dang soda cans in the drive where the ducks walk don't help bumble prevention IMHO. and I'm chewing him out every chance I get for it too!

So just try iodine and packing it with Neosporin daily and just see if it gets better. Healing can take a good 2 weeks though from my experience with this. Maybe it will help your ducky and save some stress and frantic (on our side) this way!

 

[MrsBachbach]

Quote:
If your local feed stores don't carry what you need, try online stores such as Jeffers, Twin City Poultry supply, or Smith Poultry and Gamebird supply. One thing most feed stores do carry in the refrigerated section is PenG injectable. That should be good for bumblefoot infections. If you go that route get a one ml syringe and a needle no larger than 20ga(the larger the number the smaller the needle, btw). The dosage I have used is one tenth of a ml per 10 pounds for three days. One other thing you may try in addition to antibiotics is using a poultice to draw infection out. The daily epsom salt soaks would help also. One poster recommended an iodine/ sugar paste poultice. I tried that and it did seem to help. Make a paste, put some on the wounds, apply a gauze pad, wrap with vetwrap or more gauze and then wrap with some sports tape to help keep it on. You might want to change this daily (I waited two days), removing any scabs or infection you see while changing, and do this for several days and see if the swelling starts going down. My birds where chickens, not ducks, but I would think the most important thing is to keep the bird in a dry area and keep the feet clean while healing. That sports tape or better yet, waterproof medical tape, helps keep the nasty poop off the foot.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Animal, I would assume that the black thing was bad and needed to come out. As far as how big to cut the circle, I'm waiting for a set of those biopsy things. I got a set of different sizes on ebay for $19.

My last one was when I removed the plug, I got some pus. But 2 days later after the Epsom paste poultice, I messaged the foot and a kernel popped out. Seems like the poultice drew it close to the surface so it could come out.

Nothing like a good poultice!!!

WOW that's good to know just in case my roo does have bumble foot. Not sure right now so on here reading so I will know what I need to do. Vet looked at it and thinks it's a callus and it's like a ball under there with a small black spot but not crusty and not real black, more like light black and not crusty looking. BUT a huge ball like thing under his foot. He gave me something to put on it 2x a day and said if it wasn't better in 2 weeks he'd have to remove that ball and then pull the skin over the hole and sew it up. Afraid that might get expensive. IF I have to do any surgery on him myself (I HOPE I DON'T) I have some sovereign silver I'll put in the hole before I put the wrap over it. Read on another forum where people were using sulfur tablets for humans I'll post the message here since I cut and pasted and saved it in case I need it. Going to buy some sulfur tablets tomorrow along with clear iodine and vet wrap and betidine if I can find that. See below........I just don't know about leaving it open though. I think I'd HAVE to bandage it.


I asked him to look at a hard spot on the pad of her left foot that had a black scab on it.
He removed the scab and confirmed a small ulcer underneath, the very early beginings of what could turn into
bumblefoot. So I asked was he going to give me antibiotic creams and would I have to bandage it. He advised me
that the top chicken experts in the UK now advide NOT to bandage the ulcer, but to leave it open, keep it dry,
wash twice a day with hibbiscrub AND to add sulphur to their diet for 3 weeks. He said to get a sulphur tablet
supplement ( for humans) grind up 1 tablet and put a few grains in her food over a 3 week period. using up the
1 tablet over that time. Along side this to give her oral ABS, to kill any infection.

 

[RoseMarie1]

WOW some of you pros come to my house and look at my roo. Going to dr. his foot in the morning and maybe I can get some pix. I will take me a towel out there so I can wrap him up and take a pic or two. He is a huge roo and have had to wrap the towel around him before to remove spurs. Thank you guys for sharing all this info so we will know what we need to do. NOT that I am looking forward to all this digging. My stomach is rolling just thinking about it.