Bumblefoot surgery - with pics and "how to"

[MrsBachbach]

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. 

Pics would help! Is he limping or in pain? When I went through bumble foot about a month ago, I left many alone. I only treated the ones that had significant swelling, redness, and limping or swelling between the toes. I saw several more, including roosters, that had the black scab on the footpad of varying sizes with some slight swelling of footpad. I have come to the realization that some of these cases of bumblefoot are not severe and usually resolve on their own. Maybe the body encapsulates the infection and keeps it from spreading. That's sure what it looked like on one hen I worked on. I pulled out some stringy stuff and then got ahold of something white and when I pulled on that, a whole sack like membrane came out. She sure squawked on that. Then it bled quite a bit. Ugh.

Anyway, I would do the poultice wraps and epsom salt soaks on your rooster along with maybe treatment of the internal kind like your info suggested. If it was me, I would avoid the surgery and try the other methods first. As far as not wrapping the foot after opening it up, I would be worried about poop getting in that open wound. I mean, that's how the staph starts in the first place, right? So, if one keeps it unwrapped, I would think the bird would have to be confined to a small clean crate with alot of shavings.

Btw, I have seen iodine and betadine at Walmart, although not sure if it was clear iodine.
.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Thank you!!!



Well it actually looks a little darker today. See the blob under his foot? On the side to the left the blob is pushing against that toe and it has a small black spot on that side. This blob is sticking out sooo far I am wondering IF that is WHY the black spot because it's not crusty.










I soaked it in nice warm water before taking the pic so you could really see the foot and not the dirt. lol



He's a big ole roo!
And the poor thing is molting to I think. I wrapped him in a towel so he couldn't fight with me and when I unwrapped the towel feathers were all in it.
By the way I don't still have him on the hardware cloth bottomed pen. This is a table I use out by their pen that he is on.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Thank you!!! Well it actually looks a little darker today. See the blob under his foot? On the side to the left the blob is pushing against that toe and it has a small black spot on that side. This blob is sticking out sooo far I am wondering IF that is WHY the black spot because it's not crusty. I soaked it in nice warm water before taking the pic so you could really see the foot and not the dirt. lol He's a big ole roo! And the poor thing is molting to I think. I wrapped him in a towel so he couldn't fight with me and when I unwrapped the towel feathers were all in it. By the way I don't still have him on the hardware cloth bottomed pen. This is a table I use out by their pen that he is on.

It doesn't look real bad. Is he limping or favoring the foot? I've seen some big foot pads like that before. I would monitor it along with the foot soaks and poultices and maybe the internal medicine. It may just resolve itself. Now if he is limping, I would do all the above for several days then maybe do the bumblefoot surgery.

 

[RoseMarie1]

It doesn't look real bad. Is he limping or favoring the foot? I've seen some big foot pads like that before. I would monitor it along with the foot soaks and poultices and maybe the internal medicine. It may just resolve itself. Now if he is limping, I would do all the above for several days then maybe do the bumblefoot surgery.

No he's not limping I just keep seeing him walking like he's walking on eggs shells. I kept watching him and he seems to be fine so I think I am going to soak it in epsom salt and put the stuff on it for a few days the vet gave me and see if it shrinks it. Then also I will do the poultice.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Well I think this stuff the vet gave me to put on it is shrinking it. I just don't think it's AS big as it was. Might be wishful thinking but it sure does look smaller to me. I was able to get my finger in between all around it and before it was a tight squeeze to do so. He's such a good roo and so docile and patient. He seemed to really like his foot spa this morning. hee hee he looked around at me while I had him standing in it like ahhhhhhh THAT feels good! lol At one point I thought he was going to go to sleep on me because he started getting really heavy!

I grabbed a tighter hold on him to keep him from going into the epsom salts water. I wrap him in an old towel to be able to do it and him not wiggle and squirm but he's doing so good. Wasn't as hard to catch this morning either.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Well I think this stuff the vet gave me to put on it is shrinking it. I just don't think it's AS big as it was. Might be wishful thinking but it sure does look smaller to me. I was able to get my finger in between all around it and before it was a tight squeeze to do so. He's such a good roo and so docile and patient. He seemed to really like his foot spa this morning. hee hee he looked around at me while I had him standing in it like ahhhhhhh THAT feels good! lol At one point I thought he was going to go to sleep on me because he started getting really heavy!  I grabbed a tighter hold on him to keep him from going into the epsom salts water. I wrap him in an old towel to be able to do it and him not wiggle and squirm but he's doing so good. Wasn't as hard to catch this morning either. 

Well that's great if it's shrinking. What is that magic stuff the vet gave you?

Warm water foot soaks just seem to relax chickens. I just put a few inches in a rectangular bucket I have, set the bird in the water, then put my laundry basket over it to create a cage of sorts. If I'm bathing that foot, they really seem to like the old soft toothbrush scrub on the bottom!

 

[cholmberg]

I have found bumblefoot on one of my hens. . .it's between her toes and on the top of her foot. I can't
believe I didn't see it before today, but she is very flighty and doesn't like me anywhere near her. So I
am going to try to follow the directions I've seen on here tomorrow and I'm frankly kind of worried.
I've done lots of gross procedures, but I've never taken a scalpel to a live animal. ..and I've had a
staph infection before that was no joke, so I will try to make it as sanitary as possible. I can't
imagine how she got it, unless she got a tangled up with some burdock burrs. She isn't heavy, or
fat. . .the perches are not splintered, they free range, but it's mostly pasture. I hope I can clear it up.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Well that's great if it's shrinking. What is that magic stuff the vet gave you?

Warm water foot soaks just seem to relax chickens. I just put a few inches in a rectangular bucket I have, set the bird in the water, then put my laundry basket over it to create a cage of sorts. If I'm bathing that foot, they really seem to like the old soft toothbrush scrub on the bottom!

It's a tub of stuff Vetone Chlorhexidine 2% antiseptic with 2% chlorhexidine gluconate.
yeah it is shrinking it I noticed today that it just a little larger than the other one now.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I have found bumblefoot on one of my hens. . .it's between her toes and on the top of her foot. I can't
believe I didn't see it before today, but she is very flighty and doesn't like me anywhere near her. So I
am going to try to follow the directions I've seen on here tomorrow and I'm frankly kind of worried.
I've done lots of gross procedures, but I've never taken a scalpel to a live animal. ..and I've had a
staph infection before that was no joke, so I will try to make it as sanitary as possible. I can't
imagine how she got it, unless she got a tangled up with some burdock burrs. She isn't heavy, or
fat. . .the perches are not splintered, they free range, but it's mostly pasture. I hope I can clear it up.

I wrap my roo in an old bath towel and it seems to help because he doesn't hard even wiggle. You can hold her by her legs and have your towel already laid out open on an old table outside and that way it will be ready and unfolded since you'll have your hands full of chicken. He sure is enjoying his foot spas. ;-) He's not wild about me picking him up but once I finally get him to stop squirming he's fine. He's also molting so that might hurt picking him up. Also I have been wearing throw away gloves just to be on the safe side.
Good luck with your hen. I think the longer you let her soak in the warm epsom salts water the better it will be because on here I was reading where a lot of folks the scab just came right off and wasn't hard to get it done then.

 

[Right On Reds]

Hubby and I just dug out two bumbles. One on each foot on the bottom. Three days ago we had cut one on top in between the toes. That's healing well according to the vet who saw it today.

She hasn't been able to walk for a number of days and I've been feeding her by syringe and spoon or putting cat food in her mouth to swallow.

Has anyone else had a case where the hen isn't walking and still isn't after surgery?

She's on Tylan and the vet gave her a shot of another antibiotic, Amikin or something like that.