Bumblefoot surgery - with pics and "how to"

[MrsBachbach]

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.

Was she walking before the surgery? Will she eat if you put food in front of her? Is she in the coop with others, or isolated in a pen or cage of her own? I wouldn't leave her on wire or anything like that. I would put plenty of shavings where ever you have her if she is cooped. I do find it strange she wont walk.

I've not had one that wouldn't or couldn't walk afterwards. But I have never really taken a knife or scapel to the bottom of the foot. I just loosened and pulled the scab and pulled out what I could find that looked white or like pus. Then I usually put a gauze pad over the wound with antibiotic and then wrap with Vetwrap between the toes and up the shank. I then cover that with sports wrap tape. It's pretty well bandaged and cushioned with that and they are walking right away.

I hope she gets to walking for you guys soon. Maybe a little assistance might be in order to encourage her.

 

[Right On Reds]

She will not eat but otherwise is awake, attentive and aware. I've been feeding her by syringe since last Sunday when she stopped eating on her own. She was not standing or walking at that time.

I tried soaking her foot at first but then on Wednesday (3 days after that) we did the first surgery. I was hoping she would be able to stand but no, she still didn't want to. I waited a few days thinking her foot hurt from the surgery but when she still wasn't standing on Friday I went and looked for more bumbles and found a small one and a medium size one on the other foot. I brought her back to the vet today (Saturday) but he didn't have time for the surgery so I took her home and hubby and I did it.

Vet said the medicines we were using are good.

Since I first saw the problem she has been in the house. Right now she's on my summer kitchen's counter laying on two towels which is nice and soft. Both her feet are wrapped. They've been treated with epsom salts, betadine, veterycin, triple antibiotic ointment and she's wrapped with pads which are antimicrobial against things like staph.

The vet put her on some Amikacin plus she's getting Tylan. Vet chose Amikacin because you can eat the eggs afterwards. He wrote to some veterinary expert - email says "US FARAD". He says and they verified that using Baytril makes the eggs unusable forever after. Amikacin works on gram negative bacteria and since the culture showed staph and e coli he's hoping that will work. The Tylan works against some gram negative bacteria but is used mostly against gram positive bacteria. The e coli he says requires gram negative medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amikacin

In the syringe I've been feeding a mixture of Farina/pellets liquidized/electrolytes/vitamins and also putting blueberry Greek yogurt in her beak. I also give her bits of canned cat food in her beak which sometimes she swallows and sometimes spits out.

She is of course loosing weight so I'm trying to get as much food down her as possible but sometimes she fights so much it gets hard to get it safely down there.

I'm at my wits end. I thought for sure she would stand and be able to walk after todays work but so far, no. I keep reading on other peoples chickens walking off bandaged, joining the others in the coop. There's no way she'd survive if I did that. There's no way she could get to the coop sleeping space.

So far I've spent well over $500 but I don't care so much about that. I just want my Beth to recover.

Please someone - tell me what to do so she recovers.

 

[Right On Reds]

FYI.... I looked up US FARAD and it's the United States Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank.

I guess they monitor what medicines, etc. food producing animals can have.
http://www.farad.org/

 

[RoseMarie1]

She will not eat but otherwise is awake, attentive and aware. I've been feeding her by syringe since last Sunday when she stopped eating on her own. She was not standing or walking at that time.

I tried soaking her foot at first but then on Wednesday (3 days after that) we did the first surgery. I was hoping she would be able to stand but no, she still didn't want to. I waited a few days thinking her foot hurt from the surgery but when she still wasn't standing on Friday I went and looked for more bumbles and found a small one and a medium size one on the other foot. I brought her back to the vet today (Saturday) but he didn't have time for the surgery so I took her home and hubby and I did it.

Vet said the medicines we were using are good.

Since I first saw the problem she has been in the house. Right now she's on my summer kitchen's counter laying on two towels which is nice and soft. Both her feet are wrapped. They've been treated with epsom salts, betadine, veterycin, triple antibiotic ointment and she's wrapped with pads which are antimicrobial against things like staph.

The vet put her on some Amikacin plus she's getting Tylan. Vet chose Amikacin because you can eat the eggs afterwards. He wrote to some veterinary expert - email says "US FARAD". He says and they verified that using Baytril makes the eggs unusable forever after. Amikacin works on gram negative bacteria and since the culture showed staph and e coli he's hoping that will work. The Tylan works against some gram negative bacteria but is used mostly against gram positive bacteria. The e coli he says requires gram negative medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amikacin

In the syringe I've been feeding a mixture of Farina/pellets liquidized/electrolytes/vitamins and also putting blueberry Greek yogurt in her beak. I also give her bits of canned cat food in her beak which sometimes she swallows and sometimes spits out.

She is of course loosing weight so I'm trying to get as much food down her as possible but sometimes she fights so much it gets hard to get it safely down there.

I'm at my wits end. I thought for sure she would stand and be able to walk after todays work but so far, no. I keep reading on other peoples chickens walking off bandaged, joining the others in the coop. There's no way she'd survive if I did that. There's no way she could get to the coop sleeping space.

So far I've spent well over $500 but I don't care so much about that. I just want my Beth to recover.

Please someone - tell me what to do so she recovers.

I'd try boiling some eggs and mashing them up really well and see if she will eat those.
Good luck! I sure hope she starts standing AND eating SOON!

 

[MrsBachbach]

She will not eat but otherwise is awake, attentive and aware. I've been feeding her by syringe since last Sunday when she stopped eating on her own. She was not standing or walking at that time.

I tried soaking her foot at first but then on Wednesday (3 days after that) we did the first surgery. I was hoping she would be able to stand but no, she still didn't want to. I waited a few days thinking her foot hurt from the surgery but when she still wasn't standing on Friday I went and looked for more bumbles and found a small one and a medium size one on the other foot.  I brought her back to the vet today (Saturday) but he didn't have time for the surgery so I took her home and hubby and I did it.

Vet said the medicines we were using are good.

Since I first saw the problem she has been in the house. Right now she's on my summer kitchen's counter laying on two towels which is nice and soft. Both her feet are wrapped. They've been treated with epsom salts, betadine, veterycin, triple antibiotic ointment and she's wrapped with pads which are antimicrobial against things like staph.

The vet put her on some Amikacin plus she's getting Tylan. Vet chose Amikacin because you can eat the eggs afterwards. He wrote to some veterinary expert - email says "US FARAD".  He says and they verified that using Baytril makes the eggs unusable forever after. Amikacin works on gram negative bacteria and since the culture showed staph and e coli he's hoping that will work. The Tylan works against some gram negative bacteria but is used mostly against gram positive bacteria. The e coli he says requires gram negative medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amikacin

In the syringe I've been feeding a mixture of Farina/pellets liquidized/electrolytes/vitamins and also putting blueberry Greek yogurt in  her beak. I also give her bits of canned cat food in her beak which sometimes she swallows and sometimes spits out.

She is of course loosing weight so I'm trying to get as much food down her as possible but sometimes she fights so much it gets hard to get it safely down there.

I'm at my wits end. I thought for sure she would stand and be able to walk after todays work but so far, no. I keep reading on other peoples chickens walking off bandaged, joining the others in the coop. There's no way she'd survive if I did that. There's no way she could get to the coop sleeping space.

So far I've spent well over $500 but I don't care so much about that. I just want my Beth to recover.

Please someone - tell me what to do so she recovers.

Something is going on with her other than the bumblefoot. I don't think its the bumblefoot causing her to not walk, eat, etc. I think you may have found her down and thought it was because of the bumblefoot that she wasn't up and around. She is on those other medications, so, hopefully with some time, she will recover for what is ailing her. Did the vet know she had stopped eating and was losing weight when he prescribed the medicine? Was the antibiotic just to treat the bumblefoot or that and whatever else may be ailing her? The tylan would help with respiratory illness, but I don't think that would bring her down and make her stop eating like that.

Is she pooping? Is her crop swollen or blocked or small, empty? Does her comb have color to it or pale? How old is she and has she ever been wormed? Was she laying when this all happened? It could be anything that is bothering her. Sick chickens rarely eat. Is she displaying any other symptoms besides not eating and staying still? Could she be egg bound? Are any other chickens acting sick? Alot of questions, but, like I said, there is a whole host of possibilities.

Crop tube feeding is what I would recommend to keep her strength up while trying to get over this. I have found babyfood, like peas and rice cereal work good for tube feeding along with a little raw egg yolk for protein. Plain, unflavored yogurt should be fed chickens, not flavored, is what I always heard. And more importantly, make sure she is getting enough water. I would try to make sure she gets at least three or four ounces spread out throughout the day.
Of course if her system has shut down, that food won't be going anywhere though. So is she pooping? Look up crop tube feeding here and you should find instructions on how to do it properly. The one think I would be worried about is her being egg bound if she was a layer. That will kill them. Remedies for that can be found here also with a search. Sometimes a lack of calcium will cause a paralysis and hens will die from that also. I hope you can find some answers before it is too late.

 

[Right On Reds]

She will not eat food unless I shove it down her throat. They were all wormed in the spring.

I noticed tonight that other hens have some swelling in their feet as well, and I saw a couple of bumble spots. I took down the roost which was high up and now I feel that was the cause. Even though they would jump onto hay (if they jumped onto the plastic shelving) or on the floor (with a good foot of hay/shavings on it) no landing was really hard. But this is the only thing which makes any sense. I've never had this problem before I put the roost up higher about a month or two ago.

I went to take pics but my camera battery was dead so now it's recharging.

Her comb is bright pink and when I went to redo her bandages today all seems to be healing except the left foot still has a bit of swelling on the bottom. I'll wait a day or two to see if it goes down, if not we have to cut into the poor thing again.

She's getting Tylan orally and Amikacin IM. I'm doing the Tylan orally because she's a small hen, thinner now, and there's not enough breast meat to be poking her with two drugs 3x a day each.

I also managed to prick myself with the needle I use to extract Tylan from the bottle (never used on the hen) so now I've poulticed my own finger.

I'm hoping none of the other hens starts to limp. Would appreciate any advice on if I need to do anything with them as long as they are not showing any signs. None of those are limping, all are eating and running around seemingly healthy as a horse.

 

[Right On Reds]

As for eggs: she hasn't laid any, I don't feel anything in there. She is molting on her belly and butt so I'm hoping the fact she is molting means she's not currently producing any eggs.

 

[MrsBachbach]

As for eggs: she hasn't laid any, I don't feel anything in there. She is molting on her belly and butt so I'm hoping the fact she is molting means she's not currently producing any eggs.

Well, I still don't feel the bumble foot is the problem with the refusing to walk, not eating, etc. I would not dig into her foot anymore, just let the medications do the job. A slight swelling is not reason enought to do surgery. I've had several here with slight swellings and a black scab and basically just left them alone, other than maybe some PenG injections or epsom salt soaks and the situation resolved itself given time. They were not limping or favoring the foot or anything like that, so best leave those cases alone.
Is she a pullet? You say she hasn't laid, but did not give her age. Kind of strange that a pullet would be molting that much. Usually only hens molt that much at this time of year. I think the feather loss on her, if she is a pullet, has more to do with her nutritional decline than anything else. What's her poop been looking like? What did it look like before she stopped eating? Can you open her beak and look in with a light and see if anything looks amiss?
Only other thing I can think of suggesting is maybe putting her back in the pen with her penmates. Maybe in her crate, but at least where she can see her penmates. Sometimes chickens will go off feed if they are stressed and it could be the move has stressed her. I have a couple of pullets right now, that I am preparing to show, so I moved them to their own tractor a week ago to keep them clean, etc., before the show. They have hardly eaten at all. Looks like the move wasn't a good idea because now they are going to drop some weight.

 

[cholmberg]

well I got it out. . .I may be scarred for life, lol. but I got it . . THEM out. Turns out she had one between her toes on top (the one I saw) and
another, equally large or larger one on the bottom of her foot. I am a bad chicken momma. . .I saw the one on top, but I didn't see the
one below until I got her out of the soak. Both were quite a bit larger than the ones I've seen in pictures. . but this hen is flighty and shy
and never lets me get very close to her, it wasn't until she started limping that I noticed something was up, since otherwise her behavior
was normal. But they were both almost marble sized. =( I feel horrible. She took it like a champ though.
The one on top popped out very easily, the one below was not much trouble either, I just had to loosen the skin around the edge and squeezed
from further down and the whole thing came out. Yuck. I poked, prodded and squeezed, but nothing else was forthcoming and it looked like
dark flesh inside. So I poured a lot of vetrycin in there, and bandaged her up with non stick gauze and a strip of vetrap. She is still limping
somewhat (not surprising, considering she has two large holes in her foot). .. She is bright, alert, eating and running around with the flock. bandage
is still very good today, so I'll probably try to catch her and re-bandage it tomorrow. It's not slowing her down right now though. I assume I just
watch for any further signs of infection/festering? Keep it bandaged until it's closed over?

 

[welasharon]

The consensus seems to be to keep it wrapped until there is nothing left. I usually change bandages every other day unless it rains.