Bumblefoot surgery - with pics and "how to"

[EweSheep]

Okay got my Wellie from the vet with RX orders. She had bumblefoot in both feet and one foot is fine, healing nicely and the other one was still infected. The vet did not find any plugs or cheesy matter, just blood. She said it was a hardening of the tissue and it would require surgery if she does have problems with it. It was an infection and needed to have antibotics to help it along.

Here is the treatment:

Soak foot with Betadine with 1 to 7 ratio. Sit in it for ten minutes.

Dry feet, pull any scabs if any but do NOT dig anymore with knife. Wrap it up with neosporin, a soft guaze for her pad and wrap it well with Vetrap.

If in pain, Baytril 22.7 mg dose, twice a day. And Liquid Metacam 0.6 mls by mouth once daily for one week for pain.
Clindamycin caps 75mg dose, twice a day for one week, throw eggs away for two weeks. DO NOT feed the eggs back to your chickens either.

Since Baytril was in pill form, I had to crush the pill into powder form with mortar and pestle and give it to the hen with a slurry of Baytril and water or paste if you want less water.

I did the same for Clindamycin since it was in gel tablets, no way I would not be able to get it down her thoat, I also put that in a slurry form too.

The hen tolerated the whole thing without a fuss. I doubt if we can get Clindamycin over the counter but at least its something!

After a week, we will find out if it works otherwise, surgery will be the option.

 

[delawaregirl09]

Would LA 200 work for the chickens?

 

[13newbabies]

WOW!! you guys are amazing...one of my hens has had this "swollen foot" for awhile and I was worried about her, so I was just soaking it and putting neosporin on it, but it only seemed to help a little, then I find this and these AMAZING pics, she has BUMBLEFOOT!!! SOOO glad I found your info, but am concerned about doing the surgery...doesnt it hurt the poor chicken to cut into their foot like that?? DId you do anything to numb it up a bit? I guess I just have to toughen up, but I am worried about doing it myself. Also cant believe that you have over 200 chickens and have only had a few cases and I have 12 chickens (our first ever...well, actually we lost 7 to darn loose dogs when they were 6 months old, so we are on our second set) The sick hen is left from our first batch, she is 11 months old.

 

[EweSheep]

Would it hurt, you asked? I am sure they do! It probably felt to them the worse splinter they would ever had and the digging, yeeeoow! However they may have higher pain threshold than we do.

Not sure if the LA200 would help but anything you can think of that would boost their immunity to fight off any infection would not hurt to try.

 

[jjdesch]

One question, how the heck do you keep a presumably un-anesthesized chicken from screaming bloody murder when you go digging inside its foot? Mine complain when they are mere being picked up

 

[kwolpert]

I've been waiting for the answer to that. Instead, I have an appointment with the vet in the morning for one of my girls.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
As you could see in the one picture - she's calmy laying on her side, covered with the towel and not moving at all. That's the trick. I've done every kind of operation on them, working alone, and they just lay calmly. I occasionally have to gently rest my elbow, of my left arm, on one if she starts to move or gently place your hand on her and she calms down again. It's something to do with being in the dark, on their side. They really seem to go to sleep.

When DH was helping me do the crop surgery on a hen, she never flinched and was so still he kept saying "I think she's gone" "I think she's no longer with us" but not only was she not dead, she's happily running around her pen better than ever.

Only thing I can figure out is they don't feel pain the way we do. They have natural instincts for fear, thus they run like I have an axe in my hand if I try to catch one and scream and flap and claw me alive but put a towel over their head and you can cut them open without a flinch.

 

[delawaregirl09]

Alright, thanks. And I'm very glad on this forum. One of my roosters has bumblefoot and I believe one of my hens does too

 

[lovemychix]

I did the towel and it did make such a difference. They seemed so calm. I've done 5 hens and the towel is so much better. Better than fighting an argry hen.

 

[EweSheep]

A live chicken burrito! Yes it sure does beat flailing wings which they do hurt! Once the towel is wrapped, they just calm down and I take one end of the towel and cover their heads and they would just close their eyes and wait it out.

My hen put up with the slurry treatments pretty well and her foot is not as hot or angry red.......so she is on the mend!