Bumblefoot surgery - with pics and "how to"

[Afrochicken]

i also have a question, my chickens do have scabs on their feet, but no swelling, is it bumble foot?

 

[X2Farm]

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Mine have the same thing.. well, one for sure. Scab and no swelling, about the size of a dime. I was thinkin probably bumblefoot, though she doesn't favor it. Probably had it for a while, and bein a newb, I hadn't thought much of it

Was plannin to get BF "surgery" supplies this weekend, as a matter of fact, and take a closer look at it

 

[zipzip314]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Ruth for the pictures and instructions. Noticed yesterday that one of my girls' foot looked funny. Took me awhile to figure out what about it looked weird, but it turns out she had some swelling between two of her toes. Came running to BYC, found your post, got the stuff together just in case, brought her into the chicken and sure enough, there was a scab. Went ahead and followed your tutorial thing and she's on the road to recovery.

And can I just say, I love the look on people's faces when I tell them I did minor surgery on my chicken's foot.

 

[ruth]

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Good work - it takes bravery - especially the first time. I'm glad you found the thread helpful.

 

[gottsegnet]

Thanks. I have this in a goose. We pulled the scab off and a bit of a plug came out. Then we filled it with Neosporin. How can you tell if you got it all? We cut it open again today because the goop that came out didn't seem as hard like some of the things I've seen online, but all we got was bleeding and I couldn't bring myself to cut deeper without knowing for sure we didn't get everything the first time.

Today, the swelling was softer and no longer hot to the touch. The plan is to keep soaking and medicating it and bandaging it (thought we haven't figured that out. Right now, it looks more like an anklet than a bandage. Keeps sliding up.) but how long do we wait before opening him back open and looking for more?

 

[ruth]

I think I saw on another thread that you said a hunk came out when you pulled the scab off. That might have been all there was. I would fill it with Neosporin and wrap it as best possible and leave it alone. I never resoak or do anything else. I've found that letting it dry seems to be the best treatment. I'm not sure how you would wrap a goose's foot since you can't wrap around the toes. But maybe you could just use a piece of gauze and some bandage tape and just tape it to the bottom of his foot and slightly over the top to hold it. I also never leave the bandage on for more than about three days because I find, after that, it has begun to heal over and the air dry method seems to be the best.

 

[gottsegnet]

Yeah, some white gooey smelly stuff came out attached to the scab. I was able to get a little more of that out but there's still a hard nodule like thing in there.

 

[ruth]

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In that case you will need to cut deeply into the pad and try and dig out the nodule. Just follow the steps listed and keep soaking and digging. They are usually much deeper than you would think. Best of luck.

 

[gottsegnet]

Waiting for my husband's reinforcement. He doesn't get as weird about cutting deeply as I do. And the bird is calmer in my arms than in my daughter's, though he was remarkably well behaved. He ran away squawking like a mad goose when we were done, but for the most part he just made a few protest honks while I was prodding around in there.

Hoping to finish it up tomorrow morning and the poor guy can get some relief.

 

[ruth]

Wrap him in a towel with his head completely covered and then lay him on his side. Works wonders with chickens and ducks - I haven't tried a goose though. If it's dark and they can't see, they tend to get really calm. I always operate alone with no one holding the bird and they don't squirm.