Bumblefoot Surgery

[rghender37]

My 3.5 year old Rhode Island Red has bumblefoot in one feet. Limping some and big black scab. My wife and I tried to do surgery on her without much success. 2 or 3 years ago our buff orpington had the same issue. What was removed was hard and white. What we got this time was all white jelly-like stuff and couldn't really remove much. We got rid of what we could and patched her up because there was A LOT of blood coming out.

My questions for you:
1) Is it better to wait until the infection hardens before trying to remove?
2) Could we have done something wrong because we had such difficult in removing the infection?

Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[trudyg]

I think it's always a good idea to soak things, softens up the tissues. Can you prepare an epsom salts soak for her? maybe put some betadine in the water, too?

 

[rghender37]

Thank you. I did that for 10 minutes to soften up the scab, then removed and it started bleeding a lot.

 

[April’s Zoo]

It could be that despite the large scab, you caught the infection at a relatively early stage.... there’s also a chance that the scab was from a trauma/injury and you noticed it before the infection progressed.
In either case, it’s always preferable to get a handle on things at the beginning, so don’t feel like you should’ve waited.
The suggestion to soak it again a few times, and adding betadine to the soak water, is a good one.

ETA: the fact that it bled a lot is generally thought of as a good thing in the field of wound care. Healthy, vitalized tissue has a good blood supply and will bleed copiously. Dying, dead, or otherwise devitalized tissue will not bleed, or will bleed very little, mainly oozing rather than really bleeding.

 

[rghender37]

It could be that despite the large scab, you caught the infection at a relatively early stage.... there’s also a chance that the scab was from a trauma/injury and you noticed it before the infection progressed.
In either case, it’s always preferable to get a handle on things at the beginning, so don’t feel like you should’ve waited.
The suggestion to soak it again a few times, and adding betadine to the soak water, is a good one.

ETA: the fact that it bled a lot is generally thought of as a good thing in the field of wound care. Healthy, vitalized tissue has a good blood supply and will bleed copiously. Dying, dead, or otherwise devitalized tissue will not bleed, or will bleed very little, mainly oozing rather than really bleeding.

Thank you for that reply...good to know that the bleeding can be a good thing. I had noticed her very slightly limping 2 weeks ago (and a scab on her foot). I chose not to do anything because she did not appear to be limping over the next few days. She started limping again this morning and so we chose to try to help. So it has actually been around for at least two weeks.

 

[trudyg]

Just for future reference, you can get blood stop powder at tractor supply. Or, you can use cornstarch from your kitchen cupboard.

I just had a look at one of my hens and she's got a black spot on her foot. I thought, when I picked her up, that the one leg felt warm and so I guess she's got bumblefoot. She's one of the older hens who I'm planning to cull anyway but was doing my normal bug check and caught it. I wasn't prepared to deal with it immediately, so just put some castor oil on it (been doing this monthly since we had scaly leg mite all last summer). I have a small wash basin that I keep my supplies in-blu kote, castor oil, ivermectin, eye droppers, bug dust, etc. I don't plan to butcher until fall, maybe sometime in September. Should I give her an antibiotic if I'm not going to do surgery or should I just cull her sooner rather than wait?

 

[Aschuchert]

We don't have flock for culling, since it's small, 6birds, eggs only so keep that in mind with my note. We always treat as soon as you see an injury. What I've read us if you eat the birds they should be healthy, so I'd apply the same logic, culling sooner is more humane.
If you feel she needs to heal first start with soaking in iodine water for 15mins, cleaning, applying silver gel or similar ointment and wrapping wounds. There are more detailed posts to read on humble foot.
Good luck.

 

[trudyg]

I'm sorry, I did not mean to hijack your post. I beg your pardon.

 

[April’s Zoo]

Should I give her an antibiotic if I'm not going to do surgery or should I just cull her sooner rather than wait?

The antibiotic alone won’t do much good if you can’t/don’t clear out the infection under the scab. It’s not difficult really, and might be a good chance to practice doing it on a chicken that you are willing to cull if she doesn’t get better pretty quickly, or if it turns out to be worse than you thought.
If you just really don’t want to deal with working on it for whatever reason, then yes, it would be kinder to cull her ASAP.
Keep in mind, too, that if you administer antibiotics and she doesn’t get better, you may not be able to use her meat if you must euthanize her before the withdrawal time has passed for whatever antibiotic you use.

 

[rghender37]

To give a little update on my RIR, we have not performed another operation (at least yet) but have had her foot wrapped for the past week or so. She is not limping, but we will see how she does once we remove the wrap. Thanks for all of your replies.