Bumblefoot surgey

[pdcttc]

Hello all
Yesterday i noticed one of my chickens limping, and had a swollen foot. I am pretty sure it is bumble-foot, as it has the black spot on the bottom of her foot.

I researched the surgery and feel I can do it, but I will be leaving town for 2 weeks in about 6 days. I don't think the person that will be tending the chickens would be able to help change bandages.

How soon after the surgery can you remove the bandages and let the chicken resume her normal life? Would it be better to wait the almost 3 weeks to do the surgery, or would I be taking a chance of killing her?

Thanks for your help
Paul

 

[TwoCrows]

The longer you wait, the more the infection gets into the tissue. And how long you have to leave the bandages on depends on how bad the infection is. Some bumblefoot is text book...you dig out the plugs, pus and infection, soak and bandage each day for a week or two and all is well. In other cases, the infection can drag on for weeks or even months.

Thoroughly disinfect any tools you use as you don't want any staph infections. Soak the foot a few days before hand in epsom salts to try to draw the infection closer to the surface.

Giver her a good foot soak the morning of, just before the surgery. Have everything on hand before you start....exacto knife, dental pics are handy, tweezers, tiny scissors, iodine, saline or peroxide, neosporin, (with out the pain killer) bandages or vet wrap, (you can get some really nice wrap that looks like vet wrap in the pharmacy area that sticks to itself and not the skin) bandaids, an empty syringe, paper towels and a big towel.

Wrap her up in the towel tightly and start digging. Dig pretty deeply. Squeeze and pick out all the gunk. You are looking for that "kernel or kernels", however not all cases have these in the hole. Spend an hour if you have to removing all the strings and gunk you can. All along keep syringing in peroxide and or iodine. Squeeze and work the pad. When you think you got all you can, stick the tube tip of the neosporin directly down in to the hole and squeeze it in. Massage the pad around to work it into the flesh, and do it again.

I like to use 2 or 3 bandaids, the flexi kind, so that there is an added water proofing. Then wrap the foot in the vet wrap. Don't wrap too tightly, but firm enough to stay on. Keep the bird in a cage or completely dry area for 1 or 2 days depending.

The next day, unwrap the foot and soak again in warm epsom salt for 5-10 mins. If the wound looks like a healthy wound, pink and no pus, apply more neosporin and rebandage.

If the wound is all nasty looking, soak again in epsoms, then you will need to keep the wound open to drain and insert more neosporin and into the wound and rewrap.

You will have to do daily inspections of the foot to determine how long to keep this up. I would suggest going into the foot as soon as you can and for the next 6 days, you can work with this bird. If the infection is not that bad, it may be healed up in a weeks time for the most part. If it is an infected mess, at least you get started on it and can go back into the foot when you get back.

Good luck!