Bumblefoot with no scab.

[Allilang]

I removed bumblefoot about 2 weeks ago but it is still swollen on the top of her foot. Where the scab was is all sealed now. What can I do?

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

Can you get a picture of the bottom of her (cleaned) foot please?

If there is still a "core" of pus in her foot you may need to cut open the lump and squeeze it out.

 

[Eggcessive]

Did you disinfect and lance the bubble? Did you squeeze anything out? There may have been more infection there that needs to come out.

 

[Allilang]

Can you get a picture of the bottom of her (cleaned) foot please?

If there is still a "core" of pus in her foot you may need to cut open the lump and squeeze it out.

The bottom is soft with a closed wound on her foot. the only place where I can see bumblefoot is the top of the webbing in the photo.

Did you disinfect and lance the bubble? Did you squeeze anything out? There may have been more infection there that needs to come out.

I got everything I could at the time. It was my first time and i was working alone, so I may not have gotten everything.

 

[Eggcessive]

The top may need to be lanced and squeezed as well.

 

[Kmcatx]

I had that with one of mine. It was a long road. I put drawing salve on it and the skin on bump eventually got soft and thin enough that I could drain it. after several trips to vet they swabbed it out and packed it with a strong antibiotic. That finally healed ( 8 months from appearance of bump to that point). I thought I was in clear but it just came back a year later. This time it went quicker and I pried out the plug on top of foot. Not sure about best course of action but this has been my experience. I was desperate for info when it was happening. Best of luck

 

[TropicalChickies]

I'll second what @Eggcessive said. I have a hen whose had bumblefoot on one foot where I had to take out the kernel from both top and bottom. I will say that extracting it from the top is easier.

You can try this, it worked for me. With a fresh sharp scalpel, incise a small "x" right on top of the "bubble" in between the toes. The skin is very thin and you don't need to press very hard with the scalpel.
(Have some cloth or paper towel under the foot to catch the blood or do it over a sink)
Then use your fingers (wear surgeons gloves) to squeeze the sides of the bubble. If you're lucky, the kernel will pop right out with some pus. Flush the cavity with saline solution and then apply pressure to stop any bleeding.

I highly recommend applying an antibiotic cream with mupirocin if you can get it.

The hen I operate on was a "rescue" and she had terrible bumblefoot her first year. It's harder to get rid of the more established it gets, so I got a lot of experience operating on her. But I've noticed a lot more healing since using this cream. It's more effective against staph bacteria than other antibiotics.

Perhaps it's not well established and you might get it all out, but don't fret too much if it comes back. Just repeat the process. While you want to try to take out as much of the infection as possible, in my experience it's been more effective and easier on me and my hen to do successive "cleanings" than trying to dig for kernels (especially when they are the little stringy ones) and traumatizing the hen.

Good luck!

 

[VeganSandy]

I had that with one of mine. It was a long road. I put drawing salve on it and the skin on bump eventually got soft and thin enough that I could drain it. after several trips to vet they swabbed it out and packed it with a strong antibiotic. That finally healed ( 8 months from appearance of bump to that point). I thought I was in clear but it just came back a year later. This time it went quicker and I pried out the plug on top of foot. Not sure about best course of action but this has been my experience. I was desperate for info when it was happening. Best of luck

PRID will fix it in a few days. This salve can be found for about $7 from Amazon. It is a miracle drawing salve.

 

[Allilang]

The infection ended up growing and popped out on top of the foot where I was able to clean it all out this time. Applebloom is already doing much better and took her place as one of the top 2 alphas in the flock.

Now that I know what to expect from bumblefoot, I think I will do much better next time a chicken develops it.

 

[TropicalChickies]

The infection ended up growing and popped out on top of the foot where I was able to clean it all out this time. Applebloom is already doing much better and took her place as one of the top 2 alphas in the flock.

Now that I know what to expect from bumblefoot, I think I will do much better next time a chicken develops it.

Good news! It's always a relief when the bumblefoot kernel pops out and you can get it all. They are easier to get out from the top than the bottom.