Bumblefoot

[picklestheduck]

I’ll start out with telling you, although it may seem impossible to help your ducky get better, it’s not, it just takes a lot of freaking work. My duck Munchkin a pekin as well dealt with some extreme bumblefoot. I soaked every night tried peeling off the scab/plug, and wrapped her foot with neosporin for months. But for some reason the plug wouldn’t come out and it didn’t get better for a long time. I had a farm vet come out and try to cut it out, and he gave me antibiotics, and we did two different kinds over time and nothing was working. We fought it for a year before we moved and found a different exotic vet and bit the bullet and had surgery done on it. It was quite expensive but it worked. She was on rest for months after due to how severe it had been, and I still have to occasionally put her in a crate when her tender skin gets irritated, but thankfully she is now pretty much completely healed except for occasional irritation. My advice to you is this, soak in warm epsom salt like you have been doing for 20 mins, then try to pull off the scab/plug thing. It should come off in a lump-like glob and if not their should be a lumpy glob thing underneath. Try to get all that nasty infection out, it can be disturbing, but it honestly should leave like a hole behind, and it may be a bit bloody after, and once you get it out pack the hole with neosporin that doesn’t have pain relief and wrap it with vetwrap and honestly even something like duck tape on top of that for water proofing since regardless of the environment ducks are messy. Some people are against duck tape, but my vet himself wrapped the foot in it, and my duck kept getting crap in aanh other wrap, so we completely covered the vetwrap and yoga mat boot with duck tape. If the scab doesn’t come off just wrap it with neosporin and try the next time you soak. When you wrap you can even trace and cut out a piece of yoga mat for padding to help the duck keep so much weight off that wound. Good luck with your bird. I’ll post some pictures of our journey if I can find them.

 

[picklestheduck]

These pictures are all out of order due to my phone downloading then oddly. The one of it cut open was when just like how the farm vet did it, and it festered and got bad again so I tried cutting it open, but it didn’t end up coming out all the way. The ones with sutures is right after surgery, and then the ones with minimal scabs is after the sutures were removed. There is also a picture of the yoga Mat cut out for her foot that we wrapped to her foot.

 

[picklestheduck]

This is the thread I’ve had throughout it all. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bumblefoot-in-pekin.1497821/

 

[kbgrover]

These pictures are all out of order due to my phone downloading then oddly. The one of it cut open was when just like how the farm vet did it, and it festered and got bad again so I tried cutting it open, but it didn’t end up coming out all the way. The ones with sutures is right after surgery, and then the ones with minimal scabs is after the sutures were removed. There is also a picture of the yoga Mat cut out for her foot that we wrapped to her foot.

Was your duck mobile with all of this occurring?? Mine is laying pretty low, she’ll put some weight on it but much prefers not to..she’s rather lay. She is still eating, drinking, bathrooming normally at the moment, just obviously laying down with her foot wrapped and clearly that little foot is aching

 

[picklestheduck]

Was your duck mobile with all of this occurring?? Mine is laying pretty low, she’ll put some weight on it but much prefers not to..she’s rather lay. She is still eating, drinking, bathrooming normally at the moment, just obviously laying down with her foot wrapped and clearly that little foot is aching

My duck was mobile, although she did have a limp. But my duck also had the infection on the middle of her toe while yours seems to have it on the weight-bearing area of her foot, so I would expect your girl to be laying a bit lower, but obviously I’m not a vet myself lol. Please keep me updated.

 

[kbgrover]

My duck was mobile, although she did have a limp. But my duck also had the infection on the middle of her toe while yours seems to have it on the weight-bearing area of her foot, so I would expect your girl to be laying a bit lower, but obviously I’m not a vet myself lol. Please keep me updated.

Just an update to this duck!! She is now fine after 2 vet visits and multiple drainage sessions of the foot. She does have a larger ankle joint, but she gets around just fine with the other girls, swims, eats and forages around the yard. I am SO happy for this girl, she’s one that I bonded with from the beginning. I am so happy she’s doing well