Bumblefoot

[Spencer5]

I've read a lot of information about bumble foot, but am missing how people are actually getting the infection "pellet" out short of surgery. Folks say they just "pop it out". How does one "pop it out?". I've been soaking in epsom salts to soften, using teezers, and various other clean instruments to get the spot open enough to pop it out, as well as using a couple different things to help draw it out. It is a bit less swollen, but otherwise, it's not working. I don't know what else to do.

 

[coach723]

Can you post some up close and in focus pictures of the foot? Every foot is a little bit different. Some are shallow and not much to clean out, some have a definite core that can be popped out, sometimes that can take a fair amount of pressure and manipulation. Seeing what we're dealing with would be helpful. Bumblefoot is usually slow progression, and depending on the size of the lesion, it can take weeks to months to heal up completely.

 

[Spencer5]

Can you post some up close and in focus pictures of the foot? Every foot is a little bit different. Some are shallow and not much to clean out, some have a definite core that can be popped out, sometimes that can take a fair amount of pressure and manipulation. Seeing what we're dealing with would be helpful. Bumblefoot is usually slow progression, and depending on the size of the lesion, it can take weeks to months to heal up completely.

 

[Spencer5]

This was a couple days ago.

 

[ChickNanny13]

It doesn't look infected ... I've been told to leave it along unless it's affecting the chicken. I had 2 out of 3 with scabs under both foot pads for a couple of months, left it alone. This month doing my monthly maintenance (dusting, nail clip & overall check) noticed the scales were gone and healthy under their feet.
What I did was add more shavings in their CH and I remove any rocks/pebbles they dig up daily. Check your roost for rough surface, if they free range not much control there but keep a close eye and IF they start limping then go with the soaking.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/bumblefoot-treatment.72887

https://the-chicken-chick.com/bumblefoot-causes-treatment-warning/

I was not about to do "surgery" so tired soaking, try to work the scab off and/or apply an ointment & wrap, I tried that but didn't work as they removed the wrap overnite. I've also read about using PRID (salve the draws out the infection) ... Just make sure you use gloves as it's a staph infection.

 

[coach723]

It's pretty small, little to no swelling. You can try treating topically for a while, see if it gets smaller that way. If it gets worse, then remove the lesion, flush it out well, apply your ointment and wrap it to keep it clean. You probably won't get much out of that, it doesn't appear large enough to have much core yet. Which is good. Sometimes even the very small ones can take a while to heal. Adding bedding in the coop, lowering roosts, making sure roosts and ramps are not rough and give splinters, alleviating constant wet conditions or droppings build up, etc can help prevent the kinds of irritation that can cause bumblefoot.

 

[RubelliteRose]

I used to check my flock every few weeks and treat every case of bumblefoot because the internet made it sound like their leg would fall off if I didn't My flock free ranges and seemed to find every thorny vine on the property before we became more aggressive about removing them.
Now I only treat bumblefoot if it is very large or obviously causing them pain. More often than not, small cases heal on their own. When I do treat, I don't do the surgical procedure. I don't agree that is helpful to cut into healthy tissue. I follow this advice, but use a small piece of gauze with triple antibiotic instead of the duoderm GFC and then wrap the foot with vetwrap. https://www.tillysnest.com/2015/12/non-surgical-bumblefoot-treatment-html/

how people are actually getting the infection "pellet" out short of surgery. Folks say they just "pop it out". How does one "pop it out?". I've been soaking in epsom salts to soften, using teezers, and various other clean instruments to get the spot open enough to pop it out

Like it was said above, sometimes the bumblefoot isn't "ready" to have a core pop out. In those cases, if you want to treat, just soak, remove the scab with tweezers, apply triple antibiotic and wrap. My girls never tried to remove their vetwrap (every flock is different) and I would leave it on for 2 days before unwrapping and checking it.

 

[Spencer5]

Thank you all! This has been very helpful. I removed the scab last evening before I saw any further posts. Cleaned and applied PRID then wrapped. I am not going to attempt any further poking around at this point. I will check later today, apply PRID and wrap until it dries up then just keep an eye on it.

 

[Lazygaze]

What happened OP? Did you get rid of it?