Bumblefoot?

[Margy1]

Two of our girls have what we think is bumblefoot. There is the black dot and very little swelling. One of our girls has it on both feet and the one in the picture only has it on the one foot. My fiance and I have been reading all evening and he has been watching videos on doing the "surgery" to get rid of it. Is this bad enough to need the surgery? Is this actually bumblefoot (maybe there is no swelling because we caught it early?)?

I am going to go out tomorrow and get the needed supplies for the surgery. I am planning on getting three of everything. I do not want to reuse the tweezers from one foot to another foot even on the same bird. I will be getting tweezers, non-medicated neosporin, non-stick gauze pads, vet tape, rubbing alcohol and peroxide. Is there anything else that I should be getting that I am forgetting????

We will be placing all of the girls in the coop and taking out one at a time, into the run, where we will have a little table set up with all the equipment and tools. Once we finish we will put everyone back in the coop and clean up the run good so that there is nothing nasty on the ground. Is it okay to do it in the run on top of a table?? Our thinking was that would be the least stressful on the girls. They will be in familiar surroundings, and it will hopefully be quiet. Inside the house we have a cat and two dogs, and one of the dogs is a barker.....a lot.

Is there any other information that anyone has that may help make this process easier on our girls???


TYIA!!

 

[KayTee]

It does look like a classic case of bumble foot, which effectively gives you two choices - surgery now or daily foot soaking for a month or two, (followed by surgery if the soaking alone doesn't work.) Sometimes the soaking helps to reduce or soften the bumble to the point where it falls out or pulls off without the need for surgery. That's what happened to my girl when I used tri-cide neo as a soaking solution.
The only thing you didn't mention in your list is the scalpel to do the actual cutting - tweezers alone won't be enough to pull the scab off and get the kernel out.
Best of luck if you go ahead with the surgery.

 

[Margy1]

oh thank you!!! I knew I needed a knife when I was reading everything but when I made my list I completely forgot! We are going to do it when my fiance gets home from work today.

He feels confident, I am really nervous. We lost a chicken in January, she had a disease that started with a T (I think) can't remember what it was. We did everything we could for her and still lost her. I am so scared something is going to happen to these two .

 

[KayTee]

Unfortunately losing animals to illness and injury is part of being a pet owner, and even when it is "only a chicken" (as many people will say), it doesn't make it any different from losing a cat or a dog. Our girls all have their own personalities and quirks, and can be just as fun to have around as other more traditional pets, and just as missed when we lose them.

If you are nervous about doing the bumblefoot surgery then I would suggest you do one foot on one girl to begin with - start on the biggest bumble first, it should be the easiest to cut around and remove. Don't forget that the vetwrap needs to be tight enough to stay on, but not so tight that it cuts off circulation. If you have trouble getting it to stay on then I would suggest keeping your girl in the house for a day or two afterwards, to avoid her walking around a dirty run or garden and getting infection in the wound. If all goes well then go ahead and treat the other bumbles.

I have to say that I watched several videos online, but I have never done the surgery myself, I'm simply not brave enough! I soaked my girl's feet in tricide neo solution for a couple of months and the bumble shrank and then fell out when I scratched at the top of it one evening. It was a long process (it only took about 15 minutes a night, but I did it at least 5 or 6 nights a week), but it avoided surgery which I wasn't at all comfortable with.

I hope it goes well for you - keep us updated on their progress.

Just as a last thought - have you considered why they are getting bumblefoot? It is usually caused by bacteria getting into small abrasions or cuts on the bottom of the feet. These are often caused by perches that are not smoothly sanded, or have very sharp edges. I have very wide (4 inch) perches made of planks, but I have sanded all the edges to round them off. My girls are also very pampered - one perch has an old towel draped across it to pad it, and it is the favourite perch for 4 of my 5 girls! I started doing it after two cases of bumblefoot in my flock, and touch wood I haven't seen a case since (that was 2 years ago).

 

[Margy1]

I believe I know what caused it, they have a little ramp to get down from their chicken coop into the attached run, however they NEVER use the dang thing to get down, only to get up, so they are jumping down every morning, so they land on the dirt on the ground, and im sure theres a little acorn or stick or something in there that may have cut the bottoms of their feet to let the infection into there feet. Once we finish the "surgery" I am going to go through there whole run and pick up anything that looks hard (rocks, sticks, acorns) and then give it a good rake and everything. Hopefully we won't have the problem again. Now if I can just figure out how to get them to stop jumping out of the coop!

I went out and bought all supplies, will be starting in a little while, we are eating lunch first. Fiance will be doing the "surgery" I will be holding the chicken which will be on a little table wrapped in a towel, but ill be trying to keep her calm. They are crazy little girls. I will post when we are done how it went.

It is true, people don't understand. I have a friend who has an uncle with chickens who see's them only as food and not pets. When I was so upset because my little girl Mr. T died, she didn't understand and was like why are you so upset about it and continued to tell me how she was going to get chickens and was going to breed them for meat and how she would be able to handle killing them, and that I shouldn't see them as pets just food. Well we don't have our chickens for meat, we have them for eggs, which is why we have EE. I was devastated when we lost our little girl, even though I know its a normal part of life, it just feels like somehow it could have been prevented. And now I feel terrible that they have something else wrong with them .

 

[Margy1]

okay we got everyone done!!! It wasn't to to hard. We got the scab off, all the pus out, and I believe all the kernels, we stopped when it was all live tissue and blood and no more pus. I wasn't really looking I was just talking to my girls and keeping them calm.

The first girl we did is just sitting down breathing really hard. I know that her feet probably hurt, she can walk, but she isn't, shes just kinda crawling, but she will walk occasionally. Is she okay? Im sure she is really hot, we live in FL so it is hot outside, and then she was wrapped in a towel for an hour or so..she has drank a lot of water, any suggestions? Or will she be fine? Fiance keeps assuring me she will be fine.

The second girl, was not so calm as the first girl...she got herself out of the towel once, kept rolling around, etc...lol. that was fun...

All in all it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be, and I am so happy we got this done before it got worse.

Edited to add in - She wasnt walking because her bandages were to tight, we removed them and put on new ones, she is up walking around and cleaning herself. I knew something was wrong! Dang men never listening to their women!!!

 

[KayTee]

Well done Margy (and fiancé) - you are braver than I am!

Thanks for adding the edit about the bandages on one of your girls - information like that is so useful for other people who are attempting the same thing. It is a difficult balancing act to get bandages tight enough to stay on without causing circulation problems. (I have never managed it - they fall off within 5 minutes!)

I hope your girls recover well - the fact that they are preening is a good sign. Any intervention (from dusting with lice powder to invasive surgery) will stress an animal out to some degree, and cutting into their feet is pretty much near the top of the list as far as stress goes - I know that I wouldn't be happy if someone did it to me and I didn't know what was going on! Keep a very close eye on them for the next few days, to make certain that there is no infection or any other problem (not that there should be, but it is best to watch out, just in case).

 

[Margy1]

Thank you!!! It was nerve wrecking, I wanted to cry, and I just kept telling them they were okay and how sorry I was, my poor fiance felt so bad as he was digging all of the stuff out. I hope we NEVER have to do that again, although, the actual "surgery" wasn't to hard to complete.

We are keeping a very close eye on them, checking in on them constantly to see if they are moving around okay, color in comb looks good, tails up etc. We changed their bandages tonight, everything looks clean! Princess had a little bit of dirt in her bandage but not to much and that was the only one.

What we did to keep them on was we wrapped them tight enough that there were no holes for dirt to get in but loose enough that we didnt really put on the bandages at all, and then took duct tape and cut it in half and put the little strip around there ankles (losely) just to hold the bandages on, seemed to do really good, although this morning Peckers must have been playing with her bandages all night because they were tight and had to be redone first thing, not sure what she did with them.