Can the bumblefoot experts please look at my quail's foot?

[USAmma]

Hi all! I posted on Dec 21st thanking you all for the links and stuff to help me perform bumblefoot surgery. I wrapped it up and then unwrapped it a couple days later and got out more core and re-wrapped it. (Of course I also applied iodine and antibiotic cream).

I unwrapped it again today, soaked it, and examined it. The foot believe it or not is much less swollen, and there was dead skin peeling off where it had been swollen before. I see the same thing in my human patients whose swelling is coming down on a hand or foot. The foot is also not overly warm to the touch anymore, just normal body temperature. However I had expected it to be a lot smaller by now if I got all the core out. I applied iodine to the foot and then removed the scab again to see if there was core inside. The scab was not black this time, just brown scab-colored, and I did not see any core inside. I rinsed and probed and squeezed some to see if any came up and I didn't see a thing. It still feels very firm though.

Can you all look at this photo and see if I need to keep looking for core? Or just give it more time for swelling to go down and then look for more core later? Will it eventually work its way up if there is some more in there? I hesitate to go digging as she was responding a lot more to it today and wiggling in pain, and I don't want to damage healthy tissue.

The quail has been a trooper through all of this, eating, drinking, walking around with her "boot" on, and even laying eggs still.

The white you can see in the photo is not really white, it's just reflection of a wet surface. The inside of the wound is only red and pink. I did not see any white/yellow inside the wound at all. Also the brownish area to the right of the wound is a bruise, not a scab.

Thanks a lot!

 

[TwoCrows]

I am so glad you have switched them over to bedding. This can be such a problem with birds kept on wire. And as you can see, they are improving.

Ok..I took a look at your thread and pic of the bottom of the foot. Here is what I would do and have done in the past to chicken feet, (never have I had a bumblefoot case with quail, and because they are so tiny, I give you a lot of credit)

First, the foot does not look that bad that it can not heal. I have had many cases of bumblefoot in chickens that have looked far worse than this, BUT...you need to be diligent in keeping the foot clean.

I found this system to work really well on foot infections....Get yourself some Lincomycin. It comes in a bottle for injecting. It is an antibiotic. BUT...it is one antibiotic that works on contact. Many antibiotics don't and must be processed by the body. Lincomycin is in many feed stores. It is mainly used on pigs, but you can also find it in the horse section. Also, while you are there, get yourself some empty syringes and a needle. You are not going to inject it, but you will need the needle to get it out of the bottle.

While you are there, get some vet wrap as well. Every day, you need to soak this foot in epsom salt water for 5 or 10 mins to draw the blood to the area and the poisons out. Then wipe the area of the pad with alcohol. Next, draw up some of this Lincomycin into your syringe and remove the needle. Stick the tip of the syringe into the hole and fill it up with Lincomycin. Let this sit for about a min or so and then pack the hole with Preperation H. (Sqeeze some on your finger and pack it in the hole) The prep will reduce the inflammation and allow the blood to get into the area and heal it. If you want to, you can smear on some neosporin (without the pain killer) on top of the H. Take a tiny piece of gauze and cover the hole. Then with precut strips of vet wrap, wrap the foot, going around the toes and foot pad and up the leg. Not so tight that it cuts the circulation off, but enough to keep dirt out. You will need to do this every day until the hole heals over. Keep the bird on very clean bedding of some sort.

Now, each day that you inspect this hole, when it scabs over and the scab looks red, then you know it is healing. If it looks yellow or pusy, then you will need to remove the scab and either dig around in the hole, or squeeze out the pus. This is a very important step to getting it to heal. Once you start to see a healthy scab formed, keep applying the neosporin and H to keep bacteria down and swelling. Do not stick the tip of the tubes into the hole as bacteria will grow in your meds and ruin them. (this happened to me, so don't do it! LOL) That hole doesn't look like there is much in there. So if this were my bird, I wouldn't mess with it. Just follow these instructions at this point. But keep an eye on it should it need some digging around in or squeezing.

If you keep this program up, it will heal this foot. I have had so many bumblefoot cases around here on chickens due to the lay of my land, all rocky and prickly. This method has always worked for me. But it can take a month or more of doing this over and over to get this thing healed. NEVER leave the foot unwrapped until the scab completely falls off or is about to fall off. It can all come back if there is a tiny hole in the pad. Puncture wounds are rough to heal and need to heal from the inside out.

Keep us posted!

 

[seminolewind]

My last hen with bumblefoot had 3 kernals. The last one was huge, and I had already cut across the hole. I had to soak, and knead and soak and knead before the thing finally loosened up and popped out. It took about 15 minutes of soaking and kneading.