Caring for Salmon Faverolles with Chronic Bumblefoot | A Journal with Pictures

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

I'm glad they all seem to be better! Any limping?

Poor Brie, I wonder if she needs antibiotics? Continue your treatment and I hope it helps more!

I have not seen any limping in any of the hens, thankfully! I noticed Brie's comb is slightly paler than the other hens -- not by much. Other than that, I have not seen any changes in them since getting bumble foot.

 

[Tookie]

I have not seen any limping in any of the hens, thankfully! I noticed Brie's comb is slightly paler than the other hens -- not by much. Other than that, I have not seen any changes in them since getting bumble foot.

I'm glad there's no limping!
Sometimes combs will just get pale, like in hot weather I've noticed it in my flock.

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

┈┉─━⊰ Update #4 ⊱━─┉┈​

I performed surgery on Brie today. I hadn't started off thinking I would. When I started cleaning her foot out, I seemed to actually be removing pieces of infection (?), so I continued deeper into the foot. I'm not exactly squeamish like some girls, but man that was tough.

It seemed to me that the core may not be straight down into her foot, but rather, that it continues diagonally to the part that is swelled on the top of her foot. I actually got two or three white pieces out of her foot. One of them came out when she flopped right side up. I gave her a break for a bit. When I flipped her back into position to work on her foot, I noticed the white plug there. It must have moved closer to the surface when she walked around.

I feel like there is so much more in there. After an hour and a half of work, it was just too much to continue on.

I was successfully able to squeeze some of the pus out of that top swollen area by massaging it.

I packed the wound with the Epsom Salt Poultice and wrapped her back up. I added more padding than normal to give her a cushion for her feet.

My sweet little Brie was such a good girl! I'm not sure many chickens would quietly endure two soaks and an hour or more of work while I perform surgery on her foot. I'm so proud of her. I'm sure it had to have hurt even though I tried so hard to be gentle. She took it like a champ.

(Note: I found some gloves, @LaFleche, and used them! It was a little difficult cause my hands got hot and sweaty, but I did listen to what you said!)

These photos are before surgery.

Spoiler: Open Wound and Blood

The white plug after she walked around.

The white plug on a paper towel

The top of her foot after I removed some pus. I know the photo doesn't really show it, but I can tell the skin is slightly wrinkled because the pressure had gone down some when the pus came out.
I felt a small pop (for lack of a better word) when I massaged the top of her foot, and pus came out the bottom of the foot. I continued massaging. I felt more pops, but not much else came out.

Unfortunately, you can't see how deep I was able to go because of the blood (and that the cavity is diagonal). She actually didn't bleed anywhere near as much as the other foot when I barely touched that one.

 

[Tookie]

~ Update ~

I performed surgery on Brie today. I hadn't started off thinking I would. When I started cleaning her foot out, I seemed to actually be removing pieces of infection (?), so I continued deeper into the foot. I'm not exactly squeamish like some girls, but man that was tough.

It seemed to me that the core may not be straight down into her foot, but rather, that it continues diagonally to the part that is swelled on the top of her foot. I actually got two or three white pieces out of her foot. One of them came out when she flopped right side up. I gave her a break for a bit. When I flipped her back into position to work on her foot, I noticed the white plug there. It must have moved closer to the surface when she walked around.

I feel like there is so much more in there. After an hour and a half of work, it was just too much to continue on.

I was successfully able to squeeze some of the pus out of that top swollen area by massaging it.

I packed the wound with the Epsom Salt Poultice and wrapped her back up. I added more padding than normal to give her a cushion for her feet.

My sweet little Brie was such a good girl! I'm not sure many chickens would quietly endure two soaks and an hour or more of work while I perform surgery on her foot. I'm so proud of her. I'm sure it had to have hurt even though I tried so hard to be gentle. She took it like a champ.

(Note: I found some gloves, @LaFleche, and used them! It was a little difficult cause my hands got hot and sweaty, but I did listen to what you said!)
View attachment 3850543

These photos are before surgery.
View attachment 3850530
View attachment 3850557

Spoiler: Open Wound and Blood

View attachment 3850538

The white plug after she walked around.
View attachment 3850539

The white plug on a paper towel
View attachment 3850540

The top of her foot after I removed some pus. I know the photo doesn't really show it, but I can tell the skin is slightly wrinkled because the pressure had gone down some when the pus came out.
I felt a small pop (for lack of a better word) when I massaged the top of her foot, and pus came out the bottom of the foot. I continued massaging. I felt more pops, but not much else came out.
View attachment 3850541

Unfortunately, you can't see how deep I was able to go because of the blood (and that the cavity is diagonal). She actually didn't bleed anywhere near as much as the other foot when I barely touched that one.
View attachment 3850542

Poor girl! You're doing a great job on treating her. Keep it up!
It definitely seems like bumblefoot.

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

Poor girl! You're doing a great job on treating her. Keep it up!
It definitely seems like bumblefoot.

Thanks so much! It's been a lot of work. But it's worth it for my girl.
The more I work on them, the more I think it is bumble foot. I was just confused when I did surgery that first time and it didn't look like any of my research. I think it might actually just be that one foot that is weird. The one I worked on today seemed a lot more like the way the surgeries went in the articles/videos I looked at.

 

[Tookie]

Thanks so much! It's been a lot of work. But it's worth it for my girl.
The more I work on them, the more I think it is bumble foot. I was just confused when I did surgery that first time and it didn't look like any of my research. I think it might actually just be that one foot that is weird. The one I worked on today seemed a lot more like the way the surgeries went in the articles/videos I looked at.

So are you finding pus and stuff in all their feet or just Brie's?

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

So are you finding pus and stuff in all their feet or just Brie's?

I have only found liquid (clear and whitish/yellow) pus in the foot I performed surgery on yesterday. Her left foot when upside down, her right foot when standing. This is the one that I think had a bad reaction to NU stock. Brie's other foot has a large, hard, black scab (the biggest scab compared to the others). The moment I try to peel it back to get a look, she starts bleeding everywhere. I dry it and give it a break, then the second I touch it she bleeds a ton again. I haven't really been able to do anything to that foot. This is the very first foot I ever tried surgery on. It went horribly because she wouldn't stop bleeding even though all we had done was remove the scab.
The tissue beneath the scab is different than the other hens. It is a soft, bright red tissue. On the others, it is a yellowish, whitish hard tissue in sheets. Occasionally there is a soft bright white stringy substance. It creates a small cavity when I finish removing it. And they don't bleed as much.

 

[LaFleche]

(Note: I found some gloves, @LaFleche, and used them! It was a little difficult cause my hands got hot and sweaty, but I did listen to what you said!)

Better safe than sorry!

 

[Tookie]

I have only found liquid (clear and whitish/yellow) pus in the foot I performed surgery on yesterday. Her left foot when upside down, her right foot when standing. This is the one that I think had a bad reaction to NU stock. Brie's other foot has a large, hard, black scab (the biggest scab compared to the others). The moment I try to peel it back to get a look, she starts bleeding everywhere. I dry it and give it a break, then the second I touch it she bleeds a ton again. I haven't really been able to do anything to that foot. This is the very first foot I ever tried surgery on. It went horribly because she wouldn't stop bleeding even though all we had done was remove the scab.
The tissue beneath the scab is different than the other hens. It is a soft, bright red tissue. On the others, it is a yellowish, whitish hard tissue in sheets. Occasionally there is a soft bright white stringy substance. It creates a small cavity when I finish removing it. And they don't bleed as much.

That's interesting! Maybe just the one foot has bumblefoot?
When I tried removing the scabs from my hens feet I had that yellow whiteish tissue in sheets, which I don't think is bumble and its just how their foot is.

 

[Elspeth Dinsmore]

That's interesting! Maybe just the one foot has bumblefoot?
When I tried removing the scabs from my hens feet I had that yellow whiteish tissue in sheets, which I don't think is bumble and its just how their foot is.

Here's sort of an example of the difference:

The yellowy one on the left doesn't bleed much. I can pull the sheets out and sometimes there is some stringy white material beneath it.
The one on the right is kinda what the tissue beneath the scab on Brie's one foot looks like. But I haven't been able to remove the scab like that to get a picture because it starts bleeding a lot, so I stop.
I had been wondering if the red is normal tissue and the yellow is infection? I may be wrong on that. I will do some research.
The weird part is that the left foot scabbed over with a thin healthy looking (?) scab, whereas Brie's foot (similar to the above right picture) scabbed over very dark (collage below). Maybe I successfully removed the infection on the left foot?