Chronic foot infection- trying to avoid second surgery

[coach723]

Yay for good news! I get it, have done my share of hail mary's as well, sometimes you do what you gotta do. Glad she's doing well, and still sending complete recovery vibes....

 

[muscovylove]

Hey all who have been following! We are still holding strong! Tomorrow is 3 weeks post surgery, she is still on Baytril, Clavamox (second round since it weakens considerably after day 10), tumeric, oregano, Meloxicam, Vitamin E. Her scabs fell off and I've put on a light coat of sugardine since her original pustule healed really well with it. In the last 2 days the swelling has dropped down quite a bit which I'm really grateful for- the healing really is up and down and has lots of plateaus. Keeping her foot wrapped with a gauze support for the footpad and she is using both feet about 3/4 of the time. We have an appointment on Monday with her vet and all I can do is keep praying the infection is being kept at bay and she won't need additional surgical things that cost way too much money.

 

[muscovylove]

Still holding strong! Went to vet and we are going to do an x-ray and a dye injection which will see if there are any pockets or traveling infection in the bone still. Still on same med protocol, and she has been gaining weight. The vet does think she has permanent ligament damage in her foot. I hope that my experience will someday help someone else. I'm really curious if the Baytril turned things around but we'll never know because I'm not spending $600 to get a bacteria culture..... We are 4 weeks and 2 days post-2nd debridement.

 

[muscovylove]

Hi everyone! We are still here. Hoppy is going to the vet this afternoon for x-rays and a follow-up. She is still on antibiotics and has had no recurrence of major swelling. Everyone reading this before 3:30pm PST say a little prayer, at this point we should be able to see with an x-ray vs a dye and radiation imaging ($1500) if her infection is still in her joint or bone just waiting to recur.

 

[alinas2010]

Hi everyone! We are still here. Hoppy is going to the vet this afternoon for x-rays and a follow-up. She is still on antibiotics and has had no recurrence of major swelling. Everyone reading this before 3:30pm PST say a little prayer, at this point we should be able to see with an x-ray vs a dye and radiation imaging ($1500) if her infection is still in her joint or bone just waiting to recur.

Prayers for Hoppy

 

[muscovylove]

Hi all- I don't think this is the last I'll add to this thread, but I wanted to share that we had a very positive appointment. To review, Hoppy had a foot infection that went really deep and would not wall off, and without the knowledge of how careful and diligent to be after the first surgery debridement she required a second one after about 8 weeks. Her infection didn't present as a normal bumblefoot- there was no outward black scab or any visible injury- just swelling and infection.
With the advice of the good old internet and chat GPT I decided to get Baytril from a falconer close to the Canadian border and used it with Clavamox after her 2nd surgery and I used a combo of both antibiotics for 8 weeks. I ran out of refills for the Clavamox so we went in for a checkup- I did notice her original incision point looked like a pimple, but I did not want to touch it.
The vet squeezed the incision spot and a crazy large piece of pus popped out. Finally, the infection got walled off and that hard pus built up and found a way out! At one end of the pus wad it showed how it had been in the bone.
The vet recommended to stay on Clavamox for about 4 more weeks- the x-ray showed her toes have seemed to dislocate but said her foot should regenerate tissue and with care her toes should heal somewhat. I will need to clean the open area where the plug came out 2x daily before I wrap it loosely, and because I'm in a very wet part of the country (Portland OR) I need to find a new place for her to hang during the day.

So it looks like we might have a happy end to this saga!! I learned a lot about foot infections in chickens- the main thing is to take care of them which we all should know really, and I'm absolutely guilty of not tending to it when my gut told me it was not something I could handle.
In Hoppy's case- the source of the infection is completely unknown as there was no exterior wound, no scab, and for the longest time no walling off of the infection. I did get her when she was almost 1- so it's probably she had the infection (according to vet) already but it wasn't visible so I didn't notice, and really, in the end it doesn't matter.
Thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers and for staying in touch early on! If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer. I have sad x-rays of her foot now and am happy to share if needed.

 

[alinas2010]

Hi all- I don't think this is the last I'll add to this thread, but I wanted to share that we had a very positive appointment. To review, Hoppy had a foot infection that went really deep and would not wall off, and without the knowledge of how careful and diligent to be after the first surgery debridement she required a second one after about 8 weeks. Her infection didn't present as a normal bumblefoot- there was no outward black scab or any visible injury- just swelling and infection.
With the advice of the good old internet and chat GPT I decided to get Baytril from a falconer close to the Canadian border and used it with Clavamox after her 2nd surgery and I used a combo of both antibiotics for 8 weeks. I ran out of refills for the Clavamox so we went in for a checkup- I did notice her original incision point looked like a pimple, but I did not want to touch it.
The vet squeezed the incision spot and a crazy large piece of pus popped out. Finally, the infection got walled off and that hard pus built up and found a way out! At one end of the pus wad it showed how it had been in the bone.
The vet recommended to stay on Clavamox for about 4 more weeks- the x-ray showed her toes have seemed to dislocate but said her foot should regenerate tissue and with care her toes should heal somewhat. I will need to clean the open area where the plug came out 2x daily before I wrap it loosely, and because I'm in a very wet part of the country (Portland OR) I need to find a new place for her to hang during the day.

So it looks like we might have a happy end to this saga!! I learned a lot about foot infections in chickens- the main thing is to take care of them which we all should know really, and I'm absolutely guilty of not tending to it when my gut told me it was not something I could handle.
In Hoppy's case- the source of the infection is completely unknown as there was no exterior wound, no scab, and for the longest time no walling off of the infection. I did get her when she was almost 1- so it's probably she had the infection (according to vet) already but it wasn't visible so I didn't notice, and really, in the end it doesn't matter.
Thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers and for staying in touch early on! If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer. I have sad x-rays of her foot now and am happy to share if needed.

I’m really glad to hear she had a good appointment. I would be curious to see the X-rays just out of curiosity sake, but absolutely no rush. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s very clear how much you care about her, I love seeing that. What a lucky chicken to have found her way to you.

 

[coach723]

Glad she's doing well and things are looking up! So glad you didn't give up on her. Having dealt with one particularly bad foot infection, I know how much work it is and how long it can take. Even the simplest looking bumblefoot can sometimes end up being a much bigger deal than we expected. And they hide everything so well, it's not really surprising when we miss things on occasion. I hope she continues to recover well. Well done!