First time dealing with bumblefoot, any suggestions??

[mommyofthree]

One of my white pekins (who is free range) has been limping for awhile. It seemed to get better and then got worse. She is hard to get close to so I couldn't get a good look until today and I noticed she has bumblefoot. I was able to cut off the black scab over it and I tried to scrape out the infection but it was really hard and I couldn't get much out. I soaked it for quite awhile in warm water with epsom salt before and after cutting the scab off. I soaked a gauze and the open wound with tea tree oil and wrapped it, and put her in a large dog crate for now. I also put duramycin in her water.
Should I keep trying to get the infection out or just keep soaking it and administering the antibiotics?? Tea Tree oil was all I had on hand, will that be okay or should I get something else? The infection is in the middle of the foot and it is swollen on the top and bottom, the scab was on the top of the foot.

 

[mommyofthree]

Any thoughts?? Is it important to clean out the infection?? I put her in a run we have with the dog cage to go in if she wants, and the rest of the ducks can see her. I tried again to soak the foot and clean out some of the junk but it is hard and chunky and it really freaks me out picking around in her foot.

I packed it with triple antibiotic ointment and wrapped it up, also put the duramycin in her water today.

 

[ForgottenGlen]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=303829
Here is a post on bumblefoot, and a way to fix it without surgery. I've seen posts where the scab and infection just pops out, but never had the experience myself. Search the forum, it was not that long ago. Hope this helps.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Here's my experience with bumblefoot (photos included) :

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=399017

This is Ruth's thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=236649

I relied on Ruth's thread but found it very time consuming to go through the whole thing to gather all of the information I needed on it. I tried to condense the most important info into my thread based upon my experience. Good luck!