Yes the benefit (for the duck, not my wallet) of going to the local vet school ER is they did the whole shebang... xray, fine needle aspiration, labs, cultures. So it's not broken and they didn't get pus out, but she had a very high white blood cell count.I agree. I'd call. Did they xray?
Honey Boo Boo was fine one day and the next she didn't want to join her flock in their daily adventures. In complete transparency, I wasn't checking their feet, but my little Buff Duck made it very obvious that she was suffering from bumblefoot whenever she had it. I never noticed any of that with Honey Boo Boo. It was like her ankle ballooned up overnight. I took pictures of her feet for some help on here and they didn't see anything alarming either. It was like it started in her ankle. I did get quite a bit of pus from her ankle. To finally break the cycle of her ankle and subsequent bumblefoot from the new limping, I had to increase her antibiotic to almost the absolute max dosage of one of the more strong antibiotics. I didn't even think about it possibly being arthritis. Sadly the closest Avian vet (definitely not local) didn't seem interested in anything but euthanizing Honey. I am so happy that you have a vet that's working on treating her
That's so wonderful!!! Let me tell you something crazy.......... I live in NC and we have one of the top vet schools, especially poultry science, in the USA. I didn't even think about taking Honey Boo Boo there. Honestly the thought didn't even cross my mind! I've been there before. My little Maltese, Ellie Mae, started having seizures at only 7 years old (which is still young for such a small dog), out of the blue. The diagnostics at their disposal is just unimaginable to me. My sweet girl had to have an MRI & spinal tap. She was diagnosed correctly and quickly. The only problem I could say was the wait time for an appointment. It cost an extra $300 to go in through the ER with Ellie but she was paralyzed on one side. That was the only way to get her in with a specialist the next day (or next couple of weeks even). I need to call them and find out about appts for chickens and ducks. I can't believe I didn't think of this. Thank you!!! I can't afford it for smaller things but this should have been where I took Honey Boo Boo. I can't thank you enough. Please let me know how it goes and what they say about her. I am very interested in this septic arthritis you've mentioned. It seems like our girls presented in a very similar way. This has just made me even more happy for you.
We got a call from the vet, there were actually 3 bacteria growing in her joint
- two are susceptible to the antibiotics but a third may be resistant. So we are starting amox-clav as well and I'm hoping this will speed her recovery 
We got a call from the vet, there were actually 3 bacteria growing in her joint
Does that explain the delay in her recovery? Amox-Clav is a good one! This has been on my mind so much the past few days. The more I've been reading, the more I think our girls experienced the same thing. I never got any pus out of Honey's foot until she ended up with an obvious case of bumblefoot and that was after the joint involvement. Like Daytona, Honey's just appeared overnight. Since then she did suffer with bumblefoot and I wonder if the initial septic arthritis caused a slight limp. I've thought her limp was from bumblefoot but now I'm looking at everything that happened to her last year in a completely different way. Before I started keeping her foot bandaged, she would get an abrasion from the way she limps which would turn into bumblefoot. She doesn't have a significant limp but she does have some bone erosion in one of her digits from the multiple bumblefoot problems throughout last year. Thank you so much for this thread and for the updates. Of course this doesn't change anything for Honey Boo Boo, except for me needing to look into the chance of this type of arthritis causing any future flares (I experience flares with psoriatic arthritis so this is at the top of my mind whenever arthritis is brought up). I need to look into this. Thanks again!We got a call from the vet, there were actually 3 bacteria growing in her joint
Thanks so much for your concerns about my Sparkle and her progress! I appreciate it since most people think I'm crazy.
p.s. @HeatherKellyB what you describe about Honey BooBoo's limp is what happens with our other duck, Susan, I think. She has a little bit of a funny waddle from perosis as a duckling and I think it just puts more pressure on the center of her foot, and her bumblefoot has all been in various spots in a line down that center bone.Thanks so much for your concerns about my Sparkle and her progress! I appreciate it since most people think I'm crazy.
It does sound similar. She had no bumblefoot, just a small cut that looked clean but apparently escalated very quickly. I'm now spraying everyone's feet down with vetericyn at night even if I don't see any spots because I can't go through this again!
She seems to be doing well today, even after only 2 doses of amox-clav, so maybe she was already getting better. But she actually walked around in the grass for 15 minutes or so with her friends before I put her back in the run. So
