Gumball foot soar

[KAswan]

Hello, thanks for all your help to date! My Chicken has two round brown red scabs on the bottom of her foot. I’ve taken the top off however there’s no yellow core to squeeze out. I’ve pushed and looked and nothing really comes out. Looking on the top of her foot, I can actually see some yellow puss through the skin. I put antiseptic on the open wound and bandage them. They are healing over with the brown scab again. I keep changing the bandage and putting on antiseptic. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!

 

[coach723]

Pictures would be really helpful. Sounds like bumblefoot, but there are degrees, and seeing it would be the best way for anyone to advise the best course. With bumblefoot, all the infection has to be cleaned out, or it will just continue to regenerate. Sometimes the infection tunnels through the foot to other areas beyond the original lesion. We really need to see it in order to help you.

 

[KAswan]

Pictures would be really helpful. Sounds like bumblefoot, but there are degrees, and seeing it would be the best way for anyone to advise the best course. With bumblefoot, all the infection has to be cleaned out, or it will just continue to regenerate. Sometimes the infection tunnels through the foot to other areas beyond the original lesion. We really need to see it in order to help you.

Thank you. I can so later today. Title was meant to say bumble foot! Ha.

 

[KAswan]

Bottom with 2 soars. Cleaned out, bleed but no white/yellow core. Top I see a white bit under the skin, but hard to see in this photo.

 

[coach723]

Those are early and don't look too bad. Is the bird limping? I would continue as you have with the ointment and wrapping. In addition, a daily epsom salt soak can be helpful. Even small bumblefoot sores can take a while to heal, it's a slow process. In some cases weeks to months. If they start to look worse, you will need to clean them out again. Sometimes a drawing salve (like Prid) or sugardine (plain white sugar mixed with betadine to make a paste) is helpful, and then wrapped. I cannot see the spot you think is pus, if that gets worse/larger then you may need to lance that spot, clean it out as well and treat as the others.

 

[KAswan]

Those are early and don't look too bad. Is the bird limping? I would continue as you have with the ointment and wrapping. In addition, a daily epsom salt soak can be helpful. Even small bumblefoot sores can take a while to heal, it's a slow process. In some cases weeks to months. If they start to look worse, you will need to clean them out again. Sometimes a drawing salve (like Prid) or sugardine (plain white sugar mixed with betadine to make a paste) is helpful, and then wrapped. I cannot see the spot you think is pus, if that gets worse/larger then you may need to lance that spot, clean it out as well and treat as the others.

Thank you for the reassurance. Maybe I should’ve explained this is after cutting and healing for over a week. It’s just that it’s healing looking exactly the same as before we cut it open. I’m concerned once I take the bandages off it will just be the same. I suppose like you say soaking could help. We did use a drawing lotion for a week and a half and it didn’t seem to do anything.

 

[coach723]

I would continue as you have been, and do the soaks if you can. I would change bandages and reapply ointment everyday until you know it's healing well. Sometimes the smaller ones can still take a long time to heal. If after a couple more weeks you aren't seeing any improvement (improvement can be slow), or if things get worse, I would try the sugardine. If it starts swelling, or you see pus generating, I would start that. I've had very good results with it on some pretty bad bumblefoot. I've posted a link to a thread where I explain what I did, and it contains a video on sugardine. See post #8 here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bumblefoot-not-healing.1443809/