Help! Chicken with Bumblefoot in need!

[Chickensarefeathereddogs]

Hello, I am a beginner chicken owner, and have had chickens for 7 months. I first notified that my chickens had bumble foot mid September. Even worse, all ten of my chickens had it. Some worse than others, but they all had it to some degree. On some chickens they only had it on one foot. That day I soaked all there feet in warm water with Epsom salt. We also bought vetericin plus, guase pads, and Prid. I wrapped all the chicken feet that had it, including using the Prid, guase pad, cleaner, and wrap. All but one chicken got better in a matter of a couple weeks. Now, Yolko, a 7 month old large Easter Egger has it almost everywhere on her foot. She doesn't like to put weight on it and won't even free range when I let them out of there run. There isn't any black spot any more, but her foot is large, swollen and pussy.
We have done some at home surgery, and found nothing. There is some whitish yellow stringy stuff with a little bit everywhere in her foot. We just started doing penicillin shots, today her second dose. We have been using the cleaner, Prid, guase pads, and veterinary wrap. Is there anything else I can do? Any help is appreciated.

 

[azygous]

It sounds as if you're doing all you can to treat this. Some serious bumblefoot cases can take months to resolve. I treated a serious case for two years. This isn't at all unusual. Patience and perseverance need to be your mantra.

What you didn't mention, though, was investigating the cause of so many cases of bumblefoot and taking steps to mitigate the problems. This is a necessary component of bumblefoot treatment.

Years ago, I had five Welsummer pullets. They hadn't even reached point of lay and four of the five were suffering from bumblefoot. They were all injuring their feet somehow, and it finally dawned on me that their coop floor had inadequate bedding beneath their perch, and they were injuring their feet jumping down from the perch.

When I lowered the perch and installed deeper bedding, they never had bumblefoot again.

 

[coach723]

Can you post some pictures of the really bad foot? Would help in giving advice on treatment. Smaller, shallower lesions often respond to topical treatments. Larger, deeper lesions, or those that are stringy rather than a compact kernal often need more serious treatment.

 

[Chickensarefeathereddogs]

When we cut into the foot, we thought we would find a Kernel, but just found the stringy stuff. She seems to enjoy the house time though. Here are the pictures:

 

[Chickensarefeathereddogs]

About the cause of the Bumblefoot we think that it was cuaaed when we had a hot dry spell, and we wet down there run. The roosts are 28 inches from floor to roost, and 6 inches of pine shaving. Making 22 inches with a soft landing.

 

[coach723]

The stringy stuff is much harder to clean out well. I'm going to suggest a more serious treatment. I would use sugardine daily until it starts looking better. Initially I would give it a good soak and clean it out as well as you can, flush it well with diluted betadine or chlorhexidine. Then apply the sugardine and wrap it well. This link below, see post #8 which explains how I did it, and has some pictures and an explanation of sugardine (video). This may take some time to clear up (maybe months). The sugardine will help draw out infection, will help discourage the infection, and help it to heal from the inside out. Initially you may need to repeat the cleaning out of gunk, but the sugardine should eventually stop it from forming if you are cleaning it out well and getting the sugardine in there. I did this daily until it was healing well and forming no new pus, then later went to every other day and eventually every third day, until it was healed up. I highly recommend the duoderm bandages I link to in the other thread, they hold it in very well, then wrap over that with vet wrap or co wrap.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bumblefoot-not-healing.1443809/
See post #8 there.

 

[Chickensarefeathereddogs]

Thank you for the information. The infection seems to be every where in the pad and base of toes. Do we remove much of the skin over the infection, or do we make a cut and push the infection to the cut?

 

[coach723]

If you soak the foot well first then it should soften up. The places where it's cracked and broken may be enough to get it cleaned out once it's softened. Alternately you can apply decolorized iodine (any first aid section should have it) and wrap the foot over night, that will also soften it up. Then manipulation may be enough to remove a lot of that infection. I sometimes us a curette to clean it out, picture below. I got mine on amazon. I would not cut unless necessary. If you can get it reasonably cleaned out then try the sugardine for a week or two to see if you get some improvement.

 

[Chickensarefeathereddogs]

Hello, several days ago we cut into the foot. We found some of the stringy white stuff, and it bled quite a bit of watery blood. The swelling is down but her toes are turning black and are dead. We packed it with sugardine and bedadine. She won't eat, the last couple days I have been force feeding and watering her. About once a day she will drink water, and she will sometimes eat, too. Yesterday and today I have been giving her some wet cat food to give her some protein. After I feed her she is always more energetic. We are thinking it is too late, but is there anything else we can do? She is such a good chicken. I feel bad for not doing more.

 

[coach723]

It sounds like either the infection has spread or there is secondary infection from the cutting/digging. I had a rooster many years ago that got an infected toe from losing a nail that became septic and ultimately he passed despite all efforts including antibiotics and amputation. His toe began to turn black, smelled bad and it was slowly advancing up the toe. If vet care is an option then I would get an opinion there on whether this is treatable or not, and they can determine what antibiotic would be the most likely to help. If it's not an option and you want to try to save the bird then I would start an antibiotic and see if it helps. I'd probably go with something strong like Cephalexin which you can get without prescription as Fish Flex. Dose I use is 35-50 mg/kg every 6 hours. PIctures would be helpful. I will tag a couple other people to see if they have any other suggestions.
@Wyorp Rock , @Eggcessive