HELP!!! What is this??

[daisyag13]

Sorry it's been a couple days since I've posted, LOTS of craziness going on here as well as pure exhaustion. 2 days ago I had about half my family get injured in some way (including myself) and seemed like all I did all day long was nurse injuries, including Poppy. I slept REALLY good that night! We're all good though, but my expert chicken holder, aka my hubbie, got his hand injured and can no longer help me hold a chicken as we do not want to risk spreading whatever infection she has to his open wounds. Not worth it! So, I'm pretty much on my own with soaking, treating, and medicating Poppy. My eldest helps me when I absolutely need, but I've learned how to manage on my own which I never thought possible. Yes, I can hold down a chicken and remove pus scabs on her all by myself. Now granted, she's a pretty cooperative chicken at this point and knows the drill. She is thoroughly enjoying her Netflix shows during her soaks and is really getting into the characters. She was NOT happy when her fav character left the show.

So, I guess I'll post past updates based on the days...

Day 7 pics as promised:
This is the bottom of her foot after I had pulled pus scabs off with tweezers. It was amazing how much came off and even my hubbie noticed that she was able to walk on her toes now instead of the ball of pus that was attached to her foot (just the tips of her toes would touch the ground before). I used my tweezers that I've had for 20+ yrs. Bought some new ones awhile back, but immediately went back to my old ones-the grip is SO much better. Why do they not make things like they used to?

Here is a picture of the top of her foot before removing anything at all.

Here is a picture of the top of her foot after doing the same on the top of her foot that night as I did on her foot pad because there was a spot that was already trying to come off on it's own. I mainly used tweezers again. It would pull large chunks off, and sometimes it pulled too far or deep and caused a lot of bleeding which I mentioned in my previous post. When it looked like it was going to do this, I would then just cut the big chunk off with my razor blade instead of pulling it off so it wouldn't bleed as much. You can still see lots of pus areas, but again I monitor how she's doing and stop when I think she's had all she can handle.

Day 8:
Mostly day of rest for her to allow her foot to heal some, so just soaks and meds. I did remove her pus scab on her breast blister again because it had formed another but smaller scab that was still yellow. It was really hard to get off even after soaking for 30 minutes, so I had to use the razor blade to slice under it to seperate it from her good skin. I guess I didn't get a picture of it though, that was the crazy day of injuries afterall.
I also got my eldest to help me get some foam pads out of the barn and lined the bottom of the crate for her. They are about 3 inch thick, and we covered them with a large heavy duty trash bag to keep them clean. It makes me feel so much better that she has a nice soft surface to stand and lay on yet still something that we can keep sanitized.

Day 9 (yesterday):
Removed more pus from her foot pad in the morning session and worked on the top of her foot that night. This time instead of trying to pull it off with the tweezers which seemed to cause times where there was lots of bleeding, I tried the slicing method I had done on her breast blister the day before. It worked great and there was way less bleeding! She seemed to tolerate it all just fine and I could've done a lot more, but I got to the point where I couldn't really get to anything very well. I went ahead and used both the antibiotic ointment on the bleeding areas as well as the sugardine mixture.
Here is a picture of her foot pad after slicing several layers of pus off. I was hoping that hill at the bottom middle of her foot was all pus and would come off, but as you can see, it's good skin right there. Hopefully when I'm all finished getting pus off, it'll be the right shape again, or at least heal that way.

Here are some pictures of me "slicing" the pus off her foot. I felt like I was slicing deli meat or cheese like they do at the grocery stores. Also, after I got the top hard dark scabs removed, I resoaked her foot for a little bit and it made some parts slice like butter!!! It was so smooth and easy! The thicker parts took a little more effort. Just make sure you use a super sharp blade! Good tools make this process so much easier. (sorry these are a little more blurry, they were taken with my hubbie's phone and he only has one good hand)

And look at the results!!!! Remarkable difference in the shape of her foot from day 1 to day 9. It's actually starting to resemble a chicken foot again! If we had continued only to soak, we would not be this far along in the healing process. In fact, she even RAN from me today in the crate so her foot is feeling much better.
Day 1:

Day 9: (white stuff is corn starch)

Day 10:
Today my youngest had a soccer tournament all day, so day of rest for her. I only had time to give her oral medicine this morning, but we'll soak again tonight and medicate. If I see some areas that are trying to pull away, I might be tempted to remove some of it too. We'll see how tired I am as well! She's still not really eating on her own, and her crop is starting to feel like it maybe turning into doughy crop, so I'll keep an eye on that and treat if needed. I did add a little ginger and rosemary to her food last night as I had read that it was a natural pain reliever for chickens. I have a little garlic, oregano, and thyme mixed in as well. Also, still doing the probiotics in her water.

I will make a post soon on my setup and all the tools I use because I've found some that are surprisingly good and work great at removing the pus without too much damage and bleeding. And I'd like to note that we have been pretty religious about her soaking, but we have also been like "you know what, it's 1am and she'll be ok this time and we'll get her in the morning". It's at least an hour process and sometimes 2hrs if I'm removing pus etc, especially now that it's mostly me all by myself and I have to do everything including setup, actual procedures, and cleanup. And I also have 4 kids (well 5 if you count the hubbie), 4 dogs, 2 cats, 30 chickens, 3 cows, 2 rams, and a goat to all take care of. So, sometimes it ok if you just need a break too! Thankfully I work from home!

 

[daisyag13]

@coach723
Here are some pictures of her poop. Let me know if you think we should change how much medicine she's taking. (these are from a few days ago, but they are pretty much the same) Her cecal poop is runny.

 

[daisyag13]

I've been reading a DMSO book and I think I'd put a little DMSO in the water bath... or do research for the ratio of DMSO to water online. It's been used for animals for years, is safe, but I'm not sure you'd want to use it full-strength, directly on a wound. Please research the possibility. Poor chicken! I'd definitely avoid surgery if at all possible... creates open wounds... ouch!!!!!

Thanks for the idea! I did a quick research, and am not certain on a proper/safe dosing for chickens. Plus I don't currently have any. I'll have to do more research later when I have more time and not so exhausted. The other things I've been doing so far have been working, so I'll just keep up with that.

Yes, the pus removal does create open wounds, but as noted in my recent post, I'm creating minimal open cuts that are no different than cutting yourself with a razor when you shave. Yes they hurt, but not excrutiating. And I think the benefit of the few minor cuts outweighs the massive pressure and pain the thick pus scab must be causing her which has also caused her to stand on her foot differently which can cause other areas to hurt as well. In my book, a week of minor added pain is better than weeks or months of having this infection in her foot, taking antibiotics that mess up her digestive system, and the potential for the infection to spread and get worse. At least that's what I'd choose for myself. I definitely agree that for minor bumblefoot, you can treat with just prid or now my new favorite-sugardine.

 

[daisyag13]

This is a very informative thread and I am curious to see the progression as this gal (hopefully) heals.

For what it’s worth, I have a suggestion for your other chickens that you mentioned also have bumblefoot. A local chicken keeper swears by using a drawing salve called Prid. She claims that it pulls the infection out and the bumble will eventually fall off of the foot. No surgery, just daily or every other day applications, then wrapping the foot to keep the salve on.

I had some chickens get bumble foot this past summer and tried treating it with the usually prescribed treatment - removing the bumble, using iodine/antibiotic ointment, wrapping foot, and checking in after a couple days. It is also very time consuming and I wasn’t seeing much progress with the most severe cases, so decided to give her remedy try.

It works, despite my skepticism of its effectiveness. It’s also much less painful and time consuming, which both the chickens and I appreciate. Here’s a picture of a bumble that came off stuck to the wrapping, sometimes they came off like this, other times they were clearly close to coming off so I pulled them off.

Thanks for the idea! Yes, I've heard of it and actually have some in the coop storage, but haven't used it yet. So far, I've been successful in my past bumblefoot surgeries (only 2 previous because the 1st one the scab just came off and all the skin underneath was already healed). The other chicken I mentioned in my first post that was limping actually had a cut higher up on her foot that was causing her pain, not bumblefoot at all. So we doctored and treated it and wrapped it up and sent her off with the other chickies. She's doing great!

So I might use it in the future (I actually have 1 other chicken that I need to check on), or I might just use the sugardine. I always have sugar and iodine on hand. It works great too, but can just be a little messy.

 

[coach723]

The droppings look a little runny, and the green is probably from her not eating well. When I've had issues the droppings became yellow and very watery with little solids, kind of slimy. And cecal droppings are often runnier or pastier than regular droppings. At this point I would continue to monitor. I think you are doing a great job on her! Foot is looking much better. I think as infection and inflammation reduce, the swelling will come down, and the foot will gradually return to a more normal size and shape.
I understand that life can be overwhelming! When my 3 kids were small there was a period where I felt like I was in the ER every 5 minutes (slight exaggeration), and at one point thought I was going to get reported to CPS because of it! It's amazing how many innovative ways normal kids (and husbands) can find to hurt themselves! Had a half bitten off tongue, ruptured eardrum by a child that was curious what would happen if she stuck a frozen marigold stem in her ear, dislocated elbow, teeth trauma (fell UP the stairs and bit them-the stairs), an eye injury from a thrown barbie doll, and an eye injury because they thought it was a good idea to play pirates on a balance beam and have a 'sword' fight with sticks. Ugh. I think I was exhausted for 20 years straight til they all left for college. And hubbie tried to cut two of his fingers off. We all survived and everyone is happy and normal (well, sort of!).
I also have a lot of animals as well, 4 cows, a donkey, a great pyrenees and a pyrenees collie mix (who is a nut ball), a cat with autoimmune issues and about 40 chickens, one of whom I'm hand feeding at the moment. So I totally get it. We all do the best we can, and it's not always easy. I think you are doing a great job!