Help with Bumblefoot

[Megana]

Would love help… she is on a broad antibiotic- her leg is not hot. But we can not seem to get the bumblefoot under control. Doing 2 soaks with epsen salt a day, then decolonized iodine and then triple antibiotic before bandaging. Keeping her out of water and the foot clean. There has never been pus, but after we clean it out, the next day it looks black again. We did remove what looked like a super small kernel yesterday, but no pus or yellow. Any input? She is our baby.

 

[azygous]

By "cleaning it out", do you mean you are removing the scab and any pus under the scab? Do you have any idea how she injured the foot? Can you be sure she isn't reinjuring the foot?

Some serious cases require months of care to heal them. It could help to keep a wound ointment on the wound and wrap the foot to keep the wound moist so it heals better.

 

[Megana]

By "cleaning it out", do you mean you are removing the scab and any pus under the scab? Do you have any idea how she injured the foot? Can you be sure she isn't reinjuring the foot?

Some serious cases require months of care to heal them. It could help to keep a wound ointment on the wound and wrap the foot to keep the wound moist so it heals better.

Thank you for your reply! We are soaking it in the epsen salt (cleaning it out)- I have gone in twice to remove the scab with a scalpel- that is when we thought we removed what to be a small kernel, but it has never looked like the pictures of kernels I see online (almost looked like a piece of sand). She has never had pus or the white stuff I see people post about. After each soak I put decolorized iodine on, triple antibiotic ointment cream and wrap it. (So 2 times a day). Does this look like it is healing? I read that if the black is coming back (which it looks like it is slowly), maybe the kernel is still in there? She is not injuring it-

 

[azygous]

It appears you are doing everything by the book. I once had a hen, came to me from a flock where she was the only survivor, who had incurable bumblefoot. I worked on it for two years, and it never fully resolved, remaining swollen with a chronic scab. I tried oral antibiotics and even resorted to applying penicillin directly to the wound before finishing off with a topical ointment and bandaging. It was one of the most frustrating things I've ever dealt with.

You can only keep doing what you've been doing and hope it eventually heals.

 

[Megana]

It appears you are doing everything by the book. I once had a hen, came to me from a flock where she was the only survivor, who had incurable bumblefoot. I worked on it for two years, and it never fully resolved, remaining swollen with a chronic scab. I tried oral antibiotics and even resorted to applying penicillin directly to the wound before finishing off with a topical ointment and bandaging. It was one of the most frustrating things I've ever dealt with.

You can only keep doing what you've been doing and hope it eventually heals.

Thank you! As you know, it’s so frustrating!! Do you know… when healing, will the scab ever look dark within the healing process? Or should I continue to remove the dark pieces, every few days?

 

[azygous]

Debriding is healthy wound treatment. Even if it appears you are removing healing tissue, you are actually removing bacteria, and that improves conditions for new tissue growth. Use of Vetericyn wound spray pryor to dressing the wound with the ointment can promote tissue growth. It's a great aid to serious wounds such as stubborn bumblefoot.

Hang in there and keep on.

 

[McChooky]

I soaked my hens feet until the core came off with a tug on both sides.I didn't cut it out. I trimmed all the dark edges off & cut some of the new skin to get all the dead off. I'm still soaking it every other day and keeping it bandaged .I use iodine and a triple antibiotic on it before bandaging it. The new scab is a normal color & not black so I'm hoping it will heal completely. Its been 2 weeks since the core came out but the scab isn't healed yet. Shes on 250 mg Cephalexin once a day