How am I doing with my bumblefoot treatment? Update! *New problem!*

[AnnaLease]

This is the second time my call duck Vienna has had bumble foot. I have been bringing her in every other day for over a week and soaking her foot in epsom salt and water and then putting antibiotics on it and rewrapping it. She has been staying in the duck house recovering. Anything else I should be doing? Does it look like it is healing? Thanks!

 

[jbourget]

i do not know what it looked like before, but it does look like it is healing good. keep up the good work!

 

[Amiga]

That looks not too bad - don't recall what it was like at first. I'd keep up with the antibiotics for a couple more weeks anyway to be sure.

Congratulations!

 

[AnnaLease]

I think her heel (or whatever that's called) looks alot better than before, but I'm worried about that back toe. It looks really black! Is it going to heal completely or will it.......... fall off???

 

[Amiga]

Black tissue is not bumblefoot, based on my understanding. It may be frostbite or perhaps the circulation got cut off somehow?

Is it soft, does it smell bad?

Has it changed in appearance or size since you started treating the bumblefoot?

 

[AnnaLease]

The black toe has not changed since we have been treating her. But whenever we touch it or mess with it, she makes noises like it hurts. I will have to look closely at it tomorrow.

 

[Amiga]

I think that's something else, and may be contributing to the bumblefoot. Definitely want to keep up with the antibiotics. Could it be frostbite? It may need to be safely removed.

 

[AnnaLease]

We brought her in and rewrapped her. The heel looks almost completely healed. The cracks on her toes have not healed yet, so I put some vaseline on them. And the black toe still looks the same. She is not limping as badly as she was before, so I decided to put a plastic bag around her foot (on top of the vet wrap and antibiotics) and let her run around with the rest of the gang. I was feeling her black toe and she did not seem to mind at all, this time. To me, (and I'm no vet) the black toe looks dead. I do not think it was frostbitten, because it has not been very cold here yet (we are having an unusually nice December). Do you think it would eventually fall off? Would we need to take her to a vet to have it removed? Because that's not an option.

 

[Amiga]

Perhaps you can post another topic specifically for "hallux with dead tissue? amputate?" and see if that gets some responses from people with experience on that. I just don't think necrotic tissue is good to leave in place. Are you sure it's dead, though? Maybe just discolored?

 

[AnnaLease]

I think I'll leave it for a few more days and see if anything changes. Thanks for the advice.