How do you know when bumblefoot treatment can be stopped?

[Spiase20]

After my duck broke her leg (spent 3k on surgery), I just ended up getting pet insurance from Nationwide for all 4 of my ducks.

I am sooo thankful I did it because later in the year, all four of my ducks got bumblefoot! Took them all to the vet to get checked, and one needed surgery to get it removed, plus all the follow ups. It saved me so much money in the end. I learned my lesson, if you get easily attached to animals, just insure them if you can. Vet bills are just ridiculous.

 

[McChics]

Tomorrow makes two weeks on the clavacillin. She either got wise to the spiked green beans or got sick of eating vegetables, lol, but I discovered that smashing it into a powder and mixing with water and pouring over her pellets works just fine too. Her foot still looks just as swollen. This has been going on for like FIVE months now *sigh* I wish someone knew how to fix this.

Wow. Praying it goes away soon!!!!

 

[McChics]

After my duck broke her leg (spent 3k on surgery), I just ended up getting pet insurance from Nationwide for all 4 of my ducks.

I am sooo thankful I did it because later in the year, all four of my ducks got bumblefoot! Took them all to the vet to get checked, and one needed surgery to get it removed, plus all the follow ups. It saved me so much money in the end. I learned my lesson, if you get easily attached to animals, just insure them if you can. Vet bills are just ridiculous.

Too bad Aflac doesn’t do pet insurance. Could you imagine the Aflac duck bringing a check to the owner of another duck for vet bills?

My golden retriever has had two left leg surgeries in the last two years that have cost us plenty!!!!!

 

[cymbaline]

After my duck broke her leg (spent 3k on surgery), I just ended up getting pet insurance from Nationwide for all 4 of my ducks.

I am sooo thankful I did it because later in the year, all four of my ducks got bumblefoot! Took them all to the vet to get checked, and one needed surgery to get it removed, plus all the follow ups. It saved me so much money in the end. I learned my lesson, if you get easily attached to animals, just insure them if you can. Vet bills are just ridiculous.

I would've never thought of that! I looked into that one and a few others...don't think it'd be worth for it me right now though. But great to know it's available.
It's crazy to me...leaving her overnight to have surgery and all that goes with that was only $151, but I've spent another $105 just on 3 weeks' worth of clavacillin and don't get my started on how expensive metacam is...ugh.

 

[cymbaline]

So the light colored lump on the inner top of her foot kept getting bigger, like a gigantic zit. I felt it tonight and it felt just like a bumble, like there was a hard lump inside.

Not a huge lump, about like a small misshapen pea, and there might still be more down in there but she was totally done letting me fuss with it. But hey, it's a start!
Man, I sure hope this is the beginning of her poor foot finally healing. She's been standing and walking really well the past couple weeks. I noticed her standing the other morning and decided to watch and see how long; she stood in her little indoor pen for over a half hour. No reason to stand - she can eat and drink and see out just fine while sitting - so it must not hurt her much at all. And she's been keeping up with the other ducks outside more too, not just sitting near them.

 

[cymbaline]

After 3 weeks of clavacillin her foot was definitely not worse but only a little better. Found clindamycin for sale (a months' worth for less than the cost of a week of clavacillin) which is supposed to be effective against staph infections (which bumblefoot most often is a result of) and also very good for bone/joint infections. I've been giving her 150mg capsule emptied into her food twice a day for almost two weeks, and shockingly it has not helped one bit, and her foot is now a lot worse.
So I started thinking, I could probably narrow down the type of bacteria based on what helps and what doesn't. Found this neat chart and have decided it's quite likely Enterococcus faecalis or possibly E. coli., based on the fact that amoxicillin helped some, clavacillin helped a lot, and clindamycin and lincomycin haven't done much at all. Of the meds I can get a hold of easily and relatively inexpensively, penicillin and gentamicin should both be effective AND work synergistic with each other. SO - I've ordered the gentamicin and I'm gonna pick up some penicillin from TSC.
If this doesn't work, my next step is to find a vet that can/will do the antibiotic beads. I looked into the 3d printed prosthetic feet some more and I'm pretty sure it'll be far less costly and difficult to find a vet to do the beads and then hopefully she'd get to keep her foot too.
One question for @casportpony and @Isaac 0 - I've frequently seen the timeframe for penicillin treatment to be 4-7 days (not sure if it's not safe to go longer or just not usually necessary). I could start it this evening, and add the gentamicin later this week when it arrives for another week, which would be more like 11-12 days of penicillin, or I could wait and start them both together (if she doesn't get much worse in the meantime) which would make them both more effective. Which do you guys think would be the better option?

 

[cymbaline]

Well I waited til I had both medicines and gave both for about a week - no discernable difference.
I went out of town for the weekend and let her back outside with the other ducks while I was gone and she was limping way worse and panting a lot when I got back Called the vet and we discussed the antibiotic beads but when I got over there she recommended I take her somewhere more experienced, like to the vet school at Virginia Tech (who we later found out doesn't see ducks ). But she did give us the pill version of meloxicam which is not only much easier to give her a proper dose of but also far less expensive. It's working very well - she seems much more comfortable, and is back to getting around sort of okay.
I also haven't been giving her any antibiotics and her foot doesn't seem to be getting any worse, which makes me wonder if the swelling now is just inflammation from the joint being bone on bone, according to the vet when she cleaned it out.
Oh, and whatever discomfort she's feeling hasn't dampened her appetite at all - she put on over a pound!
I'm debating now on taking her to the avian vet an hour a half away or just taking a weekend road trip to my cousin's vet office, lol.

 

[cymbaline]

Not sure if anyone is still following this, but in case someone later has a similar issue and stumbles onto this thread, I'm going to keep updating.
The vet in Charleston doesn't have any openings for ducks until October 8. They recommended another office, who said they didn't think they'd be able to do any more than what my vet had already done. She hasn't been on any antibiotics in weeks and was doing okay so last weekend I put her back outside with the other ducks. She's learned to kinda turn her foot inward and I guess that alleviates a lot of the pain bc she gets around pretty well. Her feathers look better than they did when she was inside, so she's taking care of herself. I guess as long as she seems healthy and happy otherwise I won't push the issue? Maybe the arthritis will resolve some eventually.

 

[McChics]

Not sure if anyone is still following this, but in case someone later has a similar issue and stumbles onto this thread, I'm going to keep updating.
The vet in Charleston doesn't have any openings for ducks until October 8. They recommended another office, who said they didn't think they'd be able to do any more than what my vet had already done. She hasn't been on any antibiotics in weeks and was doing okay so last weekend I put her back outside with the other ducks. She's learned to kinda turn her foot inward and I guess that alleviates a lot of the pain bc she gets around pretty well. Her feathers look better than they did when she was inside, so she's taking care of herself. I guess as long as she seems healthy and happy otherwise I won't push the issue? Maybe the arthritis will resolve some eventually.

I'm following. I also wanted to give an update - I'm attaching a picture of Stripe's foot from YESTERDAY. Dear Lord...this is frustrating. So...she shows NO symptoms - no limping, no unusual activity. You'd think she is just a happy go-lucky duck right now. BUT, the bumble is still there! MONTHS later!!!!!!!!! I'm thinking we just live with this. I guess. She hasn't been on any meds now in a couple of months. The spot is no worse...and no better. The main one that this all started with on her middle toe is 100% gone.

 

[Ruby243]

Not sure if anyone is still following this, but in case someone later has a similar issue and stumbles onto this thread, I'm going to keep updating.
The vet in Charleston doesn't have any openings for ducks until October 8. They recommended another office, who said they didn't think they'd be able to do any more than what my vet had already done. She hasn't been on any antibiotics in weeks and was doing okay so last weekend I put her back outside with the other ducks. She's learned to kinda turn her foot inward and I guess that alleviates a lot of the pain bc she gets around pretty well. Her feathers look better than they did when she was inside, so she's taking care of herself. I guess as long as she seems healthy and happy otherwise I won't push the issue? Maybe the arthritis will resolve some eventually.

I have a very similar problem right now, just wondering if you have another update on how your duck is doing?