About a month ago I noticed one of my 1 yr. old White Leghorns walking with a limp. After closer inspection I noticed a black circle on the bottom of her foot. I suspected bumble foot because I'd read about it here on BYC. I was sure that I had seen pics of the surgery somewhere on BYC, but I can't seem to locate it at the moment.
Anyway, I finally got up the courage to do the surgery - one of the reasons I waited (besides the fact that I'm a chicken! OOps, is that chicken sacrilidge?!) is because it has been so cold and I was afraid of putting my little hen into shock, so waited for a warm spell. By this time she had a dark brown spot on the top of her foot as well. I felt really bad that I had waited so long.
I rounded up the equipment that was suggested - vet wrap, razor knife, epsom salts, cotton, neosporin, towel, DH - and we brought her into the kitchen. DH wrapped the towel around her and held her for me. She was an awesome patient, much to my surprise, because she is one of my more flighty girls. We worked on her for about 30 minutes, making little progress. Then DH suggested that I get the dental pic that he keeps in his bathroom. After working on the foot for just a few minutes I put the pic into the area and OUT POPPED A BIG OL, CORE! It was about as big as the end of my thumb and hard as a rock. DH said he could sense the hen relax after it popped out! He thought she had died, but when we unwrapped her she was just fine!
There was a huge hole in her foot that I could see all the way through. Following the instructions I had found, I put a big squeeze of Neosporin into the hole, placed a cotton pad on both sides of her foot and wraped it with the vet wrap. We changed the bandage several times over the weekend and she is walking so much better. We noticed bleeding on the other leg/foot, I guess where she or one of the others has pecked at her, so we cleaned it up and applied neosporin and vet wrap to it as well, and we watched her all day yesterday to make sure no one was pecking at her. The vet wrap we are using is yellow, so she now has 2 really yellow feet! And she is healing beautifully.
Sorry I don't have any pictures, but it was just DH and I doing the surgery, so I didn't have a free hand to take pictures. I mainly wanted to thank BYC and all it's members who are so willing to share their extensive knowledge. Because of you I may have saved one of my girls! And now she will let me pick her up and hold her, so unlike she was before the surgery.
I'll keep you all updated on her progress and try to take some "after" pictures. Thanks again to all you wonderful BYC members!!
Anyway, I finally got up the courage to do the surgery - one of the reasons I waited (besides the fact that I'm a chicken! OOps, is that chicken sacrilidge?!) is because it has been so cold and I was afraid of putting my little hen into shock, so waited for a warm spell. By this time she had a dark brown spot on the top of her foot as well. I felt really bad that I had waited so long.
I rounded up the equipment that was suggested - vet wrap, razor knife, epsom salts, cotton, neosporin, towel, DH - and we brought her into the kitchen. DH wrapped the towel around her and held her for me. She was an awesome patient, much to my surprise, because she is one of my more flighty girls. We worked on her for about 30 minutes, making little progress. Then DH suggested that I get the dental pic that he keeps in his bathroom. After working on the foot for just a few minutes I put the pic into the area and OUT POPPED A BIG OL, CORE! It was about as big as the end of my thumb and hard as a rock. DH said he could sense the hen relax after it popped out! He thought she had died, but when we unwrapped her she was just fine!
There was a huge hole in her foot that I could see all the way through. Following the instructions I had found, I put a big squeeze of Neosporin into the hole, placed a cotton pad on both sides of her foot and wraped it with the vet wrap. We changed the bandage several times over the weekend and she is walking so much better. We noticed bleeding on the other leg/foot, I guess where she or one of the others has pecked at her, so we cleaned it up and applied neosporin and vet wrap to it as well, and we watched her all day yesterday to make sure no one was pecking at her. The vet wrap we are using is yellow, so she now has 2 really yellow feet! And she is healing beautifully.
Sorry I don't have any pictures, but it was just DH and I doing the surgery, so I didn't have a free hand to take pictures. I mainly wanted to thank BYC and all it's members who are so willing to share their extensive knowledge. Because of you I may have saved one of my girls! And now she will let me pick her up and hold her, so unlike she was before the surgery.
I'll keep you all updated on her progress and try to take some "after" pictures. Thanks again to all you wonderful BYC members!!
