How to tell if bumblefoot surgery was successful?

[ozarkchickens]

Hi everyone, here's my outcome with my Orp who WILL need a second surgery:

• My Orp that underwent home surgery, when it didn't seem to work, has a much bigger bumble now but shows no signs of ill health. Before the surgery, she was limping and laying down in the run a lot. Now she doesn't even limp.
• I believe that I did the surgery too early, before the bumble fully formed, because I was able to extract the scab and plug and get a small kernel out of the foot but it was mostly thick creamy puss, along with blood. I had to really dig to get the kernel, it was almost at the top surface of the foot, and there was no way for me to irrigate all of that thick puss out of the foot.
• When I did the surgery, I soaked her in epsom salts, did the extraction as shown in the video I reference earlier in this thread, irrigated the open wound with iodine, applied triple antibiotic ointment, wrapped in gauze, and wrapped the gauze COMPLETELY (but not too tight) in ace bandage strips to keep the dirt out. I changed the dressing twice a day for a couple of days then once a day for the rest of the week, then she was healed nicely.
• The bumble is now huge, and I plan to remove it, but I think the cold weather has slowed the infection, and again she's not showing any signs of pain or ill health. She has been sickly since hatching, and I've been waiting for her molt to get closer to completion before another surgery stresses her out. I think it will all come out this time since the kernel is so big and hard, and likely has contained the infection.

Two other chickens got BF right after my Orp - wet season here. My RIR had a scab on one foot, no swelling, and I soaked her in Tricide Neo twice a day for a week. She fully recovered, no surgery. Scab is gone.

My Wyandotte had a scab on both feet, I soaked her as well for the same length of time. One foot healed, the other seems to be in stasis. Scab got smaller but won't go away completely. I'm keeping an eye on her but not cutting until/unless I get a hard kernel that I can remove once and done.

I was really afraid with my sickly Orp that she would die from infection when I found the bumble, then learned that the infection wasn't gone. But she's walking, eating, following me around, and all of the other chicken necessaries, just like normal. I've offered lots of opinions in this post, but I read everything I could get my hands on, and I really believe colder weather slows the spread. Also topped everything up with lots of pine bark mulch, and new/thick pine shavings inside the coop.

Hope you all have good luck with your chicks.