Limping duck, possible bumblefoot?

[arrowti]

Our 1 year+ pekin female was limping yesterday, and we assumed she had tripped or fallen over something and hurt her leg. She is limping today, and since I have a few hours off I tried to look her over. She is limping on her left leg and stumbles and falls sometimes, especially over the patchy ground. She continues to act normally (eating, sleeping, pooping, drinking, and eating and pooping some more), is social, follows the others, and doesn't appear sick. However, when I was trying to get pictures of her, I caught her stretching our her injured leg and spotted her foot, which appears to have brown patches.

At this point I'm alone and will be for several hours, and when I tried to catch her, she panicked, tripped and fell and quacked loudly as though I were a predator, so for now I'm going to wait until I have help so she doesn't hurt herself.

If not bumblefoot, I'm doubting it was the drake since he has no interest in her - he's a cayuga and she's a pekin, and he'd rather mate his fellows cayugas than even look at her, no matter how she tries!

Here's a couple of pictures of her (her name is Fatty), and the worrisome foot.






Her other problem is that she's overweight, but I'm considering that's because she spends all her time laying down, eating the grass, then gets up, moves a few feet and does the same thing all day long!

As you can see, her foot definitely appears to have brown lumps on it. If it is bumblefoot, which we can hopefully determine later when I have some help, what is the best way to help her? Her weight has always worried me so I don't want her to get too stressed out (my little cousin decided to chase her once and she could barely walk for an hour afterwards she was so distressed, and she could only flap her wings and crawl).

 

[jducour]

I will wait to see what the others say about the foot, but I just wanted to mention - as far as catching a duck, you should never chase it. When I first got ducks, I thought the best way to catch a duck that didn't want to be caught was to chase it, but I've learned there are better ways. I have 4 girls that tolerate my existence, and will eat treats from my hand. That is the extent of our relationship. If I need to look at one of them ( I try to hold and inspect each duck every other day or so), then I slowly back them up to a corner. Sometimes having bamboo sticks or a broom can help corral her into a corner. Once she is trapped, slowly lower yourself and hold her. I have been catching my skittish ducks this way for months, and I'll never go back. Good luck!

 

[arrowti]

Finally did catch her by cornering her, and wasn't she angry and puffing right up to fight! But we did find it was in fact bumblefoot - two scabs on the foot. We actually have a disinfectant spray because we used it when castrating piglets last week (veterex or something) and some gauze so we'll try and do that. But it's going to downpour today and I know she needs to stay dry for now.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Finally did catch her by cornering her, and wasn't she angry and puffing right up to fight! But we did find it was in fact bumblefoot - two scabs on the foot. We actually have a disinfectant spray because we used it when castrating piglets last week (veterex or something) and some gauze so we'll try and do that. But it's going to downpour today and I know she needs to stay dry for now.

Can you keep her inside for a while on clean bedding? soak her foot in warm Epsom salt water after wards see if you can get some colorless iodine, Most CVS and Walmart carry it, colorless iodine has ammonia in it and really works great along with the iodine to draw the bumble to the surface so after soaking for how many days it takes and using the c-iodine you should be able to peel off the scabs and pull out the bumble with sterile tweezers then coat the foot with the c-iodine again wrap and keep her on clean bedding till healed. This isn't over night healing but if given time it will heal. and no cutting.

 

[arrowti]

Today I'm beginning to doubt a bumblefoot infection. When I picked her up again to try and treat her, her other foot has blister-like sores in the exact places, except they weren't black or scabbed over. I wiped the area with an alcohol pad, and most of the 'dirt' came off the blisters. The scabs peeled away to reveal mostly healthy skin, no puss, no open wound. A little blood because I took some healthy tissue off too. I covered all the blisters with blu-kote antifungal and put her inside.

Do ducks 'get' blisters?

 

[Miss Lydia]

Today I'm beginning to doubt a bumblefoot infection. When I picked her up again to try and treat her, her other foot has blister-like sores in the exact places, except they weren't black or scabbed over. I wiped the area with an alcohol pad, and most of the 'dirt' came off the blisters. The scabs peeled away to reveal mostly healthy skin, no puss, no open wound. A little blood because I took some healthy tissue off too. I covered all the blisters with blu-kote antifungal and put her inside.

Do ducks 'get' blisters?

I guess they can if this is what you saw on your ducks feet. Have they been walking on anything hot like cement or asphalt? even wood can heat up if sun is shining right down on it. Hopefully the Blue Kote will take care of it.

 

[arrowti]

Well where we have them is all grass and woodland, but I took a walk out just now and realized we have a lot of stuff lying around: scraps of metal, cement blocks, steel poles, some sheets of metal 'stuff', not to mention lots and lots of roots and branches and the wooden ramps into the chicken huts. To answer your question, she could certainly have found something to step on, and considering she started limping after the hottest day of the summer (it was over 90 on Tuesday) that might be it.

I let her out to roam because she was making such a fuss and she's barely limping now. Hopefully there's no infection1

 

[Miss Lydia]

Well where we have them is all grass and woodland, but I took a walk out just now and realized we have a lot of stuff lying around: scraps of metal, cement blocks, steel poles, some sheets of metal 'stuff', not to mention lots and lots of roots and branches and the wooden ramps into the chicken huts. To answer your question, she could certainly have found something to step on, and considering she started limping after the hottest day of the summer (it was over 90 on Tuesday) that might be it.

I let her out to roam because she was making such a fuss and she's barely limping now. Hopefully there's no infection1

So many things they can get into and on. Might want to clean up some, I know the ramp going into my one duck house sits right in the sun and I went to put down some meal worms on it a while back and felt the boards wow were they hot and thought they could burn a foot. Thankfully they stayed off of it during hottest part of the day. Just keep an eye on it and keep the blue kote handy, hopefully you got it before any infection could set in.