Medicated fish food for bumble foot

[Cbgbarker]

I have a male turkey with a bad case of bumble foot and he doesn't like me messing with his feet. Has anyone successfully treated bumble foot with medicated fish food? Brand? Dosage?

Did you find something that worked? I’ve been dealing with bumblefoot on my Turkey since July. Weekly vet visits and surgeries with no end in sight.

 

[Eggcessive]

Did you find something that worked? I’ve been dealing with bumblefoot on my Turkey since July. Weekly vet visits and surgeries with no end in sight.

Welcome to BYC. Could you start a new thread of your own, and post pictures and give us details about what all has been done so far. I usually do the minor surgery to remove the plug of infection, and bandage it for a few days. Some people use antibiotics, or just do warm Epsom salts soaks for a few days, then open the scab and try to squeeze out the infection. Others may use a drawing salve, such as Prid or a sugar Betadine paste bandage for a few days. It can be treated many ways. Here is where to post a new thread of your own on the emergency forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/post-thread

 

[coach723]

@Cbgbarker , can you post some pictures of the feet?
I had a roo with really, really bad bumblefoot, for which nothing was working. I ended up trying sugardine, last ditch effort to save him. It worked. It is not fast, but it was faster than all other methods I'd tried, and multiple (many) surgeries. This link, post #8 has information on that, a video on sugardine, and a picture of my roo's foot healing up.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/bumblefoot-not-healing.1443809/
That post is almost 3 years old and my roo is still with me and has not had another bout of bumblefoot since.
Might be worth trying. Or discuss with your vet, see what they say if you are more comfortable with that. But if they don't treat large animals (equine particularly) it may not be something they are familiar with. Not sure it's even taught in vet school still.
This is an article/story, written by a vet, sometimes humorous, on sugardine:
https://www.americanfarriers.com/ar...-mess-that-works-when-treating-wound-injuries
And this is a newer article:
https://www.americanfarriers.com/articles/5053

 

[Cbgbarker]

Welcome to BYC. Could you start a new thread of your own, and post pictures and give us details about what all has been done so far. I usually do the minor surgery to remove the plug of infection, and bandage it for a few days. Some people use antibiotics, or just do warm Epsom salts soaks for a few days, then open the scab and try to squeeze out the infection. Others may use a drawing salve, such as Prid or a sugar Betadine paste bandage for a few days. It can be treated many ways. Here is where to post a new thread of your own on the emergency forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/post-thread

Hi there! I actually did all of the basics before bringing her to two different vets. I’ve treated chickens for bumblefoot previously, some required an incision and others cleared up after a couple of foot soaks and medicated wraps. We went through at least 15 foot soaks with her, removal of the scab, etc. before finally bringing her to a vet. To date, she’s had a total of 14 surgeries on her foot and there is still swelling and an infection which returns every two weeks. She’s been in my house since July so it’s not the environment and we have her on 2” thick memory foam. They’ve tried multiple kinds of antibiotics which hasn’t helped. The latest has to be administered for 14 days at a time by injection in her chest which leaves bruises and causes her to be less mobile each morning due to the pain. We’ve had to the injections twice now and I don’t want to put her through that again. Other than her foot she is perfectly healthy, happy and active. I’ve read that fish antibiotics was successful for some but I wasn’t sure if anyone tried the flakes that were mentioned. I’m kind of desperate at this point. Thanks for the info. I will definitely give it a try! The pics are after the first surgery, but it’s more swollen now, plus she has a buildup of scar tissue due to the number of surgeries. The vet doesn’t want me unwrapping it or messing with it so I honestly don’t know what the bottom looks like at this point.

 

[coach723]

My roo's foot looked a lot like that when I started sugardine. I did clean as much out as I could before starting, I didn't cut, decided I wasn't going to cut him anymore. I used a curette like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Molt-Curette...id=1704286689&sprefix=Curette,aps,223&sr=8-11
to remove as much infection as I could without doing more damage to tissue.

 

[Cbgbarker]

My roo's foot looked a lot like that when I started sugardine. I did clean as much out as I could before starting, I didn't cut, decided I wasn't going to cut him anymore. I used a curette like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Molt-Curette-Double-Ended-SurgicalExcel/dp/B00HNSOVP2/ref=sr_1_11?crid=2SU82B1FZ8IHT&keywords=curette+dermatology&qid=1704286689&sprefix=Curette,aps,223&sr=8-11
to remove as much infection as I could without doing more damage to tissue.

Okay! Did you use that to scrape and clean up the scab or did you actually put inside the wound? I don’t think she has an open wound at this point. But it looks like it could be helpful to scrape down the hard scab. Thanks for sharing! I read from your other posts that it took 5 months in total for this to heal completely. Is that correct and was that pretty much a weekly/biweekly process?

 

[coach723]

The infection in his foot was deep, and kind of tunneled. I used the curette to dig as much of it out as possible. So, yes I used it inside the hole. Once you remove the scab, then you can better tell the extent of it, and how deep it is. The pus/infection is white/creamy colored, rather than the pink or red of tissue. Some are shallow, some are very deep, every foot is different. I can say, with my chickens, when it's a roo it always seems to be deeper and worse, I guess because they have bigger, meatier feet than the hens. I was very careful and gentle as possible. There may be some slight bleeding, but it shouldn't be terrible. If that happens, just use pressure to stop it. Depending on how deep it is, there are tendons and nerves in there. The curette I showed has blunt edges, they aren't sharp, so kind of like a tiny spoon. There are some curettes that are sharp and meant for cutting, I didn't use one of those. Sometimes a q tip dipped in betadine can help clean it out also, but sometimes the pus is really stuck to the tissue and harder to get it loose. Best thing I can say is take your time, don't rush it. Sometimes some squeezing and manipulation helps get it out. I got very used to it and was able to feel chunks of pus in the foot by feel, they feel like harder lumps than the normal tissue. I used decolorized iodine (not the same as betadine) applied to the scab and then wrapped over night to soften it up before removal, sometimes that works better than soaking. I would work carefully, and as long as he had patience for, and then let him rest, pack with sugardine and wrap, and repeat the next day, until it was as clean as I was able to get it. After I started with the sugardine, I would clean it out daily, and after about a week it became obvious that it was not generating as much pus. It slowly reduced until it was just a wound with no more pus generating. When I didn't see any pus forming I would just flush the wound before reapplying the sugardine and wrapping again. I use a 6 or 12 cc oral syringe for flushing it out, works well for me. I use diluted betadine for flushing, since that's whats going in the sugardine. The sugardine also helps it heal from the inside out, so it doesn't close up at the surface trapping more infection inside so it can regenerate. It did take about 5 months to heal up completely, but it was much, much better sooner than that, it was slowly getting smaller, he was obviously much more comfortable, and definitely on the right track. The duoderm bandages were really, really helpful. You can cut them to the size you need and the box last's quite a while. They really help keep the sugardine in there and moist, and help keep the wound clean. The ones I get (on amazon) are Duoderm CGF, and are 4 inches square, so you can get quite a few from each sheet, and there are 5 sheets in the box, currently $15.50. You just cut them to a size that leaves about 1/4 inch border around the wound area, they conform to the foot after you wrap it. You peel a plastic cover off one side and that's the side that goes on the wound. Can't recommend them enough.

 

[Lazygaze]

I have a question about the betadine you mix with sugar - I am in the UK and it look like I can only get diluted betadine- will that be ok/strong enough?

 

[coach723]

The Betadine I use is a 10% solution. I would try whatever you have, it won't do any harm.