Need a treatment plan

[Sweet Road Island Reds]

This is Lola’s foot she’s 2 road island red. They free range all day and I noticed her foot this morning. She is NOT limping or holding it up, but she is running, eating, drinking, laying being herself. There has been no change from this morning look wise. My mom said it felt firmer but it has NOT oozed or became more red. Her foot was slightly warmer this morning, but we are keeping it wrapped alternating between Betadine and Neosporin. I do not want to open the scab as it has been pouring here and she doesn’t seem like she has an infection. I just want to know if I am doing everything I can for her.

 

[azygous]

That is a classic bumblefoot. Despite its innocuous name, it is an infection, usually staphylococcus. It has to be surgically removed in order to heal. Surgery need be nothing more than scrapping the scab off with your finger nail, and then pulling the pus out with a Q-tip or scraping it. The pus must be completely removed. The pus is loose and is solid like wax.

Treatment plan is as follows:
1. Soak for twenty minutes in warm Epsom salts and Betadine.
2. Scrape off the scab
3. Dig out all the pus
4. Clean the wound well with soap and water, dry.
5. Pack wound with Neosporin or other wound ointment
6. Lay a nonstick gauze pad over the wound and wrap securely with Vetrap elastic bandage, selecting a color to compliment her feathering. This last is optional.
7. Unrap and check on wound in two days, checking to be sure there is nor swelling from the bandage being too tight, and see if the wound is healing.

This has the appearance of a wound that has been festering and swelling for a year or more. It will take that long to completely heal. You may need to resoak and do more surgery at some point. Severe bumblefoot can take months and even years to fully heal, and even then, the swelling can be permanent even though the infection has cleared up.

 

[Sweet Road Island Reds]

We just cut all the black stuff out after soaking it. My mom said it looked and felt like a human callus on a foot. There was no liquid or pus it was all solid. We cut away dead tissue until we saw fat and meat and normal colored skin. We also wrapped it in Betadine.

 

[Aunt Angus]

We just cut all the black stuff out after soaking it. My mom said it looked and felt like a human callus on a foot. There was no liquid or pus it was all solid. We cut away dead tissue until we saw fat and meat and normal colored skin. We also wrapped it in Betadine.

Chicken pus is not like human pus. The core of the infection will be hard. People often describe it as cheese consistency. I had to squeeeeeeeze hard and dig to get that thing out when my chicken had bumblefoot.

 

[Sweet Road Island Reds]

what color is the pus? The stuff we left on there is more clear. We scrapped we didn’t cut because it was so hard in there. The clear layer separated the meat of her foot from the black. Once we scraped the black off there was hardly anything left to carve out.

 

[Aunt Angus]

what color is the pus? The stuff we left on there is more clear.

It looks a lot like their flesh. Her infection looks pretty bad, so it may be buried in swollen/scar tissue. I had to squeeze HARD. I felt bad for my girl. It must've hurt. Poor Bryony....

I'd soak her foot daily, dig out/squeeze out what you can, and keep packing and wrapping. Like Azygous said, it's a long process, especially an advanced infection like that. But totally curable! Just gotta keep at it and get the infection out.

 

[Sweet Road Island Reds]

I feel terrible that I didn’t notice this earlier. I am so close to my chickens stuff like this has never happened because I am always on top of things. I guess I’ll have to dig more tomorrow and soak it again. We just scraped as mush as we could off tonight but I didn’t know that puss was the color of their skin. He seems why we didn’t want to cut anymore off than we already have. I want to thank all of you for your advice. You have saved me a vet trip, surgery, and a lot of stress. The one question I have is when do we stop cutting? She had a ring of scar tissue around the other clearish skin, and that ring is seperating the infection and healthy skin.

 

[Kiki]

Just to give you an idea of what the swollen part looks like...what's under the swollen part is pus.
Both of these show it:

 

[Aunt Angus]

I feel terrible that I didn’t notice this earlier. I am so close to my chickens stuff like this has never happened because I am always on top of things. I guess I’ll have to dig more tomorrow and soak it again. We just scraped as mush as we could off tonight but I didn’t know that puss was the color of their skin. He seems why we didn’t want to cut anymore off than we already have. I want to thank all of you for your advice. You have saved me a vet trip, surgery, and a lot of stress. The one question I have is when do we stop cutting? She had a ring of scar tissue around the other clearish skin, and that ring is seperating the infection and healthy skin.

Oh, I totally understand! I missed a really, really severe bumblefoot infection on one of my ducks. I felt terrible! But it taught me a lot about how to prevent and treat it.

I had problems with my birds getting foot injuries when I first got chickens. I lowered their roost, and those problems stopped almost immediately! When I started seeing issues in my ducks, I changed substrates. My ducks' feet have been MUCH better.

I now check butts and feet on every bird at least 1x per week. That has helped catch problems before they get bad.

But, man, I hate learning the hard way by having something go wrong with my birds!

As for cutting, I'd just keep doing what you're doing. It's the squeezing that you might want to increase.

 

[Sweet Road Island Reds]

I want to thank you guys / gals again y’all have given me the confidence to do this. I hate seeing my animals in pain and I have had to learn the hard way as well with another bord of mine Annie, but her death taught me so much. I just hope I can cure Lola she means the world to me she’s such a sweetie.