Poll: How many here have actually had bumblefoot in their poultry?

[henden]

I see soooo many posts about how to treat bumblefoot, but very few, if any, that follow up with whether or not treatment was successful. I have to wonder how many folks are simply giving advice because they've read it elsewhere, if it's actually worked, etc.. Feel free to comment!

Here's my story:
I have two hens that have bumblefoot and I've tried many separate measures, including removal and expensive vet visits, and at bests it *nearly* went away on one hen, but is growing again, and soaking daily in Tricide-Neo but to no avail. I have not tried at home removal yet, but the avian vet stated removal surgery is usually ineffective. I will say in the hen's case where (a different) vet removed it surgically, it came back with a vengeance. But now the poor thing spends all day standing on one leg so I am going to give it yet another attempt. The first hen has always acted unaffected, but her bumble has always been less severe.

I think I'm going to "quadrouple down" on both hens trying all the treatments at once. 1) oral antibiotics 2) Adding BDM to their feed (a low-dose antibiotic) 3) soaking and removing with epson salts and 4) wraping the foot daily with liberal amounts of silver sulfadiazine. I want to do all of these for a week on both hens.

My daughter treats bumblefoot with great success! And I am grateful. I will send her this link and have her explain how she does it.

 

[Folly's place]

Our birds have roost choices, from 3', to 4', to 8' up in the rafters, and we use shavings in the coop and run area. Soil and gravel driveway, and spruce needle duff, and prickly Midwestern weeds. Also hay and straw at the barn, where many visit daily.
Birds range from bantam size to 8+ pound roosters, different breeds over the years.
Mary

 

[humblehillsfarm]

My daughter treats bumblefoot with great success! And I am grateful. I will send her this link and have her explain how she does it.

Please do! Thank you for your insight.

 

[Doodle doodle]

I see soooo many posts about how to treat bumblefoot, but very few, if any, that follow up with whether or not treatment was successful. I have to wonder how many folks are simply giving advice because they've read it elsewhere, if it's actually worked, etc.. Feel free to comment!

Here's my story:
I have two hens that have bumblefoot and I've tried many separate measures, including removal and expensive vet visits, and at bests it *nearly* went away on one hen, but is growing again, and soaking daily in Tricide-Neo but to no avail. I have not tried at home removal yet, but the avian vet stated removal surgery is usually ineffective. I will say in the hen's case where (a different) vet removed it surgically, it came back with a vengeance. But now the poor thing spends all day standing on one leg so I am going to give it yet another attempt. The first hen has always acted unaffected, but her bumble has always been less severe.

I think I'm going to "quadrouple down" on both hens trying all the treatments at once. 1) oral antibiotics 2) Adding BDM to their feed (a low-dose antibiotic) 3) soaking and removing with epson salts and 4) wraping the foot daily with liberal amounts of silver sulfadiazine. I want to do all of these for a week on both hens.

 

[Doodle doodle]

I see soooo many posts about how to treat bumblefoot, but very few, if any, that follow up with whether or not treatment was successful. I have to wonder how many folks are simply giving advice because they've read it elsewhere, if it's actually worked, etc.. Feel free to comment!

Here's my story:
I have two hens that have bumblefoot and I've tried many separate measures, including removal and expensive vet visits, and at bests it *nearly* went away on one hen, but is growing again, and soaking daily in Tricide-Neo but to no avail. I have not tried at home removal yet, but the avian vet stated removal surgery is usually ineffective. I will say in the hen's case where (a different) vet removed it surgically, it came back with a vengeance. But now the poor thing spends all day standing on one leg so I am going to give it yet another attempt. The first hen has always acted unaffected, but her bumble has always been less severe.

I think I'm going to "quadrouple down" on both hens trying all the treatments at once. 1) oral antibiotics 2) Adding BDM to their feed (a low-dose antibiotic) 3) soaking and removing with epson salts and 4) wraping the foot daily with liberal amounts of silver sulfadiazine. I want to do all of these for a week on both hens.

 

[Trisseh]

I’ll weigh in. I hadn’t had any issues until this spring, with my silver Appleyard duck. She began limping noticeably one day (she has an extra wiggle to her waddle normally so it had to become a bit more pronounced before I saw it unfortunately) so I caught her, soaked her, got the scab off and a little tiny bit of pus out. It was midway up her middle toe, which I thought was odd, but chalked it up to her being out in the yard doing who knows what. Kept an eye on her and she seemed to be fine for about a week, then she was very swollen and obviously painful. Soaked her again, got the scab off, but this time it was obvious the problem was deeper in the foot. So, arming myself with lidocaine, scalpel and forceps, I did my at home surgery and removed a larger kernel from her foot - I was able to actually pop that sucker out with a gentle squeeze once I had a slightly larger incision. (I made an elliptical incision around the bumble area). Once that was out I could see that she had actually severed a tendon in her toe which would definitely contribute to her limp! So I tidied up her foot, trimmed necrotic tissue, packed it with mastitis tube antibiotic (ceftiofur) and wrapped her foot with a piece of gauze with a hole cut out to relieve pressure, extra padding, and vetrap. She got a dose of metacam that day too, after that ordeal. Changed her bandage every 2 days, unless wet, But after a week and a half I had to do yet another surgery as she had developed a secondary kernel in there. Again, I cleaned up the area and removed necrotic tissue, and then I bit the bullet and put her on oral Baytril. I also ordered her booties to protect her feet. So 14 days of Baytril later, her foot is infinitely improved. She still has a “big” toe, which I think will be permanent at this point, and I’m still bandaging to protect the new tissue coming in, but she’s otherwise on the mend. She’s been confined for the duration of treatment as well because she’s an active little goober and definitely wouldn’t have kept still enough on her own. The plan going forward for her as I know she’s susceptible to recurrence is to keep booties on her and allow additional pool time. She had access to it during the day but I’m wondering now if she was avoiding going in because of the drake.
anyways, I’ll try to remember to get some pictures of her foot tonight when I do her rewrap. Unfortunately I didn’t have pics from previously when it first started.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I’ll weigh in. I hadn’t had any issues until this spring, with my silver Appleyard duck. She began limping noticeably one day (she has an extra wiggle to her waddle normally so it had to become a bit more pronounced before I saw it unfortunately) so I caught her, soaked her, got the scab off and a little tiny bit of pus out. It was midway up her middle toe, which I thought was odd, but chalked it up to her being out in the yard doing who knows what. Kept an eye on her and she seemed to be fine for about a week, then she was very swollen and obviously painful. Soaked her again, got the scab off, but this time it was obvious the problem was deeper in the foot. So, arming myself with lidocaine, scalpel and forceps, I did my at home surgery and removed a larger kernel from her foot - I was able to actually pop that sucker out with a gentle squeeze once I had a slightly larger incision. (I made an elliptical incision around the bumble area). Once that was out I could see that she had actually severed a tendon in her toe which would definitely contribute to her limp! So I tidied up her foot, trimmed necrotic tissue, packed it with mastitis tube antibiotic (ceftiofur) and wrapped her foot with a piece of gauze with a hole cut out to relieve pressure, extra padding, and vetrap. She got a dose of metacam that day too, after that ordeal. Changed her bandage every 2 days, unless wet, But after a week and a half I had to do yet another surgery as she had developed a secondary kernel in there. Again, I cleaned up the area and removed necrotic tissue, and then I bit the bullet and put her on oral Baytril. I also ordered her booties to protect her feet. So 14 days of Baytril later, her foot is infinitely improved. She still has a “big” toe, which I think will be permanent at this point, and I’m still bandaging to protect the new tissue coming in, but she’s otherwise on the mend. She’s been confined for the duration of treatment as well because she’s an active little goober and definitely wouldn’t have kept still enough on her own. The plan going forward for her as I know she’s susceptible to recurrence is to keep booties on her and allow additional pool time. She had access to it during the day but I’m wondering now if she was avoiding going in because of the drake.
anyways, I’ll try to remember to get some pictures of her foot tonight when I do her rewrap. Unfortunately I didn’t have pics from previously when it first started.

Wow what an adventure. I am interested to see if she continues to stay clear after a few more weeks. My hen *seemed* like she was improving after surgery, there was an obvious scar, but after about a month the scar scabbed over and was clearly just the same case of bumblefoot I am hoping more aggressive treatment and attention will improve things.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I am feeling pretty bummed that it is apparent by the votes that most people who have dealt with bumble have resolved it! But this also inspires me to keep trying.

 

[Doodle doodle]

I have had to treat several hens, trial and error with the bumblefoot. The best and only way I seem to get the bumblefoot infection to go away is kind of intense if you can’t segregate the bumblefooted from wet areas. Key is to make sure no sharp stuff can scratch or puncture their feet. Once they get that cut/scrap/puncture and dirt gets in it sometimes it heals on their own but sometimes we have to assist with care

inspect the feet!! Super important to find any injuries, small or big
Once you see a small “blister” or swelling inspect it to make sure
1) it’s not infected
2) it’s not something in the foot

soak feet in warm water, I add tea tree soap to help with extra cleaning if necessary. I use a rag or paper towel depending on the severity to wash the feet while still in the water. Sometimes I use dial soap to help clean too.
once they soak for about 20 minutes and their feet are clean look goodat the feet. Sometimes it can be a scratch that got infected and that is what is causing it, sometimes there is a “plug” that needs to be removed.
Removing the plug, sanitize and get all tools ready before you undertake this because it can get icky. I usually make my daughter hold the hen wrapped in a hand towel so I’m better able to assess the injury. Take pictures! Sounds weird but it does help if your dealing with multiple bumblefoot issues in other hens.
surgery:
Once cleaned and dried and in controlled hands, I use a medical lance (tried the razor blade once, very hard to maneuver and too big for the little bumbles. Your going to look for a black spot, usually raised and warmer to touch than the rest of the leg. Once you find the “plug” which is pus and dirt that collected in the skin before it closed (chickens feet heal super quick, so a small scrap or cut could become infected in less than 12 hours, their body’s defense for walking around barefoot) once you find the plug try to slowly, and gently cut away around the plug with lance. I go slow so I don’t hurt the hen or mess up. (There is a lot of me mumbling to myself about how I hate doing this but have to. The chickens usually are way calmer if I talk to them while I’m working) when cutting away the plug, make sure to get the whole thing. It can be the size of a pebble or larger, if you don’t get the whole plug the first time you should keep the hen in a dry area until the plug has been completely removed. This could take a couple days to weeks depending on the size and how bad the infection is. Once the plug is out I clean the area again to get any lose skin/debris out, spray it with some super good antibiotics vet spray and wrap the foot. Put a little piece of chase on the plug site itself and smother it with your wound care(a wet bandage is what you want so the foot can get all the good healing and when you change the bandage it doesn’t stick and cause more issues) I found the athletic stretchy tape works if the hen is going back into solitaire or will be easily accessible without putting her back in the yard. If you will be putting the hen back in the yard with the other girls, get the paper medical tape. Sticks better when they are out running around and scratching and it will either fall off while they are running around or you can cut it off. I generally use the tape for the smaller issues and when we have a big swollen bumblefoot they go into segregation.
another thing I have found: if your dealing with a swollen blister looking inflamed area, that generally isn’t where the first injury or plug started. Sometimes (and I hate having to do this part) I will lance the large blistered spot to relieve pressure and help with draining. This is where the awesome foot healing powers of hens comes into play, one lance will not open the blister.... they heal too quick! I find a spot closest and lease swollen on the foot and make two to three small incisions on the blister to promote draining. This blister may not be at the injury spot but it is part of it. The swelling is part of the infection and has nowhere to go. Sometimes, as much asI don’t want to add to injuries I have to so nobody loses a foot to an infection. And it also helps when you “operate” to have treats readily available for post op as the hens need to keep their strength up. As backwater as this sounds, it has helped a great deal with understanding and helping the hens. Bumblefoot is not just a wet ground issue, it is any cut or abrasion that gets infected with dirt and whatnot . Remember, go slow, get all tools and assistance ready before you start assessing and once you clear up a few girls with bumblefoot you will be like me “Not another one, well that’s one way to get extra attention and treats. “ it’s scary to do the first time and I suggest using a serrated lance instead of a razor blade as it’s easier, quicker and you can see what your doing.

I hope this helped someone, anyone! It was hard for me to learn all this but, trial and error and preparation help a great deal

 

[dawg53]

I see soooo many posts about how to treat bumblefoot, but very few, if any, that follow up with whether or not treatment was successful. I have to wonder how many folks are simply giving advice because they've read it elsewhere, if it's actually worked, etc.. Feel free to comment!

Here's my story:
I have two hens that have bumblefoot and I've tried many separate measures, including removal and expensive vet visits, and at bests it *nearly* went away on one hen, but is growing again, and soaking daily in Tricide-Neo but to no avail. I have not tried at home removal yet, but the avian vet stated removal surgery is usually ineffective. I will say in the hen's case where (a different) vet removed it surgically, it came back with a vengeance. But now the poor thing spends all day standing on one leg so I am going to give it yet another attempt. The first hen has always acted unaffected, but her bumble has always been less severe.

I think I'm going to "quadrouple down" on both hens trying all the treatments at once. 1) oral antibiotics 2) Adding BDM to their feed (a low-dose antibiotic) 3) soaking and removing with epson salts and 4) wraping the foot daily with liberal amounts of silver sulfadiazine. I want to do all of these for a week on both hens.

I know you've used Tricide Neo. However, have you followed the instructions to the letter on how to use it to treat bumblefoot? It works if done properly. See post #2 in this link for proper instructions on how to use Tricide Neo:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/treating-bumblefoot-with-tricide-neo.513183/