Quail Bumblefoot - kernel?

[MystOpal]

Good evening,
My quail got Bumblefoot (I'm not sure for how long, but she was limping quite a lot this morning, so after school I took a look at her and she had Bumblefoot). I'm pretty sure she got it because of the pellet bedding, I added some water but there are still parts that are pelletized and I think that caused it, so I'll be fixing that.
But that's neither here nor there. I've seen some other posts about bumblefoot and tried to do my own research before asking here, but either I didn't look in depth enough or the info wasn't readily available, as I still have some questions.
I gave her feet an Epsom salt bath, and I applied some mupirocin, set up another area for her with paper towels on the bottom, gave her some food and water. I tried bandaging her feet but didn't have anything I could use easily so I decided to give her a break and stop stressing her so much for a bit.
My question is primarily about the kernels of the Bumblefoot, from what I've read you're supposed to get rid of the kernels by popping or cutting them, but I'm not entirely sure if my quail has kernels (some say that they don't see kernels with quail I guess?) and if she doesn't need her kernels gone, I don't want to harm her by messing with it. And her ankle/knee joint looks a bit swollen to me, but I might just be overthinking it.
If you have any other tips please let me know!

Have a great day,

Myst

 

[Nabiki]

I don't have a lot of experience with bumblefoot, but I don't see anything that looks like a kernel on those feet. I would keep giving her the warm epsom salt baths and keep her on clean bedding until she heals. You can use antibacterial ointment, but make sure it doesn't contain pain killers.

 

[catesquire]

I've never found a kernel on mine, and never heard of someone who has on quail when looking through old threads. I'm with Nabiki on just continuing the baths + antibiotics as needed--they should heal fine as long as the source of the issue is gone, just keep an eye out for whether the scabs are falling off on their own or whether you need to gently tug them after as foot bath to get them off as the quail heals.

I would be suspicious about the pellets themselves causing the issue--unless, do you just have a super thin layer of them? I could see that causing irritation. I do around two inches of pellets and my quail don't seem to have an issue with them, but at that point they squish when the quail walk. I would personally check and see if there are any wet spots building up somewhere in the bedding--my quail LOVE to poop in the area between the food and water, so I usually have to change the bedding just in that spot regularly while the other areas of their cage can go much longer and stay perfectly dry. It's usually wet bedding that causes bumblefoot, at least for my quail (had a waterer spring a leak a few months back, so I have way more experience with it than I ever wanted. My girls' feet looked similar to your's, and they all healed up fine!)

 

[MystOpal]

I don't have a lot of experience with bumblefoot, but I don't see anything that looks like a kernel on those feet. I would keep giving her the warm epsom salt baths and keep her on clean bedding until she heals. You can use antibacterial ointment, but make sure it doesn't contain pain killers.

Sounds good, thank you so much!

 

[MystOpal]

I've never found a kernel on mine, and never heard of someone who has on quail when looking through old threads. I'm with Nabiki on just continuing the baths + antibiotics as needed--they should heal fine as long as the source of the issue is gone, just keep an eye out for whether the scabs are falling off on their own or whether you need to gently tug them after as foot bath to get them off as the quail heals.

I would be suspicious about the pellets themselves causing the issue--unless, do you just have a super thin layer of them? I could see that causing irritation. I do around two inches of pellets and my quail don't seem to have an issue with them, but at that point they squish when the quail walk. I would personally check and see if there are any wet spots building up somewhere in the bedding--my quail LOVE to poop in the area between the food and water, so I usually have to change the bedding just in that spot regularly while the other areas of their cage can go much longer and stay perfectly dry. It's usually wet bedding that causes bumblefoot, at least for my quail (had a waterer spring a leak a few months back, so I have way more experience with it than I ever wanted. My girls' feet looked similar to your's, and they all healed up fine!)

Thank you so much! I'll definitely be adding more pellets on top, I have maybe an inch of pellets. The other quails don't have issues (I'm going to keep checking on them though) so hopefully it was a one off thing, but I'll be sure to make sure there aren't any place that could have caused the problem. Now that I think of it, maybe she walked through the sandbox after it was pooped in. Sometimes the poop in there dries out, but not always. I try to keep up with it but I guess I'll have to clean it even more often. I'm glad that I didn't try to squeeze anything out of her foot, then, since it definitely would have made matters worse. Thank you again!

 

[lindy]

I have one quail hen having foot issues too. no one else is. She is heavier i guess. I keep putting honey/silver on it but it gets wipped off almost after i let her go. im not sure what to do with her. if i separate here then i will have issues gettign her back in the group. if i dont, i think it wont get better. She is on coated wire with 2x4's in there some tile and a rag.

 

[MystOpal]

I have one quail hen having foot issues too. no one else is. She is heavier i guess. I keep putting honey/silver on it but it gets wipped off almost after i let her go. im not sure what to do with her. if i separate here then i will have issues gettign her back in the group. if i dont, i think it wont get better. She is on coated wire with 2x4's in there some tile and a rag.

Hello! My quail isn't completely healed, but pretty close, so I can tell you what I did. I set up a coop (it used to be a baby play pen or something) right next to the original coop and made her stay there, giving her feet an Epsom salt bath every day for maybe 10 minutes if I could get her to sit still (get a YouTube video and really firm hold on the quail, maybe a paper towel around her wings, trust me) and then put her back. She was to the point where she couldn't even fly because of her feet, so she wasn't getting out but you might need a top for whatever you put her in. I also used paper towels as the bottom so I could change it completely. After about a week the first scab got off, and that was the worse foot too. I had some antibiotic cream for myself that was prescribed a bit ago, so I used that on her feet as well, but I don't know how much that helped since it was expired and would get off easily. I think it really was the Epsom salt and the quarantine that helped.

 

[lindy]

Hello! My quail isn't completely healed, but pretty close, so I can tell you what I did. I set up a coop (it used to be a baby play pen or something) right next to the original coop and made her stay there, giving her feet an Epsom salt bath every day for maybe 10 minutes if I could get her to sit still (get a YouTube video and really firm hold on the quail, maybe a paper towel around her wings, trust me) and then put her back. She was to the point where she couldn't even fly because of her feet, so she wasn't getting out but you might need a top for whatever you put her in. I also used paper towels as the bottom so I could change it completely. After about a week the first scab got off, and that was the worse foot too. I had some antibiotic cream for myself that was prescribed a bit ago, so I used that on her feet as well, but I don't know how much that helped since it was expired and would get off easily. I think it really was the Epsom salt and the quarantine that helped.

thanks, her feet do bleed alot but it looks like bumble foot. i added all the extra in her cage because of her but it didnt seem to help, all try the foot baths. she is a sweet hen so would hate to loose her