I have a Pekin duck who had the classic signs of bumblefoot 5 days ago now. As soon as I saw her feet I brought her into my house, put her into a warm tub of water, drained it and filled it again. I let her have the tub for about an hour as she was quite happy with swimming and splashing around and I wanted those feet clean.
Meanwhile, I set up a dog crate for her in my livingroom. Got her out of the tub and checked her feet well...definitely a bad case of bumblefoot. I felt awful! I had no idea this was going on and the only way I found it was when I noticed she wasn't walking right. A couple of these were like marbles under the skin, others were smaller, but all were raised bumps with the brown center. She had to have been walking through the blackberry brambles to look like this. Anyways...I couldn't do anything about them in the way of surgery right then, so I painted each of them with colorless iodine and put her into the crate. Finally, Sunday evening, my husband and I got everything ready to take care of her feet. Another bath in warm water to soften everything up and make sure everything is as clean as possible on a duck. Had everything set up for this and even though not looking forward to it, was willing to do what I could. When I finally had her wrapped in a towel and on the table with husband holding her, this is what I found...no huge lumps, as there had been and all of the bumbles that had been painted were now black and almost completely flat with the skin shrunken. Except for the ones on the 'heel' of one foot, that one did have a plug that needed to be cut/pulled out, the others had small amounts of soft liquid pus that was squeezed and wiped out.
In the second picture you can see where one scab had come off or the duck may have taken it off herself. The third and fourth show the ones that were probed and squeezed and all that came was soft runny pus, not the hard substance I was expecting. The third picture also shows the heel that did have a plug I was able to get out. I didn't wrap her feet after the surgery, I did pour straight betadine onto each of the bumbles worked on and put her back into her crate with clean everything. Tonight she will get anothe spa treatment and a recheck and if the bumbles show plugs, they will be removed. If not, I will repaint anything left with the iodine again and do another wait.
Okay, the questions;
Why wasn't there more of a plug to be taken out, did the iodine kill the infection?
Is this something that could have worked without intervention of knife and tweezers?
Any ideas on treatment at this point?
The duck is happy and in no way showing signs of discomfit or illness. There is no warmth to her legs or feet and she is very vocal about wanting OUT.
Meanwhile, I set up a dog crate for her in my livingroom. Got her out of the tub and checked her feet well...definitely a bad case of bumblefoot. I felt awful! I had no idea this was going on and the only way I found it was when I noticed she wasn't walking right. A couple of these were like marbles under the skin, others were smaller, but all were raised bumps with the brown center. She had to have been walking through the blackberry brambles to look like this. Anyways...I couldn't do anything about them in the way of surgery right then, so I painted each of them with colorless iodine and put her into the crate. Finally, Sunday evening, my husband and I got everything ready to take care of her feet. Another bath in warm water to soften everything up and make sure everything is as clean as possible on a duck. Had everything set up for this and even though not looking forward to it, was willing to do what I could. When I finally had her wrapped in a towel and on the table with husband holding her, this is what I found...no huge lumps, as there had been and all of the bumbles that had been painted were now black and almost completely flat with the skin shrunken. Except for the ones on the 'heel' of one foot, that one did have a plug that needed to be cut/pulled out, the others had small amounts of soft liquid pus that was squeezed and wiped out.
In the second picture you can see where one scab had come off or the duck may have taken it off herself. The third and fourth show the ones that were probed and squeezed and all that came was soft runny pus, not the hard substance I was expecting. The third picture also shows the heel that did have a plug I was able to get out. I didn't wrap her feet after the surgery, I did pour straight betadine onto each of the bumbles worked on and put her back into her crate with clean everything. Tonight she will get anothe spa treatment and a recheck and if the bumbles show plugs, they will be removed. If not, I will repaint anything left with the iodine again and do another wait.
Okay, the questions;
Why wasn't there more of a plug to be taken out, did the iodine kill the infection?
Is this something that could have worked without intervention of knife and tweezers?
Any ideas on treatment at this point?
The duck is happy and in no way showing signs of discomfit or illness. There is no warmth to her legs or feet and she is very vocal about wanting OUT.
