Roo With Bumblefoot But Can't Find Core. Any Help Please

[ThePamperedPullet]

Our friends have a very large, 1 year old Cornish Cross Roo that is suffering from Bumblefoot. We were able to get one core out about two weeks ago that was on it's middle toe. It also had two smaller ones on each of the other two toes that we were also able to get out. But what the problem is, is that it had a large black scab on the center pad that came right off after a short bit of soaking. But we were not able to get anything out of it. Now the foot is still very swollen and can't see where a core would be so don't know what to do with it. We are still soaking it and working with it. Applying antibiotic and keeping it wrapped. And still does not show a core. Don't want to just start carving if we don't know where to carve. He is not walking on it at all. Swelling is not going into the leg yet. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what antibiotic to give at this point and/or what to do with the swollen foot? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You
Eric

 

[ruth]

I've operated on several bumblefoots. The core is amazingly deep - much deeper than you would believe. You will need to lance the area just above the scab/hole. Make the incision deep and about an inch long. Then keep soaking the foot in very warm salt water. While soaking, keep massaging and squeezing the pad of the foot so that the incision can open up and water can get in. After several minutes try digging in pad of foot looking for gooey thick dried pus and/or the core. You will probably have to keep soaking. It has sometimes taken me 30 minutes of soaking, prodding/prying/digging and then soaking again before the "stuff" started coming out. Don't give up until you find the core. It's in there but it's deep. When you finish there will probably be a big empty cavity. Fill it with Neosporin (non pain relief kind) and wrap the foot with vet wrap. Every chicken I've performed this operation on was fine in about three days and I took the vetwrap off and the skin had healed and they were back to normal. I did give each one a single shot of penicillin following the operation. Neither hen had a reoccurence.

If you make the incision with a razor blade and make it long enough and deep enough you will have an opening in which to work and then when you are finished it will be easy to close the skin up because there was an incision instead of hole in the bottom of the foot.

I almost always have to work alone without anyone to help hold the chicken so I've found that if I lay them on their side and cover their head with a towel they will lay quietly and let me work on them.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Thank you Ruth for the response. I know they have tough feet but what about bleeding when you cut the foot open? Chickens don't have a lot of blood to loose.

 

[NJbirdlover]

with the risk of sounding clueless..........what is bumblefoot?

 

[Chickenaddict]

Bumblefoot is a staph infection. I just found one of my hens I had bought not too long ago from a local kid has it but none in my flock do. I did surgery the other day, she had a huge lump in between her toes on the top of her foot and a scab on the bottom pad. We soaked it for 20 minutes in a mixture of betadine, epsom salt and warm water. I had a tweezer and exacto knife with a brand new blade sitting in alcohol while I soaked her foot. My DH held her down while i made the first cut on the top part, when i did this and pulled the knife away a huge chunk of nasty stuff came out on the knife. I soaked her again for about 10 minutes then pulled the scab off the bottom of her foot and pulled out another big chunk of gunk. I am not sure we got it all but all I saw when i was thru was an empty cavity on the top and bottom. I then packed with neosporin, topped that off with sterile gauze and went over it with this stretchy vet wrap. I change her bandages daily and soak her foot daily and will continue to do so for a week or so. By the second day of bandage changes she looks like she is 90% healed up already. Good luck with the cornish roo

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Yep, that's pretty much the procedure. Just don't stop till you find the "core". It will look like a hard white or yellow "kernel". In the cases of the ones I pulled out - they looked exactly like a dried kernel of corn. It's there and if you don't get it out the foot won't heal.

To answer the question about bleeding - they really don't bleed much from the bottom of the foot. Will bleed a little when you first cut the pad open but it will stop after the soaking. Just keep soaking and squeezing till you can get the gunk to start "popping" out - like a zit almost. There really shouldn't be much of anything in the pad of a normal foot so it's not like you are digging out her flesh. You will know what I'm talking about once you get inside the pad and see the "gunk" some have described as "cottage cheese" - to me it looks like rubber and when you are finished digging it all out there will be a huge cavity left. Fill it with Neosporin and if you made an incision instead of cutting a huge hole in bottom of foot, it should heal within a few days.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Thank You for that info. I will try to get them to bring the roo over this weekend and I will do surgery on it and see what we find.

 

[sundance]

One of the chicks I hatched last week seems to have a problem with one of his feet, but it just looks deformed, like some of the toes didn't grow right. He is eating good, just having a problem standing or walking on it, Since I have never seen bumblefoot, I don't know if this is what is wrong with him or not. food is not swollen just sorta deformed. someone unpluged the bator for almost 24 hr before i knew it so I only hatched the two but they seem to be doing great,eating drinking, and POOPING marrie

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Hi Marrie - no your chick doesn't have bumblefoot. May have a deformed foot or may have an issue that can be corrected with the "bandaid" shoes and hobbling. Do a search for "spraddle leg" and you'll find lots of threads about foot and leg issues that they can hatch with.

Bumblefoot is a staph infection - almost always marked by a black scab on bottom of pad of foot. Often has a marble size swelling between toes or a swollen pad. The infection abcesses and turns to "cottage cheese" or rubbery gunk and there is a dried corn kernel looking plug that must come out. Baby chicks don't get bumblefoot.

 

[sundance]

thanks Ruth marrie