rooster with bumblefoot

[motdaugrnds]

Hello,
We found our favorite rooster in bad shape a few days ago and have been working hard to help him. Apparently he has "bumblefoot". I read the step-by-step presented for surgical procedure and will be following that as best I can.

David just found the other rooster and one of our 6 hens also has the spot on bottom of feet; thus we, suspect they all have it. We will be thoroughly cleaning the chicken house, roosting areas and chicken pen floor soon. Didn't know it was this contageous!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Boy you have your work cut out for you, Soak real good in epsom salt.

 

[BirdNut]

Yeah, definitely bumblefoot. A very severe case, too.

You need to pull the 'plug', as it's called. I'm not sure if you've seen this thread before, but take a look (warning, GRAPHIC pictures): https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=399017&p=1
I contributed one of my techniques to get the post-srgery swelling down. And that is to make a paste out of Duramycin (an antibiotic) and water and spread it over the affected area. You can read the other details in that thread.

 

[motdaugrnds]

Well David found 2 more of our 8 chickens with tiny black spots on the balls of their feet. They are so tiny we are wondering if we aren't jumping the gun to start cutting into them at this time.

We still have our rooster (now calling him "bum", which is short for bumble foot, as all he does is eat lots of raw liver out of David's hand, drink antibiotic water, watch tv and crow loud every morning) in the rabbit cage in the house. We gave him a rest from foot surgery today and just fed him well and petted him. Tomorrow we will be going in again to remove "all" the black gunk from his feet. (We will be using Ruth's step-by-step procedure to do this.) Since we don't have any Neosporin, we will be using Triple Antibiotic to pack the holes with prior to bandaging.

We will, also, be doing a lot of cleaning out doors as we want to thoroughly sterilize the chicken house and adjacent pen. Tomorrow evening after all have gone to roost, we will be inspecting all the feet of all our small flock.

 

[motdaugrnds]

Well, that was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

We put a mixture of water & Betadine in the sink and stood Bumble up in it for 15-20 minutes. Then we laid him on his side with a towel over his head & wings and his feet over the sink. I used a new single-edge razor blade and did one foot at a time, completing it with Triple Antibiotic and Vetrap before going on to the 2nd foot.

I went in around the outer edge of the black part, cutting the entire black out. I found a rock in one foot and 2 corn-like cornels in the other foot. I took my time and dug around and squeezed; yet did not find "puss" or any sign of gunk that I had expected to find. Both feet bled quite abit; but were stopped before I packed them with the antibiotic.

He is asleep now in his cage with a large towel over it. We will not be letting him outdoors for quite awhile. I will be checking his feet without removing the bandages for a couple of days too.

His comb is still red and healthy looking. His appetite has been good (eating about half a goat liver in 3 days along with some of his regular chicken pellets) and drinking the water with soluble antibiotic in it. We stopped giving him the 3cc B-complex today, though he has had it twice a day for total of 5 times.

I do hope I have not crippled him with all the digging I did; yet I feel good about at least doing something in an attempt to help him.
I was encouraged to do so by people in here, for which I do thank you all.