Rooster's foot not healing after 2 months - pic not working

[thebritt]

Try to imagine...(since I can't seem to get the photo out of my e-mail

): Top of rooster's foot, from where the toes meet the top of it's foot to where the foot bends/meets the leg, about the size of a quarter, is all black, as if it had frostbite, but it never did. Once, when he struggled while changing the bandage, the whole scab peeled back, exposing the tendons and inner workings of his foot

! I panicked, and put the scab back over the exposed tendons, disinfected and wrapped it back up. May have been the wrong thing to do, but as I said, I panicked!
Background... One day (at least 2 months ago) I saw him standing on 1 foot.
It started out as a small open wound. I flushed with dilute Betadine, applied Silvadene, wrapped it up, and set him up in the spare bathroom to keep it clean. I did the same routine every day, but started using some left over Animax instead of Silvadene, as I wasn't seeing any improvement. He's on his second round of oral antibiotics, and I'm feeding a rooster's version of hen mash (no calcium supplement), which includes 400 IU Vit E, papaya supplement, yogurt, some cockateil pellets, and some other stuff, so he's not losing weight. This last week he seems to be breathing harder than usual. The foot stinks, even though I've been changing his bandage twice/day. I ran out of Animax 3 days ago, so back to the Silvadene.

He rarely puts any weight on the foot.
Any suggestions?
Oh - he's about 2 yrs old.

Thanks for any ideas in advance!
Britt

 

[chickengrl]

A smell makes me think that it is infected. Sometimes you may have to open the wound up and get the nasty pus and such out of it and it won't heal without it, not even with very good antibiotics. If you press on it do you get anything come out? If you can get it opened up some and rinse, rinse, rinse it with the dilute betadine solution 1-2 times a day it might help. The infection may be spreading up his leg if he is starting to breathe hard. So remember, surgeon's say "the solution to pollution is dilution". Get it draining, use a syringe so you can jet the betadine into the wound with some pressure and when you think you did it enough, do it more. You can also add some antibiotic to your betadine solution. Don't know the dose, not that important since most will wash out with the solution.

Can you get some Pennicillin G from your farm store? That might be better for this wound. Sounds like what you are using isn't cutting it, so change it up. If you can do injectable it will help him much more. Sorry don't know the dose, but hope someone comes along who can help. I would stop the silvadene and try neosporine without the pain relief stuff. It's also ok to just leave that open to drain really well for a couple days, the neosporin may keep it from draining well. sounds like you have been doing great with it so far, but now need to ramp it up so you don't lose him to this infection. Keep up the good food, he will need all he can get. I hope some of the above is helpful. Good luck!

 

[Jane Jill Jack]

That might be bumblefoot! There's lots about that stuff here, but the basic thing is to take out the black spot.

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

chickens get 1 cc under skin on breast of penicillin bumblefoot you got to remove black part and squeeze out yellow yucky on inside. then I take gauze pad and some coban. Self adhesive without sticky and wrap up foot to give it time to heal.

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

I would use bactracin or triple antibiotic ointment on it. Keep it moister and promote healing. You have to clean off all dead stinking tissue take scissors and clip it off.

 

[thebritt]

Thanks for the quick responses! There is no puss under the scab - nothing to squeeze out, though I agree about infection happening here. I could pull that scab off (I know it's gonna hurt him - he struggles when I apply any pressure), but that will definately expose all the inner workings of his foot. I tried leaving it uncovered for a couple days, but his belly feathers and skin gpt all stinky and nasty from where the foot rested against his breast when he held the foot up (which he pretty much always does).
SOOO...Do I pull off the scab after I get some penicillin? I just hate to have all those tendons and bones exposed, but if I must...

 

[Wayne&Kim1963]

Put some antibiotic ointment on it to soften scab before you pull it off and put a dressing on it. Some gauze or tore up sheet like material wrapped around foot. Go in between toes and around foot and u p to ankle. Take some tape and secure it or coban.

 

[BWchicken]

Can you take some new pictures? I think we really need to see pictures of this. It sounds pretty bad, it may be bumblefoot but can't be sure without seeing it. We'll have a better idea what you're dealing with and how to treat it once we see it.

Getting pics from email...Not sure but don't you just save the emailed pics to your computer then upload them to your BYC uploads page?

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

A strange thought popped into my head when reading your post - could he possibly have been struck/bit by a rattlesnake?

The hole - sounds like how the venom causes necrotic tissue

 

[BlackBart]

If it is deep infection try poulticing it with sugardine paste. It works great (especially for horse hoof abscess's).

I used it on a Hen that had been bitten on the head by a Raccoon. The anitbiotics were not working fast enough.
The sugardine sucked out most of the infection after the first poultice. I kept re-poulticing until the gauze pad didn't stink anymore. She healed much faster. The trick was to keep it on her but I used surgical tape and gauze wrap and kept her in the dark.

http://www.lesspub.com/s3/site/pdf/afj/_Sugar_dine.pdf