Oh Cyn!
I'm so sorry that this is happening to one of your sweet, precious girls again!
I think of all the good you do in the world, and it just isn't fair! This is NOT the way Karma is supposed to work!
*sigh* If this be the will of the Great Spirit, I hope he at least sees fit to make her time short. I think we all hate to have any one of these marvelous creatures suffer, whether they're our own or not.
You, Maxie and Tom are in my thoughts and prayers!
How about a wee small bit of good news?? Tonight, with the help of Morgan, the son of my great next door neighbors, Evie finally got her foot taken care of!!
It all went much more smoothly than I had hoped and wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be. And it's all because of the great advice and encouragement that I've received from y'all here!
You guys are fantastic!
Cyn, thank you for describing what to look for and how to make my incisions into the abscess. Cheesy is exactly how I would describe what I saw in there, just as you said it would look!
Nella, your advice of having everything open before I started was great advice too! I was already so nervous about the whole thing, if anyone had tried to sneak up behind me and startle me, I probably would have shot straight up through the roof!
Going through everything and having it all lined up and ready to use worked great for two purposes: As a final check off of what I thought I had to have to do the best job possible, and as a calming activity prior to beginning the surgery, so to speak.
I wish I could say that it went text book from there, but no, not quite. First, Evie didn't sit quite as still as either I or Morgan would have liked. Despite having her head covered by the foot portion of an old sock from the rag drawer, as well as having a towel wrapped snugly about her body, she still squirmed on several occasions. It ended up that Morgan had to hold her to his chest, with her feet pointing out so that I could work on her bumble.
The other thing that went awry was the fact that the entire thing didn't pull out as a "plug" once I had it pulled free from the edges of the scab. My tweezers suck and it's one of the first things I'm going to look at replacing the first chance I get. I think I need something much longer and narrower so that I can really get down in there and maybe to the inner end of the plug to more efficiently pull it out.
I did soak her foot for about 15 minutes in a mild saline solution to help soften the underside of her foot, and to facilitate cleaning the foot real well to boot! Before any work with the exacto knife started, we flushed the entire foot, top and bottom with an antiseptic wash. [the "no hurt" kind
] Once I was done excising as much of the cheesy stuff as I could, I then irrigated the wound with more of the "No Hurt" antiseptic wash.
There was also a bit old blister getting started on the top side of her foot on the other side of the toe from where the bumble was centered. I lanced that to see what would come out of it, and lo and behold, more of the cheesy gunk. So, I spent some extra time in making sure I got as much of that out as I could. I pinched, prodded and squeezed that sucker until all I could get out of it was blood! Then I irrigated it one more time with about 6 cc's of the antiseptic wash, just to be on the safe side.
I then loaded up the syringe with about 2 cc's of the triple antibiotic ointment and pumped that into the bottom of her foot. And OMG! It came squirting out of the blister that I had just finished cleaning and irrigating. So, I'm pretty sure I got more than enough of the ointment in there too.
All that was left was to bandage her all up, give her some food and water, and tuck her in to bed in the pump house with the four other Pump House Princesses!
She's resting very comfortably even as I type this. I'll check her dressing in about a day or two at the most and see what else needs to be done at that time. She acts as though she feels much better already for having gotten that mess out of her. I just hope I got all of it. Tomorrow I think I'll give her a quick shot of penicillin just to be on the safe side. But I didn't want to cause her any more torment tonight. She's had enough for one day!
Again, thank you everyone who lent me their support and encouragement to take care of this myself. Especially as we have no avian or chicken vets anywhere near us. The closest, to the best of my knowledge, is over 300 miles away in Seattle....a 6 hour drive!
I'll post an update on Evie in another day or two and let y'all know how she's doing.
How about a wee small bit of good news?? Tonight, with the help of Morgan, the son of my great next door neighbors, Evie finally got her foot taken care of!!
Cyn, thank you for describing what to look for and how to make my incisions into the abscess. Cheesy is exactly how I would describe what I saw in there, just as you said it would look!
Nella, your advice of having everything open before I started was great advice too! I was already so nervous about the whole thing, if anyone had tried to sneak up behind me and startle me, I probably would have shot straight up through the roof!
Going through everything and having it all lined up and ready to use worked great for two purposes: As a final check off of what I thought I had to have to do the best job possible, and as a calming activity prior to beginning the surgery, so to speak.
I wish I could say that it went text book from there, but no, not quite. First, Evie didn't sit quite as still as either I or Morgan would have liked. Despite having her head covered by the foot portion of an old sock from the rag drawer, as well as having a towel wrapped snugly about her body, she still squirmed on several occasions. It ended up that Morgan had to hold her to his chest, with her feet pointing out so that I could work on her bumble.
The other thing that went awry was the fact that the entire thing didn't pull out as a "plug" once I had it pulled free from the edges of the scab. My tweezers suck and it's one of the first things I'm going to look at replacing the first chance I get. I think I need something much longer and narrower so that I can really get down in there and maybe to the inner end of the plug to more efficiently pull it out.
I did soak her foot for about 15 minutes in a mild saline solution to help soften the underside of her foot, and to facilitate cleaning the foot real well to boot! Before any work with the exacto knife started, we flushed the entire foot, top and bottom with an antiseptic wash. [the "no hurt" kind
There was also a bit old blister getting started on the top side of her foot on the other side of the toe from where the bumble was centered. I lanced that to see what would come out of it, and lo and behold, more of the cheesy gunk. So, I spent some extra time in making sure I got as much of that out as I could. I pinched, prodded and squeezed that sucker until all I could get out of it was blood! Then I irrigated it one more time with about 6 cc's of the antiseptic wash, just to be on the safe side.
I then loaded up the syringe with about 2 cc's of the triple antibiotic ointment and pumped that into the bottom of her foot. And OMG! It came squirting out of the blister that I had just finished cleaning and irrigating. So, I'm pretty sure I got more than enough of the ointment in there too.
All that was left was to bandage her all up, give her some food and water, and tuck her in to bed in the pump house with the four other Pump House Princesses!
Again, thank you everyone who lent me their support and encouragement to take care of this myself. Especially as we have no avian or chicken vets anywhere near us. The closest, to the best of my knowledge, is over 300 miles away in Seattle....a 6 hour drive!
