Topic of the Week - Bumblefoot - Prevention and Treatment

[zdb]

lisa at fresh eggs daily dotcom has writing from various folk with experience treating without surgery and without antibiotics. between these two sites we're working at making our sick girl better. seems to be mending well.

 

[DanW]

One of our hens had bumblefoot and my wife bought a pack of the Dr. Scholl's "Clear Away" wart remover for plantar warts. She placed one salicylic acid patch on the spot and placed the cover patch over that then wrapped the foot with the self sticking wrap. She had to replace it every few days for about a week and a half to two weeks but the patch got rid of the bumblefoot and she didn't have to cut onto the hens foot. It was very easy and less painful for the hen and my wife.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

My brahma had a sliver of wood in her foot. I cured it up but then the snow came and wher her feathers are on her feet reddened up a little. I dont think it is bumblefoot cause its not swelled.

 

[Show Sebright]

I would like to hear about post-surgery and how much success folks have had removing the bacteria from the bloodstream. Catching it early is key, but once the damage it is done it is hard to turn back a weak bird which it's muscles has become overwhelmed with atrophy. Something we are currently experiencing.

I did surgery on Lace. We took off her toe. Here are some pictures. We gave her pain meds and numbed her foot. I did a lot of treating. She stayed on paper bedding cleaned daily. Her wind had to be open and it was always oozing. She was on electrolyte and vitamin water for a long time but she made it through. She is all good and just missing one toe.

 

[Still-learning]

We soak our girls foot in a bathtub temperature foot bath with good dose of Epsom salts to soften the pad for 20 to 30 mins...We then work arounds it to get to the core...remove it and then work it to get rid of any puss...We then change the footbath and repeat the process dry the foot and the apply a little topical ointment...
If your girl has been on anti-biotics to treat it...The core sometimes will need to be dug out very gently with a very fine surgical type hook (similar to a splinter hook in a first aid kit) as it will have started to dry up (still be painful) and won't have the puss under it to help push it up...
Small ones I leave alone and check each day by taking a picture with my phone and then comparing...Some of the small ones sometimes/not always disappear all by themselves...
No need to stress your girl if you don't have to...

 

[WalnutTree]

What kind of meds can you give for pain?

 

[TXKukupantsKoop]

I'd like to discuss prevention and whether those using sand in their coop or wood chips (not shavings, chips) as part of their dlm are seeing more of a prevalence of bumblefoot in their hens.
Also, if anyone is covering their roosts what are you using? My girls will get into/eat anything.

I use pine shavings about 12 inches deep in the coop and my roost is only about 22 inches off the floor. I have heavy birds (RIRs). I also use straw bales in the run and pine shavings for cushion though not as deep. I've had 3 cases of bumblefoot but I caught it super early.

 

[Cryss]

I have two sisters that seem to be prone to getting bumblefoot. One of them seems to always be in some form of bumblefoot mode. I’ll get her all healed up. She’ll be fine for a month or two and then boom, here comes the next bumble foot session. the first one she had was severe enough that I had to surgically remove it, and it took a long time because pus continued to come out in strands of goo. What I eventually started doing was using a product called PRID. It is a drawing salve. First I washed the feet thoroughly, then I soak the feet in very warm Epson salt water. After I dry them, I check for anything that needs to be removed still. Then I cut off a small piece of sterile dressing, apply the salve to the dressing and press that against the wound. Then I use vet wrap to make a bootie that holds it in place. When I finally got to the point of thinking that she was pretty much healed, but I wasn’t sure if the skin was still too tender. I would just wrap the foot a little bit with vetrap and instead of doing a daily or every other day process to the foot I actually let it go for a week, week and a half. This protected the brand new skin for a while while it toughened up a little bit, not quite baby skin. Then I just took a piece of vet wrap and put it around her leg only so that I could recognize quickly which one it was that I wanted to check for bumblefoot now that she wasn’t wearing a colorful vetwrap booty. Like I’ve said, this girl is very prone to this, and it took several months to clear her up. I’ve had bumble foot one or two others over the years that only took a week or two to clear up.

 

[SeaCity]

One of our hens had bumblefoot and my wife bought a pack of the Dr. Scholl's "Clear Away" wart remover for plantar warts. She placed one salicylic acid patch on the spot and placed the cover patch over that then wrapped the foot with the self sticking wrap. She had to replace it every few days for about a week and a half to two weeks but the patch got rid of the bumblefoot and she didn't have to cut onto the hens foot. It was very easy and less painful for the hen and my wife.

What a great idea!

 

[Porpie Pie]

I brought a hen that had bumblefoot to the vet. I told her I was uncomfortable cutting bumblefoot open (1: because anything with the bottom of feet is my kryptonite and also 1: I don't want to hurt my bird not knowing what I'm doing) she told me unless anyone has the proper pain meds they have no right cutting open anything on any animal. With proper cleaning and wrapping it will heal. She told me to soak it in Epsom salt to draw out and dry up infection and to also use iodine and change the wrap every 2 or 3 days. I listened and it did in fact heal on its own. Now I'm not sure if hers was in a situation where I caught it in time maybe surgery is needed in a worse case.