Vet suggestion for non-invasive bumblefoot cure

[Funky Feathers]

I fought it for 2-1/2 months in the coldest part of winter, even in deep snow.

ETA: snow/ice/cold does not kill Staph bacteria.

 

[cocosandy]

I ordered some on ebay from a Koi outlet. I have 2 hens and one duck with bumblefoot now (they have been operated on already) and Im gonna try it.
It was a very hard winter around here and Im seeing alot of everything...I have alot of experience with bumblefoot surgery and really, once the swelling is big and its moved out of just the middle of the foot pad, being around a pea size, its very hard to cure. Vets rank it at levels 1-5, and what happens is that once its out of the foot pad, it goes into the tendons and bones and its impossible to get it all out. If you get in and pop the kernel out, you can probably save the bird, but its very hard and not always that simple. One thing is that it bleeds alot, and its best to do the cutting under the faucet with running water all the time...it gets everything out.
This is staph, and though staph is everywhere, you have to wear gloves and be careful because it can be drug resistant and cause MRSA in you if it gets in a cut.
Anyway, I have had some success, and would be thrilled if this stuff worked. I will report back....and have to read the rest of the thread to see how often to do the soak.

Thanks for posting this.

 

[Kazzandra]

Just got my Tricide Neo because the Koi Outlet from Ebay shipped UPS to USPS. So... from California to North Carolina to California to North Carolina...

Three weeks later, my Cream Brabanter is showing signs of what may be cellutitis in his feet, as well, meaning it's going systemic. I just mixed my Tricide-Neo, but I'm thinking it's Tylan time for him. :< I've never used Tylan, but I just gave him .5 cc down the throat of Tylan 50 Injectable. I did look it up, and Tylan is indeed effective against Staph.

So TIRED of this-- 3 months of 'you name it' topical, coming up on 4, and still this is what his feet look like:\\





The vet told me that he might lose toes some 2 months ago, and refused to operate because it was too petrified.
Do you think soaking his feet in Tricide Neo would be a bad idea when he's on Tylan? I think it's Neomycin Sulfate +, meaning neosporin, but still...
As long as he survives!
I might just try the Tricide Neo on a hen.
I ordered Nettiie's chicken shoes for all affected, as well.

 

[cocosandy]

Why dont you operate?...it may be too late by now but if you soak it and cut it out under the running water, then inject half a cc of tylan daily into the foot or thigh, it may have a chance.
Once the bumblefoot goes beyond stage 2 it starts to go into the bone and its hard to get out....Topicals, in my experience, dont work...I am ordering this stuff too just to see if it works, but my best experiences have involved swift treatment (ie cutting it out and getting the bumble itself out) and using topicals and injectables ...Its a very hard thing to cure, and topicals alone dont work if you dont cut the thing out. Search this site for the bumblefoot operations, but the best way to do it is to lay the bird wrapped in a towel with its head covered, on the side of the sink so that you can put its feet in running water. use tweezers and an exacto knife...and cut around the edge of the callus and see if you can massage the bump real hard and then pop the thing out.

I dont know why the vet would refuse to operate but it may be too far gone already. Still, its worthwhile to at least pop the thing out. even if you cant do a full cleaning, it will at least hopefully get the plug and bumble out.

Unless this stuff is a miracle cure, I would strongly suggest soaking and then hollowing the thing out (it will bleed alot so do it under running water) Get out as much of the hard pus as possible and hopefully the hard bumble. Then soak with this stuff, and pack with neosporin...then inject the tylan into the thigh or into the foot. Inject the tylan for 7 days.
I also strongly suggest slathering the foot in Traumeel (get it on Amazon.com)...that is a great healing ointment and it will help the outside of the foot heal up quickly.
Keep it bandaged and dry until its closed. If you change bandages and see infection gathering, then clean it out as best as you can and repeat...use vet wrap and try to keep the feet dry.
But as you go along try to let the chicken be a chicken. It seems to me that they do better if they can hang out in the pen, even if the bandages get dirty and you have to change them more...I only change them if they get wet.

Vets are odd about this...and bumblefoot isn't that curable unless you catch it really early. Good luck!

 

[mdbokc]

The bumblefoot threads with illustrations on doing the operation have been pulled. They are history.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Why?? Who would do that and why??

 

[Lesa]

Oh no- this is bad news. Ruth's pics of bumble foot surgery, got me through it perfectly!!! Is there some reason they were deleted, or is it a time thing??

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Here is the link to the answer from the admins about the question you guys are asking. I asked too. Tons of people asked.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=330971&p=1

 

[froggie71]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I did bookmark it for future reading. I did see their is interest in surgery for bumblefoot. Here a some of the threads I saved. We dealt with bumblefoot with a guinea hen last summer.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=221508
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=216852


Hmm...... I can't seem to find any more, but if I can help answer questions I'll try.

 

[Kazzandra]

Quote:
Thanks for the good wishes! But if the vet, who has worked on bumblefoot before, said it was too far gone, I really doubt I can do the surgery, especially without the threads. I had wondered what had happened to the thread I had referenced a month ago-- I realize now it has been deleted by the author. :<
My sister and I soaked him for 40 minutes, and his feet were as hard as rocks, still. We tried to pull on the plug with some tweezers but chickened out. He was so sad and distressed by then we both agreed that if he passed away, it would be better than putting him through that again, much less any actual surgery.

The most experience I've had with animal therapy is tube feeding oposssums and doves, and even then my nerves were shot.

It sounds easy for you-- you have experience, and this is not your only true pet bird, whom you love dearly. And after reading several people talking about doing surgery AGAIN and AGAIN, I'm not convinced it's the best course of action.

As far as bandages, I will have chicken shoes for him and the others somewhat soon, so keeping it clean and topicals in contact will be much easier. Also, it should prevent any spreading of this particular strain beyond those individuals.

I'm not even injecting Tylan-- I'm just shooting it down his throat, but already, today he acted more zesty that usual. On review, I don't think he was going systemic. I read the full symptoms and he's never acted "sick"-- he's eating with too much zeal, drinking, scratching, crowing, coming up and sitting on my lap, etc. I thought it would be more of a 'silent killer' than what it seems to be. I'll give him four days for good measure and begin Tricide Neo with him. He's already getting his gut flora and bird vitamins, but they won't stand a chance until he's off antibiotics.

I feel irresponsible using antibiotics, especially something like Tylan, on staph, as if it does survive treatment it might get resistant, but no one's leaving this little 1/8 acre in the middle of town, 15 miles from the next flock. I just hope no wild birds pick it up.

I think-- and someone will disagree with me-- that this is the main problem with the idea of 'backyards chickens.' It sounds great in theory, but in reality, for whatever reasons, pet chickens get sick in our backyards-- perhaps BECAUSE they are being kept in backyards. And we don't want to lose a pet, even if it means bad husbandry.

I know this bumblefoot is mostly my fault because I assumed that if my flock preferred to sit on the hard edge of a nesting box over their higher up, well-built, correctly sized perches, then they knew what they were doing. I had never heard of bumblefoot, despite having read several 'disease primers.' I didn't notice his problem until it was worse than it is even now in these pictures, when I was checking him for mites, and he stumbled as I put him back down on the ground. I assume that the one bird that I did not raise, my first hen, brought scaly feet mites and bumblefoot to the flock I raised later, as she has a tiny between the toe bumble wart that looks like it has been there for who knows how long. Other than them, there is one Maran who is between the two-- both feet pads are involved, but that is all. The rest of the flock is clean (for now,) and are sitting on their *%#$&*@ perches now that I removed that nesting box.

I wonder about it being somewhat *cillian resistant, and thus a MRSA. When I was getting regularly kicked by the rooster with the worst case, I used alcohol on my arms afterwards to avoid getting anything. I wash up afterwards, too, having read about the mysterious and scary horribleness of staph. aureus in general. What can you do when something's everywhere, most of us carry it around all of the time without side effects, and yet when we DO get it we get things like toxic shock syndrome, sepsis, MRSA, boils, or... bumblefoot.

On the bright side, I've heard of several people who HAVE had fowl heal from bumblefoot like his, completely, with only topicals. And my Brabanter will be one of those, too. I'm not giving up. I've come too far for that.

GOOD LUCK to all of use with bumblefoot! Well, we don't have it, thank goodness, but after treating it for so long, it sure feels like we do...

And for good measure, so he doesn't look like those fat people on the news, here's a few pictures of him and a video of him crowing:


This one gets me every time, because he's looking at his foot kind of angrily. :<

Just hoping for some petting!

And he crows really well, too!