What does post bumble foot surgery tissue look like?

[Nomoreducks]

This is my first experience with bumble foot. Two pekins had what looked like bumble foot. For 6 days we soaked in epsom salt for 10-30 min, applied iodine and vertericyn, added triple antibiotic followed by vet wrap. Also, they are isolated in the garage in a small pen to reduce the need for too much walking. On day 6 I pulled, with tweezers, the black scabs. One ducks scabs were fairly flat and the other ducks scabs were more cauliflower like but both came off fairly easily from the healthy tissue surrounding. When I looked underneath there was no sign of any hard kernel or any thing that was visibly easy to pull out. It was all soft tissue. You will see from the pictures that there was some white marbling throughout the tissue. I tried to pick some off with tweezers but very little came off. It is a very thin layer of something. I’m trying to find out if what I was looking at is infection or if it supposed to be normal tissue. The first two pics are the cauliflower like scabs and the second are the smoother scabs. Then you can see the flatter scabs that were more swollen have more white marbling. Not sure where to go from here.

 

[CoriM]

Yes, this looks familiar. After you pulled the scabs did you pack with triple antibiotic ointment, not the kind with pain reliever, and put a gauze pad on and bandage? I would leave that bandage for a couple days without messing. When my pekin had bumblefoot I just left her with the other ducks but didn't let her swim for a couple of days and kept the bandage dry - so no free-ranging. Everyone's set-up is different, so I can't speak specifically as to what you should do. After it scabs over I think you should put a fresh bandage on each day after she gets a chance to swim and reevaluate at the end of the week. I have a pekin who got a big scab exactly like your 3rd picture and I bandaged her almost every day for almost 9 months - ugh. As soon as the scab almost went away, it would rage forth again. She had been to the vet and I knew it wasn't an active infection, but the foot pad was enlarged and I'm not sure what all was going on. Over this summer I have left the bandage off and the scab has almost disappeared and the pad shrinking. This has been a full year. I'm sorry you're going through this - I hope it goes faster for you and your ducks, it probably will!

 

[CoriM]

Also, on the last photo it looks like a cut closer to the toe - I would try to apply ointment to that and cover it with the bandage as well so it doesn't turn into something worse.

 

[Nomoreducks]

Yes, this looks familiar. After you pulled the scabs did you pack with triple antibiotic ointment, not the kind with pain reliever, and put a gauze pad on and bandage? I would leave that bandage for a couple days without messing. When my pekin had bumblefoot I just left her with the other ducks but didn't let her swim for a couple of days and kept the bandage dry - so no free-ranging. Everyone's set-up is different, so I can't speak specifically as to what you should do. After it scabs over I think you should put a fresh bandage on each day after she gets a chance to swim and reevaluate at the end of the week. I have a pekin who got a big scab exactly like your 3rd picture and I bandaged her almost every day for almost 9 months - ugh. As soon as the scab almost went away, it would rage forth again. She had been to the vet and I knew it wasn't an active infection, but the foot pad was enlarged and I'm not sure what all was going on. Over this summer I have left the bandage off and the scab has almost disappeared and the pad shrinking. This has been a full year. I'm sorry you're going through this - I hope it goes faster for you and your ducks, it probably will!

Thank you for your support. I’m glad to hear what I’ve seen is something observed by someone else. Yes, I have been packing with bacitracin or triple antibiotic. Took your advice and left the bandages alone for 2 days. Going to let them both swim today and bandage again. Hopefully the swelling will go down soon. I’m going to keep them in the garage until my pekin with the cauliflower like scab stops limping. She won’t hardly put weight on her right foot but to me it’s not hot or swollen. If things don’t improve Ill take to the vet. I’ll also keep an update for the record.

 

[Nomoreducks]

Yes, this looks familiar. After you pulled the scabs did you pack with triple antibiotic ointment, not the kind with pain reliever, and put a gauze pad on and bandage? I would leave that bandage for a couple days without messing. When my pekin had bumblefoot I just left her with the other ducks but didn't let her swim for a couple of days and kept the bandage dry - so no free-ranging. Everyone's set-up is different, so I can't speak specifically as to what you should do. After it scabs over I think you should put a fresh bandage on each day after she gets a chance to swim and reevaluate at the end of the week. I have a pekin who got a big scab exactly like your 3rd picture and I bandaged her almost every day for almost 9 months - ugh. As soon as the scab almost went away, it would rage forth again. She had been to the vet and I knew it wasn't an active infection, but the foot pad was enlarged and I'm not sure what all was going on. Over this summer I have left the bandage off and the scab has almost disappeared and the pad shrinking. This has been a full year. I'm sorry you're going through this - I hope it goes faster for you and your ducks, it probably will!

 

[Nomoreducks]

9 months is a long time but your persistence paid off- that’s amazing! We still have bumble 6 weeks later. After the initial scab peeling, fresh skin grew back on both feet for both ducks and we maintained the wraps for a week or so and then let them breath. Shortly afterward the scabs in 3 of the 4 feet started coming back. So we began dipping in tricide neo and that seemed to make the scabs smaller. We dipped for 11 days and now we are back to vetricyn spray, iodine, triple antibiotic with gauze and vet wrap. I will say our other ducks with minor scabs responded really well with the tricide dips. Those scabs were gone in about a week. I think we will have to pull scabs on the pekins again if this doesn’t go away soon. I’ll keep updating. *The pics are of the latest scabs that came back.

 

[CoriM]

Aw, that is frustrating! I'm glad the dip worked on the little ones - I have wondered how that works. I have also used iodine and a toothbrush for tiny ones before, and it's quick and took care of them. Regarding your pics, I think the middle looks like it's healing and I personally wouldn't pull it, but maybe continue to put some antibiotic ointment and a wrap on it a little longer? The other ones do look like you still have bumble and if it were me I would probably pull those off and start again. Did you evaluate everything they walk on to see if you can figure out what's causing it? Sharp edges, rough substrate, thorny plants - anything you can think of to make it softer for them....I know it's near impossible to keep them on bubble wrap all the time! BTW, my duck's scab did disappear completely and her pad is shrinking back finally. I am shocked! The day it disappeared she hurt her leg and can barely walk now for the last month so I'm carrying her around - it's always something with ducks. Good luck!

 

[Nomoreducks]

We did evaluate their surroundings to see what could’ve been causing all the scabs on the majority of our 11 ducks. They have wood decking around their pools and we sanded down the edges of all the boards. We also wrapped the concrete blocks that are the step inside of the pools with a rubber mat. We also started cleaning out their coop a lot more. In addition we keep the enclosure cleaner. But then….the ducks that were treated successfully with a minor scabs had scabs again after just 2 weeks during our foot check. Soooo we started removing pine cones and gum balls (we live in central NC) from our yard! I never thought I would be “cleaning” our yard for ducks! The pine cones are very sharp so maybe they have been the cause all along seeing our first step at eradicating sharp/rough surfaces didn’t help. I think you are right and that we need to peel back those big scabs again and start fresh. And I agree; There is always something to be dealt with regarding duck care!

 

[CoriM]

Sounds like you've done your due-diligence in making things safe. It's so frustrating and hard to know! I feel like there's danger at every turn for ducks - why is it so hard?! I live in the Pacific NW and it's so wet here, and I didn't realize that the wood chips outside their run, which they adore digging into, might actually be harmful to them as far as molds growing in them. It seems impossible to protect the ducks 100%. We do the best we can! I hope you have quick success with the bumbles this time and get rid of them 100%.

 

[Nomoreducks]

Sounds like you've done your due-diligence in making things safe. It's so frustrating and hard to know! I feel like there's danger at every turn for ducks - why is it so hard?! I live in the Pacific NW and it's so wet here, and I didn't realize that the wood chips outside their run, which they adore digging into, might actually be harmful to them as far as molds growing in them. It seems impossible to protect the ducks 100%. We do the best we can! I hope you have quick success with the bumbles this time and get rid of them 100%.

Thank you for saying those reassuring words. Really. We are new to farm animals and we have been inundated with issue after issue with our sweet ducks. It has to be a string of bad luck?! I realize now there are a lot of issues that can happen but in six months we have been dealing with one problem after another. First it was an eye problem that was minor and resolved within a week and a half, then that same duck had gleet which we resolved. Next we had a ton of scabs and two with bumble. Recently we got mites from some nasty straw which thankfully we caught very early seeing they are under tight bumble foot watch. I will say the mites are not on the ducks at least and only in their enclosure and coop. Finally just two days ago our youngest (4 months old) Started having these seizure like episodes. I posted a thread on that today as well. We took him to the vet but the vet had no clue what was going on with him so I’m hopeful somebody here knows some thing about his issue. My family loves our ducks but I just don’t see how we can go on like this- continuously researching and resolving problem after problem. Quite frankly I’m exhausted and not sure where to go from here. I guess I’m just waiting for that moment where it’s just maintenance and not problem-solving. Is that just a pipe dream?? What’s your experience? Have you been a duck owner for long?