What's wrong with my duck's foot? Bulb-like growth

[TwoDogFarm]

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help. Our ducks are always a little skittish of us so we rarely ever pick them up, however, we did have to pick our Buff Orpington up yesterday. We noticed that something does not look right on the bottoms of her feet. She has these bulb-like growths on the bottom of each foot, which is worse on her left foot. On her left foot, the growth is only attached at the back part of her foot, but she is having trouble walking normally. We also noticed that a couple of her knuckles are swollen as well. We've researched foot problems in ducks and the only thing we are finding is bumblefoot, but most of the pictures we have seen look nothing like what she's got. Does anyone know what is wrong with our poor duck or what we can do to help her?


This is her right foot. In addition to the growth on the back of her foot, her toes and knuckles also seem to be a little swollen.


Below is her left foot. As you can see, the growth is only attached at the back of the foot. Also, the brown is dirt, not scabs.


Another picture of her left foot, as viewed from the bottom.



Left foot again. Pulling the growth down to see where it is attached.


Thanks for the help.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

I think its bumble foot. Ducks are very very very sensitive, and I haven't had a duck so far that hasn't gotten bumble foot.

Check the growth, see if you can't find a cut or anything infected / packed in there.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Thanks. What do you usually do when your ducks get this? Have they ever had bumblefoot this bad? We're not sure if this is to the point where surgery is the only option or if antibiotics will help reduce infection. I'd hate to have to cut on her if it's not necessary because I would be afraid it could make things worse. But if that's what she needs, that's what we'll have to do. Any suggestions since you've had experience with this before? Thanks.

 

[Amiga]

Is the foot or leg warm? If so, the infection may be moving into the bloodstream, and oral or injectable antibiotics would be needed. A vet could help - I know it is not always possible to find a duck-competent vet.

See if this might be something you want to try.
It does not involve surgery, though she mentions cutting away a scab.

From Haunted55 last year
On July 1st, I found one of my Pekin ducks with what I would consider a bad case of Bumblefoot. Both feet were involved and I'm ashamed to say, the only way I found it was she was limping. One foot had 7 and the other had 3. I was able to grab her and bring her into the house and put her into a warm bath to clean and soak. Two water changes later and softened feet, all I had time to do was paint the bumbles with colorless iodine, grabbed the wrong stuff, and put her into a dog crate in my house until I could get everything ready to operate and get them gone. Did I mention the thought of this scared me half to death?

Sad to say it took 6 days before i was able to get everything together and someone to help out with the 'cure'. The following pictures are what we found after the bath we gave before the planned surgery to remove these things.




















As can be seen, there really wasn't much to operate on, even though I was prepared to do just that. No matter how much squeezing or prodding or soaking, there just wasn't anything more to come out, it was all on the scabs that were covering the sores. The swelling was down from the 'marbles' I saw when I first found them. I poured betadine over the ones I had opened and painted the ones that I hadn't again with the iodine and put her back into her crate with clean bedding.

the next pictures are of the same Pekin and anothe duck, Dottie the Mallard, who was also found limping.












As can be seen in the first two pictures, the bumbles have been dramatically reduced on the Pekin with just the iodine application and the smaller ones totally gone. The last four pictures are of the Mallard who is still under going the iodine applications.

As can be seen, this is how the left and right foot look tonight on the Pekin duck. The heels being the worst are still showing infection and need for more treatment. tomorrow, I will again give a bath and pull/cut out the scabbing and treat with straight iodine this time. These spots are now flat or as flat as they should be considering the part of the foot they are on. I will still touch up the places that had the spots before as well.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Thanks for all the help. I'll have to check her again later today once my husband gets home and can catch her. She hates being picked up and usually tries to make me dizzy by running me in circles.

Hopefully, we can stay away from the surgery route, but we've just got to get her better.

Does anybody know what kind of antibiotics can be used for this? Is it something that can be gotten somewhere like Tractor Supply? Thanks.

 

[Amiga]

I have been told Duramycin10 gets to the extremities, if I recall correctly, and I can buy that at my local feed store.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Update on my duck's foot. When we felt her leg, it was warm, so we soaked her left foot in Epsom salt to see if we saw any scabs. We thought we did, so my husband started trying to squeeze it to see if puss came out. It didn't. He cut into it with a razor blade since we thought maybe the puss was deeper down. We could tell when he was cutting it that she was feeling pain so we had to stop for tonight after removing what seemed to be a tumorous mass. We had a lot of trouble getting her wound to stop bleeding and got really scared that we were losing her. As of now, her foot is wrapped tightly in vet wrap and she is staying inside in a tub near us tonight. Can someone please help? Could this be some sort of tumor? How can that be helped? I really hope we did the right thing. I'm so worried about my poor girl.

Above is her foot post surgery. It doesn't look so good.


The mass we cut off her foot.

 

[Amiga]

At this point, about all I can offer is that she must be kept in as clean an environment as possible. You are right to be concerned about bleeding. If there is some way to get a vet's help, I think that would be best.

 

[TwoDogFarm]

Update: I spoke with a lady at our local feed store about our duck's foot the day after we performed the surgery, and she helped out tremendously. She suggested that I spray Veterycyn antibiotic on her foot and keep it wrapped with vet wrap if there was a possibility her foot could get dirt in the wound. She also said that it looked like the type of wound that needed a chance to breathe some, so she suggested I buy some of the aluminum bandage spray. It seals in the wound and also allows it to get some air. It worked really well. We kept our duck in a separate cage beside the big coop with the other ducks and kept spraying the Veterycyn on it each day. We wrapped it for the first couple of days and then started using the bandage spray. The cage she was in had a wire floor in it, so there wasn't a problem with dirt getting inside her wound.

Now, about four weeks later, her foot is completely healed (there is still a little bit of a raised spot on that foot, but we're not going to mess with it again) and she is back in the coop, enjoying doing ducky things with her friends. Thanks for all your help again. You all gave some great advice/support during this.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Update: I spoke with a lady at our local feed store about our duck's foot the day after we performed the surgery, and she helped out tremendously. She suggested that I spray Veterycyn antibiotic on her foot and keep it wrapped with vet wrap if there was a possibility her foot could get dirt in the wound. She also said that it looked like the type of wound that needed a chance to breathe some, so she suggested I buy some of the aluminum bandage spray. It seals in the wound and also allows it to get some air. It worked really well. We kept our duck in a separate cage beside the big coop with the other ducks and kept spraying the Veterycyn on it each day. We wrapped it for the first couple of days and then started using the bandage spray. The cage she was in had a wire floor in it, so there wasn't a problem with dirt getting inside her wound.

Now, about four weeks later, her foot is completely healed (there is still a little bit of a raised spot on that foot, but we're not going to mess with it again) and she is back in the coop, enjoying doing ducky things with her friends. Thanks for all your help again. You all gave some great advice/support during this.

Great news, thanks for updating.